Duraković: Why is the Pan-Bosniak Congress a Major Political Mistake, Extremely Harmful to Bosniaks

Written for Depo.ba: Academician Esad Duraković

The initiative to organize a so-called Pan-Bosniak Congress, or even worse, a regional Bosniak Congress, is very wrong, in fact, it is extremely harmful in the current context.

In fact, it is very effectively and negatively contextualized with the idea/project of the "Serbian world", as well as with Greater Croatian projects, because they are all hegemonic and destabilizing projects in relation to the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

In other words, the mentioned projects and their context are such that organizing a regional Bosniak Congress - as an alleged reaction - gives legitimacy to the "Serbian world" project and other nationalistic-hegemonic projects.

The only question that remains is whether the initiative to organize a Pan-Bosniak Congress is a consequence of misunderstanding the damage it produces, or is it a conscious support for other ethnic destabilizing projects.

The harmfulness of this initiative is quite evident according to the following "formula": BiH can survive only as a civic state (in which ethnic identities are also affirmed), and only in such a state can Bosniaks survive.

Consequently, this means that the fateful interest of Bosniaks is the preservation of the state of BiH and Bosniak identity as its national identity, which is not in conflict with ethnic identity but only builds upon it in a multi-ethnic community introduced into the essential quality of civic equality.

Forcing ethnic congresses is fundamentally in conflict with the idea of a civic state of BiH.

The context here is such that all-Serbian, all-Bosniak, or all-Croatian congresses function (this is why the war was fought here!) as a strong factor of ethnic homogenization, the essence of which is political self-sufficiency and exclusivity towards others. In our circumstances - this is a generator of instability, conflict.

Instead of a Pan-Bosniak Congress (which necessarily implies suspicion and self-sufficiency of other ethnic groups), a wise move of Bosnian constitutional patriotism, of patriotic political awareness, would be to organize an (all)Bosnian Congress. Not all-Bosniak, but all-Bosnian!

I have insisted on this for more than a year; ANUBiH also gave its honorable support, but we did not succeed. Obstruction, centrifugal forces, and precisely the instinct of ethnic homogenization were too strong.