Bandić on amendments to the Rules of Procedure of the KS Assembly: "North Koreanization" of Sarajevo Canton underway

By: Muamer Bandić, Head of the Caucus of the Party for BiH in the KS Assembly

When a person reaches a certain age, they think nothing can surprise or amaze them anymore because they think they have heard and seen all sorts of nonsense and foolishness. Yet, they can still be surprised, and something pops up that makes one stop and wonder if this world is normal and if there is anything in this world, especially in our politics, that is even remotely normal? This is precisely the situation in the Commission for Amendments to the Rules of Procedure of the Sarajevo Canton Assembly, where our most honest, smartest, and most transparent Europeans and intellectuals are proposing amendments to the Rules of Procedure as if we were in Pyongyang, not in the capital of a country aiming to become part of the European Union.

The Rules of Procedure themselves are formulated to define the procedures of the Assembly's work, ensure freedom of speech, and provide control mechanisms for deputies over the executive authorities. We already have a problem where the opposition is denied any insight into certain affairs of the KS Government "of interest to citizens," such as the reconstruction and construction of the tram line, and the financial report related to EXPO 2020, about which we only know that it cost citizens a lot of money, but no one knows how or why. We will assume that the "special interest for citizens" was posing, taking pictures, and self-promotion by the leaders of the "Trojka" parties in Dubai at the expense of Sarajevo Canton, but it is not in the citizens' interest to know who spent those funds and how!? Perhaps this concern of European leaders for our citizens is aimed at preventing citizens from worrying and suffering from high blood pressure.

The opposition in the KS Assembly has repeatedly requested the aforementioned Report, but it has never been submitted to the deputies. The same applies to the construction and reconstruction of the tram line, where certain parts of the contract have been declared secret, so no one, not even us deputies in the KS Assembly, knows how much this undertaking will cost us all together.
Now, our most honest, smartest, and most transparent Europeans and intellectuals have come up with a way to avoid these questions worth hundreds of millions of KM with a very simple, pro-European solution: Amendments to the Rules of Procedure of the KS Assembly! And how? Very simply!

Namely, these false democrats, socialists, and righteous among us want to introduce repressive measures against deputies into the new Rules of Procedure, and believe it or not, at the proposal of the President of the KS Assembly, security, guards/police will use physical force to remove deputies from sessions. So, a very simple way to silence anyone who asks financially and politically sensitive questions for you.

Essentially, the "Trojka," which is full of talk about transparency in its work, is introducing repressive measures into the KS Assembly that we can only see in sessions of the Communist Party of the PRC, where police storm in during a session and take away a person who has fallen out of favor with the ruling dictatorship. Is this democracy, when freedom of political action and speech for directly elected representatives of citizens is abolished in such a repressive manner? The bias of the body deciding on the application of such a repressive measure should be particularly considered. Will there be an opportunity for the same measure to be imposed and applied to the deputy who determines it? I think that with such proposals, they are putting us in a situation where all deputies who do not think as the authorities wish will become disenfranchised ikebanas. I wonder, then, what awaits our citizens tomorrow when the authorities treat deputies, who are supposed to be their control mechanism, in this way?

With further proposals for amendments to the Rules of Procedure, they want to render the working bodies of the KS Assembly meaningless, so that they can more easily push through materials and projects of special interest to themselves, pardon me, to the citizens. The current Rules of Procedure stipulate that sessions of the working bodies of the Assembly are held no later than two days before the Assembly sessions, and that permanent working bodies are obliged to consider issues within their jurisdiction and submit a report on them at the Assembly session. Working bodies provide opinions, submit proposals, and report to the Assembly on matters within their scope. Imagine what the Trojka did with a similar amendment to the Rules of Procedure in 2022: they introduced a provision that completely undermines the work of all working bodies, which reads: "If any working body does not submit an opinion to the Assembly on matters within its scope by the Assembly session, it shall be considered that the opinion on the subject matter is positive."

What does all this mean in practice for the work of the KS Assembly?

Working bodies are formed to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the overall parliamentary work, and then the ruling majority, when in a hurry or when it simply decides not to hold a session of the working body, has a positive opinion obtained in advance. Ultimately, this provision prejudges a positive opinion, and there is no possibility of obtaining a different opinion. The ruling majority controls each of the existing working bodies – it has a majority, and thus ensures the desired opinion, and if it is too much trouble for them to come and hold sessions, they will achieve a positive opinion by not holding a session of the working body, i.e., by avoiding commission-based decision-making.

What they further want is to first abolish this provision on holding working bodies "no later than two days before the Assembly sessions," which deprives deputies of the time needed for quality preparation for the session and lowers the quality of future discussions, and also deprives them of other procedural rights.

When, in addition to all of the above, the current authorities introduce a new institute – an extraordinary session, or expand the existing provision that has the character of urgency, it opens up the possibility for material to be included on the agenda of the KS Assembly session on the same day, where it will, of course, be passed by a simple majority, which is a very simple way to avoid commission-based opinions.

So, dear citizens, that is parliamentary democracy the "Trojka" way, where everything has the flavor of North Korean, not European, democracy. Literally, the entire process of adopting the new Rules of Procedure is in the spirit of shortening procedures and preventing quality, efficient work and analysis of the proposed materials. Everything is subordinated to the pursuit of the particular interests of the ruling majority, cobbled together by buying votes and focused exclusively on feeding the hungry eyes of a narrow circle of privileged minorities, all far from public view!

A serious question arises: can this society reach European standards in democratic decision-making processes with such repressive measures, the suppression of political activity and freedom of speech in the bodies of the legislative power, and ultimately the suppression of democracy that the people achieved in the elections?

Is this government an end in itself, so it engages in taking away and limiting human rights and fundamental freedoms? Does this society want a government without limits? A government that divides us in all spheres of society into "theirs" and "ours," that deliberately makes us unequal through legal norms.

A government that embodies inequality and partyocracy as fundamental values in legal provisions. Are they the creators of our future security?