Once there were Zubac, Galić, Ćulum: Captured institutions, a captured state and the shameful policy that created them!

Written by: Amina Čorbo-Zećo

There was Goran Zubac. There was Jovica Mirosavljević, also known as "Chetniks". There was Zoran Galić. Today there is Darko Ćulum. Once there was a State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA), which, according to the warning of its union, has become seriously endangered. Not from the outside, not from the crime it should be suppressing, but from within, institutionally and politically.

With all of them, past and present directors, at least a hundred problems have come. Not necessarily personal, but certainly systemic. Some passed through institutions like shadows, leaving no trace except in the handwriting of party personnel files. Some, like Darko Ćulum, are just entering the vortex that is no longer even a scandal – it is a chronic state of state capture.

After obediently carrying out the order of Milorad Dodik (nominally a fugitive from BiH judiciary) and leaving SIPA for secessionist interests, he now wants to return. And we are left to ask the Council of Ministers of BiH, led by Borjana Krišto, how long do you intend to lead this state into ruin.

Therefore, let us simplify – it is not the 'ćulums', 'zubacs', 'galićs' who are to blame. The blame lies with the policies that have systematically undermined institutions for years, choosing loyalty over expertise, suitability over responsibility. It is the same pattern of personnel arbitrariness that today produces insecurity, not only security-related, but also social, constitutional, and state-related.

If anyone thinks otherwise, let them answer where is the Intelligence-Security Agency of BiH today? Where is the Intelligence Committee of the Council of Ministers? Where is the so-called Independent Committee, which is paradoxically led by politics, while persistently being called 'independent'?

How can you protect the state if you are part of a network that has reduced that same state to a hostage of political, party, and personal interests.

The crisis in SIPA is not just a matter of one man or one agency. It is a mirror of the state of institutions throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina. A mirror that no one even tries to clean anymore, because many have become accustomed to the blurred reflection of power without responsibility.

We have too quickly forgotten that Zubac did not want to deploy the SIPA Special Unit when the building of the BiH Presidency was burning; we have too soon forgotten that Galić fled justice to Croatia; we have too soon forgotten what troubles the SIPA management caused us in the recent past.

We forgot everything and again appointed a political figure. We allowed politics to determine when a deputy would be appointed, not regulations and laws. We allowed everyone to do as they pleased in the constitutional crisis. Many say it is not a security issue, but it is clear that the two cannot be separated.

That is why the union's 'wailing' we hear today is not just a call for help. It is the cry of a system cracking from within. Not because of 'ćulum', but because of years and years of policy that turned institutions into a farce.

And a state with farcical institutions cannot defend itself. Because the state is its institutions.

Therefore, Ćulum cannot be the only one to answer for his journey at Dodik's expense; those who enabled all this must also face justice, primarily the members of the Council of Ministers of BiH who, playing high politics, never even accepted his dismissal.

Supposedly, they saved what could be saved, but that is not the path BiH should take, because even after Ćulum, a new Ćulum will come. Without responsibility, there is no progress, nor can there be, as long as individuals abuse their power for the sake of their own narrow party interests.