Funeral in absentia or highway to Anatolia

Bosnia is not some Andalusia, magnificent, dazzling, luxurious and advanced... conceited, self-satisfied and self-sufficient, vain and arrogant, lulled by power over people and nations, arrogantly confident in its own necessity to the world and the age, so much so that it is ready to open its borders and gates wide to friend and foe.

Bosnia and Herzegovina is a classically underdeveloped society that has made a cultural and civilizational leap from classical feudalism to a digital, post-informational society in an historically extremely short period. In doing so, neither the feudal land relations nor, worst of all, the feudal consciousness that goes with feudal land ownership have been resolved... there are people who believe they have a historical right to land, power... a political group that believes that re-feudalization of society should be carried out here and that it is normal for a dozen feudal lords with their families to rule the land.

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An analysis of Bosniak politics over the past almost quarter of a century would probably move along a line starting with cheap populism, through extra-institutional and parallel channels of conducting politics, using poor assessments, numerous subjective weaknesses, from corruption, through nepotism, incompetence to irresponsibility, subjectivism and incompetence, from which countless improvisations and last-minute reactions arise. In all these aspects, they have not distinguished themselves from their political partners/rivals in the country, nor from the general situation in the region, but this must not be an excuse for the weaknesses of those in power. But politics, as a public activity of democratically legitimized elected officials and dignitaries, cannot be built on irresponsibility, subjectivism and incompetence anywhere, nor here.

Excessive official engagement with official Bosniak politics at this moment is superfluous. Its feudal and vassal concept of power towards those who said: Krk Bosnak, bir adem (forty Bosniaks = one man), its monopolization of Islam and the right to be a Bosniak only on the condition that you are also a Muslim, its understanding of the state in which only a certain and chosen group of people in a certain area have unlimited political power and economic power with which they will hold the destinies of both those who support them and those who oppose them in their grasp... is a matter of the nineteenth, and even some earlier centuries. 

The problem in general is the low level of institutional culture and the enormous distrust of institutional forms of living and acting: our public institutions have become prey to political parties, so that those who should protect and build them are doing the most to undermine them.
Victimhood and glorification of victimhood as the basis of the politics of self-victimization, exaggerated deference to the Big Brother, creating an atmosphere of tension... if they ever had meaning and were understandable immediately after the war, today they are completely meaningless political moves/failures. Resorting to politics that has such manifestations is an expression of immaturity, underdevelopment, and under-capacity of the current political/party elites unable to formulate principles of political action in accordance with the demands and needs of the time.

Concentration of power + monopoly on power + corruption = captured state

Concentration of power with an implied monopoly on power, latent and certain corruption, and the resulting captured state are the three greatest evils that oppress every segment of this society. Others (evils) are: lack, or rather, lack of competition, reacting only to the obvious while completely neglecting the essential (can't see the forest for the trees), complete absence of any plan (what will we do tomorrow) and foresight (what will we do the day after tomorrow), and personnel! "There is no politics without personnel policy," concluded incomparably more serious and experienced politicians than ours long ago. Indeed, personnel selection is one of the most difficult and serious political tasks. Decisions made in this area in normal countries can and have far-reaching consequences not only for the party but also for the state, or rather, for that state segment to which personnel selection relates. These decisions, in the first place, determine the priorities and goals of the political and all other activities of the political structure. But, at the same time, they equally show the real interest in the areas and departments that the personnel occupy.

Power and knowledge and the ability to put it to use are two characteristics of authority that few rulers/powerful individuals have managed to put to use in the right way, i.e., for the benefit of the subjects; contemporary rulers of Bosnia and Herzegovina are certainly not among them. Power has always attracted the attention of those, for whatever reason, interested in possessing and retaining it, whether at the command, executive, or functional level, as well as those who, in any way, wished to approach and remain in the company of those who possess power – the powerful, but also a whole host of experts of various specializations who were interested in the "will to power" for completely different, political, sociological, phenomenological, or medical reasons. The problem of power and its management permeates all structures and layers of a society to such an extent that it could be said, without reservation, that it represents the very criterion by which everything is evaluated: from the basic cell of society, the almost forgotten family, to the definition and categorization of the country's social order and the degree of its development.

The problem is further complicated if almost unlimited power is "multiplied" by a ban on criticism, a lack of self-criticism, an absence of responsibility, a lack of any control, and a phenomenon popularly – and euphemistically – called the concentration of power, which manifests as a monopoly on power.

