Bosniaks are politically immature, but their language is big!

By: Rasim Belko

What has Sarajevo politics been doing for the past three years, and it encompasses all pro-Bosniak politics or parties? Nothing! Nothing serious! Because factional conflicts, almost reduced to a family level, do not fall under serious politics.

Disoriented movement of cadres or the disastrous wandering of parties also do not fall under serious politics. In the four years since they were humiliated by the decree of apartheid by the High Representative, Bosniaks, both those who remained in opposition to that imposition and those who were imposed, have not produced any additional political value.
Complete lack of ideas, crushed spirit, apathy… And in about ten days, we will mark the anniversary of the crime against the political rights of Bosniaks. Shortly after Ahmići and just before the difficult May memories. As if we have collectively decided that memory is the only thing that still works, and even that selectively.

Today's Sarajevo politics, indiscriminately lumped into Bosniak politics, has no serious idea with which to present itself to the citizens and say: this is our interest, this is the front line from which we will not retreat an inch. Perhaps some among them would have such a stance, but they are troubled by the difficulty of defining these front lines, because it is easier to draw lines in press releases than to defend them in reality.

Defining front lines, presenting them to the public, and committing to be ready to die for those goals if necessary, is not simple when you are aware deep within yourself of how much like mice the leaders of Bosniak political columns are.

That April of 2023 was strange. We know what the High Representative did to us, with the instruction of the USA, by introducing apartheid. But we forget that the key political forces of Bosniaks, along with the Bosniak and Croat members of the Presidency, Denis Bećirović and Željko Komšić, signed the Declaration on State Property.

It was a glimmer of hope when the presidents of SDA, SDP, SBiH, NiP, NS, DF, NES lined up in the same place. But it was only hope – joy for fools, because it turned out that the only thing truly signed there was collective amnesia.

We saw another such gathering, in a slightly wider company, because factions have since gained sub-factions, and soon will probably have personal versions, at the end of March this year, only DF was missing, when, in the presence of Reis Husein ef. Kavazović, the “Bosniak leaders” signed another declaration, in which they announced that they would defend Bosniaks, eglem beglen, and similar. In translation: big promises, installment payments for responsibility.

And then came April, a difficult month indeed. And all these pro-Bosniak, more or less Bosniak declarants of readiness for brave fighting on defined fronts ran away, and the trouble hadn't even begun. Lines fell, not without a shot, but without words. But with a suicidal comment: “this is bad, but we will vote for it,” the political equivalent of buying a broken car because it has a nice color.

And they voted for the Southern Interconnection, a project for the gasification of the Federation with American LNG gas and false diversification, because everyone says in unison that there will be no Russian gas at all. As if the choice between bad and worse automatically becomes a strategic victory.

But this Southern Interconnection is no longer the same project as it was a year ago, when we could still swallow the story that it was a strategic interest of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Today, it is more a test of political obedience than energy intelligence.

All the experts whose words the Sarajevo public values have said that it is a bad project, with uncertain realization, involving dubious people and companies, from which BH Gas has been excluded, along with a host of other negative assessments and comments.

However, this did not oblige the leaders of those parties who signed the Declaration to defend state property – thus, as it were, defending the state and the interests of Bosniaks – to even think about it, let alone demand changes or oppose the disfigured project of the Southern Interconnection.

No, they all buckled under this enforcer of American interests into the weak political bones of Bosniaks. Pardon, not all – one remained alone and exposed, but persistent in his intention to stick to what he signed. Semir Efendić and the Party of BiH were against it, showing that it is possible, it is only a question of who wants to stand by the lines of signed statements, and who uses them as a cushion for political comfort.

The rest, from the parliamentary benches of the House of Representatives of the FBiH, tried to make fools of us with messages: “this is bad, but it is important that we support it.” It is hard to imagine, but it would be like someone bringing you a Yugo with an American flag in front of your door, and you say: “this cannot be driven, but I'm buying it,” because, you know, the symbolism is important.

Tomorrow, the purchase will be finalized in the House of Peoples as well, and I have no doubt that the same messages await us. It only remains a mystery how Slaven Raguž is more consistent in his politics and dares to stand against the American interest, or Mario Karamatić who at least leaves the vote, while Bosniaks so easily and cheaply spread themselves out, not asking for the price, probably because they are used to the bill always coming later anyway.

The saying goes that it is better to live five minutes as a lion than a hundred years as a mouse. And the Bosniak quasi-political elites have been dwelling for three decades, moving between the shackles of foreign interests and their own fears, managing not to be lions or mice, but something in between, quiet enough not to bother and loud enough to appear busy.

In that period, not a single idea has emerged that would be an inter-party connecting thread in the fight for the state. Because, in order to fight, there must be fighters ready to stand behind the state's interests.

That does not exist today. There are blind nodding heads who unquestioningly raise their hands for the interests of others and quarrel among themselves about who is the bigger boss in the circle of mice.

And so, while they bravely defend everything except what they promised to defend, citizens are left to choose between various versions of the same disappointment, because it is clear that in this political play there is neither a director nor a script, but there has never been a shortage of actors.