Twenty years of destruction, five months of the Trojka's fake 'enlightenment': Dodik persistently turns off the lights!

By: Amina Čorbo-Zećo

Although many citizens of BiH may think that the story of how the Trojka cornered Milorad Dodik, and how, in the words of its leaders, they "enlightened" his political destruction, is true, it seems we have a collective problem with short memory.

And our intelligence, let's be honest, is often not far from that. Because SNSD is still in power, Dodik is still performing his duties normally, even though the media refer to him as a "fugitive from justice".

In reality, Milorad Dodik has been controlling the political scene of Republika Srpska for over two decades and actively undermining the foundations of the state of BiH. His obstructions, threats of secession, ridicule of state institutions, and undermining of the constitutional order are nothing new. And that's why it's almost comical when the Trojka now, as if they discovered hot water, tries to present themselves as the ones who "exposed" him and "brought him to light".

Their enlightenment of Dodik has been going on for five months. Five months of treading water, symbolic messages, and empty statements, while in reality nothing fundamentally changes. Institutions are not functioning. SNSD cadres are still in key state agencies. The unscheduled session of the House of Peoples, where their dismissal was supposedly to take place, perfectly illustrates institutional helplessness, and even more so – the political illusion that the Trojka is trying to sell to the public.

Their persistence in saying that they have done something that "no one before has succeeded in" is fascinating. As if Dodik was an unknown, a mysterious political phenomenon that they, just them, have now managed to shed light on. But in reality, Dodik's way of working is public and well-known. His rhetoric and policies have not changed, only the attitude of some international and domestic actors towards him has changed.

The Trojka (SDP, Our Party, and People and Justice) behaves as if they just learned yesterday about the existence of the problem called Milorad Dodik. And as if no one had ever tried to politically curb him before. However, the difference is that previous governments, however incompetent they were, at least had political consistency in their criticism of Dodik. Today's government under the umbrella of the Trojka not only sits at the same table with him, but together with HDZ BiH and SNSD, they have formed the state government, directed by the American Embassy, ​​specifically by the latest columnist for BiH media, Michael Murphy.

In that direction, Dodik's destructiveness is presented not as a threat to the state, but as "proof" that SDA was not ready for compromise. That rhetorical substitution of theses served to justify the coalition with SNSD and HDZ. Today, as that coalition is falling apart at the seams, the Trojka is trying to convince the public that they have actually "tamed" Dodik.

And the reality is quite the opposite. Dodik still holds all the strings in RS. At the state level, he still uses every mechanism to slow down processes. We witnessed this today at the unscheduled session of the House of Peoples of the PS BiH and saw another such maneuver, the blocking of the dismissal of SNSD cadres. And this is not an incident, but a pattern of behavior.

And while the Trojka tells fairy tales about "exposing" Dodik, they consciously or unconsciously ignore his closest political ally, Dragan Čović. Čović and Dodik have been functioning as a political tandem for years: one blocks the Federation, the other blocks the state. Both use the same model: ethnic homogenization, threats, blockades, and blackmail. But while Dodik is portrayed as the "main villain", Čović remains in the shadows. And that's only because an open confrontation with him would mean the potential end of the federal government, and thus the loss of positions that the Trojka desperately wants to keep.

That's why they "enlightened" Čović too, but only in private conversations, behind closed doors. Nothing publicly. Because, it is known that positions are sacred. And in that sacredness, one does not touch a partner, even if they are the pillar of destruction.

Ultimately, everything revolves around power, around control, around positions. And that's why the Trojka's attempts to present themselves as a moral vertical of politics, which has "exposed" Dodik, are actually just another show for the public. And behind the scenes, the same old deals, the same old game, and the same actors who have been holding BiH hostage to their interests for years.