'Budget Suckers' - The Four's Chance Not to Fly Only Over Sarajevo

By Ernad Metaj

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SDA and its coalition partners deservedly received a minus in the municipality of Novi Grad because they did not support the opposition's initiative to abolish compensation for work in commissions. This, according to Naša stranka, Narod i pravda, Nezavisna bosanskohercegovačka lista, and the Social Democratic Party of BiH, would show solidarity with citizens during the economic crisis and save budget funds. They deserve praise for the initiative, but to score points with it, they need to turn it into a principled rule within the coalition and implement it where they have the power to do so. For starters, they can knock out SDA in Novi Grad if the opposition councilors renounce their compensation and show that the initiative is not solely a product of populist rhetoric, behind which lay the hope that the majority would not accept it.

What about where the Four is the majority? The initiative from Novi Grad can easily be implemented in municipal councils where the parties of the Four are the majority. These are the municipalities where the appointment of three deputy presidents of the Municipal Council began, to satisfy egos, and perhaps the ambitions of individuals who saw good salaries there. True, in recent days in Novo Sarajevo, we witnessed the appointed deputy presidents renounce their right to receive salaries for a position that, in practice, is triply imposed and difficult to justify realistically. Political pragmatism dictated that reason should overcome the understandable desires of individuals to earn a few extra marks by dipping into the budget coffers. Otherwise, the story from Novi Grad would be nothing more than the already seen political populism in BiH.

Much more can be saved at the cantonal level, where the new government has led to a reorganization of ministries. Their total number has not changed, but the number of employees will, because the newly formed Ministry of Higher Education alone needs 14 new employees. At first glance, a solid satisfaction for one vote in the Assembly, but let's give those responsible time to prove us wrong. Even if there is justification for new employment, after Novi Grad, it is realistic to expect that the financial consequences will be nullified by renouncing compensation for work in commissions.

If the parties gathered around the Four are truly principled, then we will witness significant budget savings in the example of the Government and municipalities in Sarajevo. Such principled behavior could ultimately pay off many times over. SDA and its satellites would initially remain isolated examples of "budget suckers," and with a new policy, a new, correct paradigm for understanding the concept of social privilege, which gives an individual the opportunity to influence processes for the benefit of the community, would begin to develop.

If the initiative from Novi Grad is expanded and implemented, politics would no longer be exclusively a privilege that necessarily perceives its consumers as "bad people." The councilors in Trebinje showed us that it can be done. For the past four years, they collectively renounced compensation for work in commissions, saving half a million marks in the budget. However, Trebinje, along with a few honorable individuals from the rest of BiH, was mostly an exception that proves the rule. Politics here has been the least about working for the common good, and politicians are people who have been reluctant to give up their own privileges. Therefore, the Four has a chance to establish new political paradigms on which they would surely profit even outside of Sarajevo.

You don't have to fly a helicopter to see far.