The problem of the concentration of power and the monopoly on power has never and nowhere received enough attention, just like many other issues that concern the uncontrolled power of public officials and the irresponsibility that necessarily accompanies such power. This phenomenon, in its most basic, or rather most primitive form, is noticeable in the distribution of political, public, and other positions which – all – have a material background. I do not dare to think about other manifestations that lead to the surrender and/or sale of fundamental national and state interests for the sake of personal gain or the benefit of a small group of personally interested individuals.

One for all... all for one

Bosniaks are not allowed to say that they were killed, slaughtered, raped, imprisoned in concentration camps, expelled from their homes in order to then be robbed and burned; they are not allowed to call the killer, the rapist, the robber by their true, derogatory name because it offends the feelings of an entire nation, and it also takes us back to the nineties; they are not allowed to call a Chetnik a Chetnik (even though he calls himself that), a Ustaša an Ustaša (even though he is proud of it), a Balija a Balija (even though he knows what that means)... 

Bosniaks in Bosnia cannot say they are the majority, let alone confirm it with census results, because it causes nervousness among the other two nations; Bosniaks cannot call their language what they want, but what they are suggested or ordered to call it, for example, mother tongue, but they must learn Serbian or Croatian... or, as the representatives of all three nations agree and unanimously conclude!?

Some Bosniaks have a genetic disorder that makes them Muslims, that they believe in God the way they want, and that means they are retrograde for some, and radical for others, meaning they are either backward or terrorists.

From that situation, which is quite specific in many ways, with a falsified history and a lot of lies... we have created a model of a closed society that cannot be measured by anything, let alone fit into the currents of the modern, developed, and open world. We have built our own system of quasi-values: we have declared our weaknesses as virtues, and with these, this closed society, this closed environment... claiming that we were "Europe before Europe," "the world before the World"... defends and consoles itself, not allowing openness to the world and to true standards and measures... we do not follow developments, we do not know trends, and we have no opportunity to compare ourselves and evaluate ourselves in relation to others. 

We live in an area of two to three thousand square kilometers and have made our world out of that small area... we do not follow cultural, political, social, societal, scientific, trade, economic, financial, investment processes even in our surroundings, let alone wider. Then paradoxical things happen, such as having no developed relations with our neighbors or with nearby countries like Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Italy, but having relations with countries like Qatar, Bahrain, or Pakistan. At the same time, by following "our" media and public life, we neither know nor are interested in what is happening in Pale or Kiseljak, compared to Sarajevo, two neighboring suburbs or two neighboring villages that determined the fate of 300,000 people, the fate of this city, for four years. 

Better a dishonorable victory than an honorable defeat

This closure suits the oligarchic political elites, like ours. It is a classic oligarchic system of state governance known from Aristotle to the present day, and there is nothing particularly new about it. We cannot say that it is the goal of this political oligarchy as much as it is actually an expression of its lack of a real political goal, because the question of whether there are any goals at all is quite legitimate here. Political practice is the criterion of political theory. It is evident that the current Bosniak political establishment does not possess clear political goals, and this is the fundamental problem of that political group. That is why every change is considered an act of hostility; that is why the territorial appetites of neighbors and their outposts in Bosnia and Herzegovina are persistently and evidently fueled; that is why the civic principle is declared, on the one hand, Islamist, and on the other, anti-Muslim; that is why extra-institutional forms of political, financial, and all other activities have been introduced instead of institutional ones, and hence all theories and practices of conspiracy: the only goal is to maintain the status quo because only maintaining the existing state ensures the reason for the existence of nationalist political concepts, and with them, unlimited power.

We have a problem here with some objectively unresolved political issues that burden us... It is quite clear that the key Serbian, but primarily Croatian national issue is at stake in the issue of Bosnia, and as long as Croatian collective national consciousness (in Croatia) does not recognize Bosnia as a separate, equal, political, cultural identity – and the same applies to Serbia – we will not resolve our internal problems and disputes here. Bosniak politics is formed under the negative reflection of the environment, so that negative processes in the environment affect the development of the Bosniak political being. 

Bosnia has never been anyone's area of exclusive national living... except for the good Bosniaks who existed as a people before us and, God willing, will exist after we are gone as part of the past – an unpleasant, but certainly past. However, thoughts about Bosnia as an area of exclusive national living have existed and still exist on all sides, as evidenced by the national establishments (Bosniak, Serbian, and Croatian) that function on that matrix. Reacting to Serbian and Croatian ethno-nationalist policies, Bosniak ethno-nationalist policy, by not finding a way to formulate "what it wants" but only "what it doesn't want," has accepted the game and, externally advocating for the concept of a whole and integral Bosnia and Herzegovina, internally creates the conditions for the formation of an exclusive national space for Bosniaks. At the same time, this policy has proven to be very usable and beneficial for maintaining power. 

