Gentlemen Bosniaks, the state is not defended by statements, but by bold and wise policies!

By: Rasim Belko

We have often and for a long time advocated on the pages of the Patria Agency for the gathering of pro-Bosniak leaders and those participating in the public life of our country, and for drawing red lines on the front against secessionisms and the continuation of aggression through political tools.

Although such calls have mostly gone unanswered and have not found fertile ground, before Eid al-Fitr, Bosnian society experienced an almost public shock with the publication and signing of the “Statement on the Condemnation of Hate Speech, Islamophobia, and False Narratives about Bosniaks and Bosnia and Herzegovina”.

They gathered, and that is the only positive aspect of this story, but even that gathering is questionable if its motives are questionable. Before I address the problematic nature of statements like the one signed, I must notice what is self-evident.

Around the statement by which Bosniaks, Muslims, defend themselves from narratives and Islamophobic messages, gathered those who have agreed to the absolute nullification of the political will and rights of these very Bosniaks, Muslims. That Statement, even if sponsored by the Islamic Community, cannot deny the fact that a serious, if not the largest, part of the political and NGO signatories participated in the sabotage of the political rights of Bosniaks for the sake of Serbian, Croatian, and the policies of the international enemies of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The problem that these internal enemies of Bosnia and Bosniaks created in 2023 by accepting the imposition of apartheid on Bosniaks continues today, and the repercussions of such actions will last for years.

It is frivolous and largely insolent to absolve policies and politicians for such actions and wash away their sins with false unity in a false statement, which ultimately will achieve nothing. It will, however, cause alarm and unity in secessionist political structures and nothing more.

Something else is noticeable from that gathering. It is that if you were to weigh 80 percent of the signatories on the scale of patriotism, one Catholic or Orthodox, a Croat or a Serb who served the homeland during the aggression would outweigh them. To clarify, those who did not defend the homeland, and even Bosniaks, Muslims, when it was most needed, will not defend them even if they sign a hundred such statements.

As for the Statement itself, it is a mosaic of everything that unsuccessful Bosniak policies have said from the war to the present. From “we will not allow,” “we are European Muslims and a people,” to “we are victims” and “we will resolutely oppose.”

These two points about not allowing and resolutely opposing are particularly striking, because a policy that has subjected itself and its people to the interests of international powers and reacted to all the injustices of those powers “modestly Bosniak-style” has neither the moral nor political right to claim it will oppose anyone for anything. Added to this is point 5 of the Statement, which says: “The systematic dissemination of historical falsehoods, the campaign of role reversal between victim and aggressor during the aggression, and open Islamophobia against Bosniaks, aim to undermine the foundations of the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina and represent a continuation of open secessionist policy.”

Now, let all the signatories of the Statement look at themselves and ask what they, individually and collectively, have done to prevent the reversal of roles between victim and aggressor through the mass and indiscriminate prosecution of the leadership and members of the Army and Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. I will tell you what Denis Bećirović did: he blocked the only serious attempt at mass protest in front of the Court and Prosecutor's Office of BiH, but I will write a separate text about that. As for the others, they silently expressed support for the arrested fighters for the state of all its citizens.

The narrative “we are victims” and the message “we will resolutely oppose” cannot be part of the same construction of the Statement or anything else. And it is precisely the lamenting over the fate of the victim that has numbed every nerve of courage in the Bosniak, pro-Bosnian political body. Because, despite the fact that we were victims of a double aggression, with genocide and UZP (Joint Criminal Enterprise) as its products, the fact is also clear that we are victims of policies that agreed to compromise for the sake of a good evaluation from the international mercenaries who walked through Bosnia and Herzegovina.

And therefore, the message “we will resolutely oppose” is self-deception not only of Bosniak policy but also of the people, who for three decades have been waiting for this policy to resolutely oppose the collapse of an independent and integral state of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Therefore, it is clear that the Statement, whose sponsors, if I understood correctly, are the Islamic Community, VKBI, and Preporod, will not change anything, not even the narrative of these Bosniak figureheads.

Because the Bosniak leaders, these 33 signatories of the Statement, are neither wise nor courageous, and least of all persistent in the fight for the rights of Bosniaks and the progress of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Furthermore, it seems they have lost touch with the reality in which it is dangerous to be a Bosniak in Stolac, Mostar, Nevesinje, Banja Luka.

Whom will they protect then, the Bosniaks at Marijin Dvor? There is no need, they can be protected even by the political stillborns from Our Party!

Gentlemen Bosniak leaders, the state is defended by wise, measured political moves, which are sometimes the open fight of wolves, sometimes the cunning of foxes, not by Statements in the center of defended Sarajevo.

Because the state is not a write-and-erase, so you can erase with an eraser the fact that a Statement on saving Bosniaks and Bosnia can be signed by those who introduced apartheid to Bosniaks and struck at the foundation of the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Once again, the state is not defended by statements, but by bold and wise policies, and among you, gentlemen signatories, there are neither bold nor wise ones, unfortunately for Bosnia and Herzegovina!