The democratic process is not the charity of the majority, but the Troika has long reduced us to a feudal-capitalist norm!

Written by: Muamer Bandić, representative in the Assembly of the Sarajevo Canton and member of the Presidency of SBiH

Last year's murder of our young fellow citizen Faris Pendek shook our city. That senseless and brutal crime greatly undermined the sense of personal security of every normal person, citizen of Sarajevo.

Due to the obvious deterioration of the security situation, in accordance with the then-applicable Rules of Procedure, the opposition reacted to the events and requested an urgent session of the Assembly of the Sarajevo Canton dedicated to the security situation. The reason was clear to everyone, except to the ruling camarilla.

The Speaker of the Assembly, who was also the Chairman of the Security Commission, and the members of the Collegium all assured us at the time that there were no reasons for convening an urgent session.

Although the then-applicable Rules of Procedure very precisely stipulated:

"Exceptionally, in circumstances of danger to public safety and the safety of citizens on a wider scale, natural disasters, major property damage, epidemics and the like, the Speaker may convene a session in shorter deadlines than those provided for by the Rules of Procedure…"

The rules existed, but there was no will, because the Troika considered it more important not to talk about the problems, and, just to maintain their constructed propaganda image, they did everything to cover up the explosion of crime on the streets by sweeping problems under the rug.

Today, the Rules of Procedure have been amended. The new text reads: "Exceptionally, in urgent cases, the Speaker may convene a session in shorter deadlines…"

All specific reasons for convening an urgent session have disappeared. A void has been left, now filled by political will, the mere interests of a handful of party power brokers, and not the public interest of the citizens of Sarajevo.

That same Speaker today, at his own discretion, convenes urgent sessions without any explanation, without any security, health or emergency circumstances, only for the needs of the ruling camarilla. Even just to fulfill a mere formality, in order to appoint a new minister.

The Rules of Procedure of the Assembly of the Sarajevo Canton before the arrival of the Troika represented the fundamental legal act regulating the parliamentary life of this legislative body, and as such was a guarantee of democratic procedures, equality of representatives, and enabled a political balance between the government and the opposition, and at least gave the opposition space to critically influence the work of the executive branch.

In any serious parliamentary democracy, the Rules of Procedure represent the institutional backbone with clearly defined rules that enable the legislative power to be carried out transparently, responsibly and in the interest of citizens.

Through amendments to the Rules of Procedure, which are not the result of a serious need for efficiency, the Troika has turned this key guarantee of parliamentary equality into a tool for preserving a shaky majority and realizing party interests.

Thus, our visionaries of democracy and political pluralism, as they like to call themselves, by systematically derogating the procedural norms, have reduced the opposition, which represents a constitutional barrier to the arbitrariness of the government, to a protocolary surplus.

Thereby, they have reduced the Assembly of the Sarajevo Canton, as the highest representative body in which the public interest is defined through the confrontation of opinions and facts, to a formal space for confirming internal political agreements of party leaders, devoid of any democratic debate or dialogue. Dialogue has been left for their internal agreements in cafes.

The old Rules of Procedure of the Assembly of the Sarajevo Canton clearly stipulated the reasons and criteria for convening a session under urgent procedure, with the aim of preserving order, predictability and legal certainty in the legislative process. Today, rights and obligations in the legislative process are derogated by the will of one man or the will of the ruling majority.

In this way, a dangerous derogation of the principle of legal certainty and systemic orderliness of legislative work occurs. The current Rules of Procedure no longer serve as an objective normative framework, but have been turned into a totalitarian political tool for imposing the will of the ruling majority.

And the Troika uses this to the maximum for dismantling institutions, imposing rules for pursuing personal interests, and not to protect and implement the interests of citizens, build institutions or protect the democratic order.

The Assembly is no longer a space for parliamentarism, dialogue and institutional balance. Today it has been turned into a formal body for confirming the interests of the Troika leaders, whose goal is exclusively the preservation of their own positions and power.

If we go a step further, we will see that they have applied the same model of governance to entity and state institutions. Thus, the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina today is an ATM for Milorad Dodik, for whom budget money is not spared.

While they plan zero funds for the construction of essential roads in the Sarajevo Canton, choked by traffic jams, they secured 100 million KM for their partner Mile's godfather's building, and also 116 million KM for paying the debts of the smaller BH entity, which were also created in an organized criminal scheme just to pump money out of the budget. In both cases, the key person, who sat at the session of the Council of Ministers of BiH, thereby enabling the passage of these decisions, was the leader of NiP, Elmedin Konaković.

They turned the Federation into a private feudal estate of Dragan Čović, where all capital projects go to Herzegovina, and not a single one to the Sarajevo Canton, which constitutes approximately 30% of the economic and financial power of the Federation of BiH. Not to mention the appointments to all key positions, where HDZ calls the shots, with barely a hundred thousand votes won.

From all this, it can be concluded that the Troika has successfully led us into an Asian-type feudal capitalism, a hybrid, grotesque system that inherits all the worst features of both feudalism and capitalism. A system in which the institutions of the "democratic" system exist only on paper, just to satisfy the form of a modern political-legal system with the semblance of their existence, while all key decisions are made in a narrow circle of party leaders and far from the public eye.

In this grotesque system, only the bosses, the owners of the political party, who through their vassals control institutions, laws, capital, land and our lives, have a say. And that is the greatest political and social success of the clientelistic camarilla called the Troika, only they do not advertise this success, because it is not exactly popular in today's world to turn citizens overnight into disenfranchised slaves on whose backs you live and whose land you melt down with your partners, entertaining the people with agreed-upon political crises. Thanks to this, we daily watch millions of marks from the budget flow into private pockets, while citizens live in permanent fear of the outbreak of conflict.

In a democratic system based on the separation of powers and the rule of law, it is not allowed to concentrate power in the hands of individuals or informal bodies, such as the Speaker or the Collegium, outside clearly prescribed rules and procedures. The legal order does not recognize "will" as a source of authority, but the norm. And the Troika has turned the desires and will of party bosses into a norm that determines every segment of social life in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The democratic process is not the charity of the majority – it is a legal framework equal for all. When that framework is destroyed, politics ceases and arbitrariness begins. And when the opposition is reduced to a hostage of the will of one man, in the case of the Assembly of the Sarajevo Canton the Speaker – that is not a parliament, that is a facade for the brutal plunder of public resources. And that is the feudal capitalism that rages today, vertically, through our state thanks to the Troika!