However, our traditional political being is a multicultural being. We are not the first generation of Bosniaks and Muslims who have fought for the defense of their lives and property and who are encountering aggressive Serbs and aggressive Croats, Catholics and Orthodox, for the first time. The entire history of Bosnia looks like this. It is another matter that we have, on the one hand, created an extremely idealized picture of the history of Bosnia, which has never been like that, and on the other hand, a history based on the theory of blood and soil. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, there is almost no Bosniak family in which someone has not died in a war in every generation, and this is the reality of Bosnia. But despite this, our ancestors knew how to survive and live with neighbors of different faiths, cultures, and nations. 

Evil and perverse

The state, the state, the state... is the only guarantee of the survival of Bosnia and Herzegovina and all its citizens in it (whatever their names and however they are constitutively categorized). The prerequisite of all prerequisites for a "state" is a minimum of consensus about Bosnia and Herzegovina and maximum cooperation in areas concerning its status. Consensus implies agreement on the factual, existing situation and administrative structure, and maximum cooperation in the field of economic progress, if only as the only common interest. 

There are two types of relations among political leaders in this country: 1. quarreling leaders of the largest, i.e., most significant political parties, while communication, as proven, exists among their parties at lower levels, even a nice or at least acceptable opinion of one about the other; 2. quarreling, opposing, even hostile political – national – any – leaders who are privately good, even excellent friends... So, all official politics is based on conflict... false, real, agreed upon, invented, planned, naturally or artificially maintained, whatever it may be, but conflict!

In other or third words (I repeat so that I am completely clear, understandable, and understood): cooperation is the basis and (pre)condition for the survival of Bosnia and Herzegovina and everyone and everything in it, and paradoxically enough, not to say evil and perverse, ethno-national policies represented by three national movements, power, and survival in power "owe" narratives, two of which advocate for dissolution or separation (and know how), and one for, let's say, a united and integral Bosnia and Herzegovina (but have no idea how). Moreover, all three concepts/subjects, on different occasions and pretexts, each try to declare any attempt or initiative for more or less organized cooperation by some (other) political subject from one ethno-nation with a possible partner from another as national treason (obviously reserving the full right to judge orthodoxy in all areas of life).

Ethno-nationalist politics has identified the national movement with the national party, the national party with one leader, and the leader with the state, and this is unacceptable because it necessarily leads to monolithic thinking, and from monolithic thinking, it is a short path to tyranny and dictatorship, however it manifests itself and at whatever level it is implemented... An opponent of politics must not be considered a national enemy; I am not an enemy of Bosniaks if I criticize Bosniak national politics, movement, party, leader... I am an opponent of some official who will lose power, fat, and pleasure because of my words. Unfortunately, this official decides who is a friend and who is an enemy of Bosniaks, who is a true and who is a false Bosniak and Muslim, and this same official decides whether I will lose my head for the security of his position.
Therefore, it is imperative to immediately stop the current treatment of dissenters and those who think differently as enemies, and to accept criticism as a form of well-intentioned and free advice, in order to achieve a new higher goal.

Our, and the "Dayton" Bosnia and Herzegovina, this year, God willing, turns twenty-four, and a good part of the state administration marks the same anniversary. There are not a few deputies, ministers, and other employees who have come of age in one position, which means they should finally start to understand the conditions and situations in the country better. Modern experimental psychology claims that awareness of the consequences of actions begins to develop only from the age of twenty-two, although some psychologists whose accuracy of research results I have checked shake their heads skeptically. However, let's say, let's hope that by the next birthday, the Dayton, and not our, BiH, and its "(old) fathers" will finally begin to understand that it is not good if only they are doing well.

It is not good if only they are doing well

We are an absolutely ideological and deeply ideologized society, in many segments more ideologized than communist society was. Because of this and in this sense, we exaggerate in many things (especially in the historical evaluation of some personalities) and thus lose our value criteria, we lose standards, we lose measures, which is – all separately and together – extremely dangerous. 

