Esad Duraković: Heartless Politicians and Irresponsible Society

By Esad Duraković for N1

For more than twenty years, politicians in Bosnia and Herzegovina have been criticized relentlessly. It has almost grown into a collective pathological lament.

Admittedly, a large part of the segment of society that should be called intellectuals remains shamefully irresponsible, thereby making a significant contribution to general stagnation and despair: silence is, at the very least, a sign of consent, even support. There is probably no nation (I mean Bosnians from all national corpora) that is more political than this one: from the marketplace to university circles – almost everyone is constantly talking about politics, obsessed with it; everyone complains, laments, proposes, and scolds, and thus, for a very long time, greatly frustrated, they exhaust themselves in verbalization, while their/our reality remains the same, even worse, with an ever gloomier perspective.

(It seems that the people – and what is the people anyway in political discourse?! – have still not understood that politicians, although undoubtedly responsible, are not the main cause of stagnation, insecurity, and despair, but rather it is, beyond any doubt, the judicial system.)

Be that as it may, the people, or the public (and do we even have a PUBLIC, inherent with awareness?!) with much bitterness and tirelessly criticize that dedicated yet heartless class they call politicians, who – each within their own corpus and simultaneously in the relations of politicians from one corpus towards politicians from other corpora – continue their own way, moving with some insurmountable inertia towards ever worse.

Why is that so? Is it even possible for the situation to change?

If things are getting worse for the people (that is, Bosnians, or all ethnic corpora), and this is indeed the case, and since this has been going on for almost a quarter of a century, then it is clearly not the politicians who are the problem. Politicians can be guilty, or responsible (in the sense of irresponsibility, actually) for one or two terms, but since this has been going on for more than twenty years, it follows, as a logical conclusion, that the politicians are not fundamentally responsible, but rather the "mechanisms" that are supposed to control and sanction them for their irresponsibility towards society.

In the final analysis, it is clear that the people are not innocent at all. Enough self-pity! It is probably finally clear how unproductive it is and therefore wrong. It is necessary to change the focus. We are used to talking about the "poor people" as victims of selfish and insatiable politics. Poor people and heartless politicians! It should be repeated here: that can be for one or two terms, but not for 25 years.

The following conclusion suggests itself: the ultimate responsibility actually lies with the people, who accept their own misery and despair, and humiliation, and there is a special responsibility on those segments of SOCIETY that actually make it a society. Let's try to put things in the right way:

Let each individual ask themselves – with the ultimate responsibility that they demand precisely from politicians – what have they done as an individual and/or as a member of some social structure, apart from futile verbalization.

Let the trade unions ask themselves what they have done in resistance to the universally destructive trends.

Let the management and supervisory boards, or aware individuals within them (if any exist at all), ask themselves to what extent their opportunism contributes to the general negative trends. Where are the resignations of those who do not accept negative developments?!

In the academic community of UNSA, for example, the destructiveness of the just-passed Law on Higher Education is criticized, but – as far as I know – not a single dean, no one from the Rectorate or the Board of Directors has resigned. Does this not mean that those who absolutely should not be are humbly submitting to the spirit of bureaucracy?!

What are religious communities doing to unmask and mark with their highest authority of ethics, publicly and before God, the horrifying unethical nature of politics? Why don't they ask themselves and why don't they analyze: how is it that everywhere we have more and more vocal religiosity and at the same time more and more thievery... Moreover, religious communities are in a firm alliance of interest with politicians, they are becoming closer; with their powerful infrastructures, they serve politics, promote politicians as leaders, and thus, "for a small gain," they sell both this reality and the Eternity promised by God. Let the priests of every faith ask themselves what their role is in the overall misery of his people and all together...

Indeed, it has become unproductive to lament about politicians and politics. It has been going on for too long, which means the focus must change: it is necessary for every individual, every organ or "mechanism" of society, every media outlet, to ask themselves with utmost criticality and responsibility what they have done to thwart, to stop this curse of the local politics.

Since all this has been going on for too long, there is no longer any right to blame only politics because it is also a result of our action or inaction. It is no longer THEIR fault – WE are ALL responsible!