We have a number of intellectuals (perhaps even too many relative to the population), but almost no intelligence. The most important task before us is to create Bosniak intelligence, free, independent, self-thinking people, a new elite... But how can we talk about freedom in any context when we cannot talk about independence, because the existing situation is such that the situation and state in society are so politicized, with politics controlling everything – especially employment and jobs – that there is no way to become economically and politically independent, and without independence, there is no intelligence. 

Among us, there are generally very few people who have preserved their own standards and the standards of their craft (a certain number of doctors, lawyers, car mechanics...) but there are more who calculate that they can cheat every "customer" once, possibly twice, but that is quite enough for their well-being. There is also a calculation based on the outflow of quality personnel, because in that case, there will be no one to turn to but those who present themselves (and sell themselves) as masters of their craft, but are actually fraudsters. Not to mention culture... how many (living) writers, poets, painters, graphic artists, sculptors, actors, opera singers, and performers of sevdalinka do we have... who enjoy general respect and esteem and are referential in their fields? Aside from the fact that we fight over dead writers and poets and glorify minor figures, elevating them to unknown intellectual heights, while dozens of better, more prolific, more quality... have nowhere to live, barely have anything to eat, and think about where to earn a fee so as not to worry about tomorrow...

In that situation, people cannot be asked to think, to search, to ponder, and to find solutions to social problems when people are in a situation where they have to be opportunists, to pander so as not to lose their basic existence... Therefore, one of the solutions is the urgent and swift introduction of the rule of law (with all that it entails, from cleaning up the judiciary and law enforcement agencies), through the building of public opinion and ensuring security for those who think differently and dare to criticize... The security in question must be guaranteed in all areas and segments, from material – existential security to security from persecution, whether legal or illegal... 

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In what kind of democracy can any decision be valid and relevant, let alone adopted, if half of those who should be "for" it are "against" it, and moreover, they argue their opposition with excerpts from all laws and bylaws regulating the subject area, proving that the decision is not only undemocratic but also illegal. This old, tested, and always effective practice, based on falsifying the majority, outvoting opponents, supported by insults that are not appropriate even for street brawls, let alone circles that aspire to be considered intellectual... has had good passage in all regimes, so there is no reason why it should not have it in this one...

New Bosniak politics must be based on a completely new paradigm: statehood instead of nationalism, civic identity of Bosniakness, Serbianness, Croatianness, and Bosnianness, and inclusion instead of exclusivity. Because, if it is not clear yet, and the examples and illustrations are countless – the case of Mostar is only the most vivid indicator – Bosniaks either have no policy at all, or that policy is so grotesque, perverse, and counterproductive that it cannot be considered well-intentioned on any grounds. That is, it is only described by that wartime saying: "If we don't know what we're doing, how will our enemies know!?"

The old Chinese say that "it is better to be happy often than to be right often." And they are right. It is especially bad to be right about something that the authorities are wrong about. In other words, what if – rather when – it turns out that Bosniakness is some kind of determinant of all Bosnians and Herzegovinians, or what if Bosniaks – as they are – are actually just people originating from Bosnia and Herzegovina, regardless of their confessional and self-declared ethno-national affiliation?

Nevertheless... For the first time in history, Bosniaks are not represented by only one political party. The Bosniak nation has democratized, not disintegrated, with the existence of a large number of political entities. It proves that it is free, both internally and in relation to its environment. Of course, for the sake of the aforementioned pragmatism and practicality, the electoral threshold should be considered for an increase.

In spite of... It is time for the current unpragmatic and selfish government to be replaced by some other, non-ideologized, pragmatic, functional interpretation of ourselves that would not be offensive and burdensome regarding the past.

Why waste time on that... It is time for us to enter a new phase of national, social, and state development in which Bosniaks will show a greater degree of political (self)awareness and culture compared to their neighbors Serbs and Croats, showing that they are aware that in the current situation they are prisoners of an extremely ineffective policy. The voting masses in the Serbian and Croatian corps can vote for their exclusive national representatives because they fought for such goals, it suits them. The Bosniak masses, the Bosniak national being has never been exclusively national, it has never had such reductionist political processes, and it – under the rule of an incapable political elite – will not be able to react properly to the global and regional processes that follow, it will not be as it is unable to solve social problems, and it is time for the Bosniak people to react in the only possible way, by not showing trust in the existing nomenclature. This is how the people should behave towards any future government.

Otherwise... Otherwise, we will very soon hold a funeral in absentia for Bosnia and Herzegovina, and that in some distant, unknown distance to which we will be sent "as long ago as once swiftly across Bosnia"... or by highway to Belgrade, with a detour through Niš... straight to Anatolia.