Hypocrisy in Mission: How Can Good People Leave!?

By Prof. Dženan Skelić

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At first glance, Zubčević's text in Nomad, titled: "We Cannot Form Coalitions", upon second, third, and every subsequent reading by an intelligent and politically aware being, is a call to arms, a brake, and preparation for a new wave of pub political babbling about how they are all the same and how it all doesn't matter!

For years, I have been criticizing the voting body in BiH for turning into wooden sages, who, in front of "big" screens (no smarter than the old small ones), at pub assemblies and in FB Senates, level everything and spread the idea of hopelessness in which things cannot be otherwise and in which all outcomes are reduced to the same, and that matters should be left to fate.

Such fatalism was meaningfully and systematically programmed by the Ottoman Empire into the mentality of the enslaved Balkans, but this seed took root best in Bosnia. Nowhere else, regardless of religious affiliation, have the famous sabur (patience) and the belief that the fate of the common man is far from his hands, settled so powerfully under the same shade! The crown of that programming was passed through the mythological, narrative, woven into the collective unconscious memories of anecdotes, stories, translations, and other wisdoms and clever sayings that, like those in "folk" (read: master's) wisdoms, warn of the program's foundations evident in phrases: "Murta gets off so Kurta can get on" or "one stretched, the other stretched" or "don't make waves" "straightening the crooked Drina", "the sun always comes after the rain", "he who is begged is not angered" "the people have the government they deserve", as well as other mentions of divine justice and the final judgment, and the need to endure injustice because it is also from God!

All this aims to keep people in the delusion that nothing can change until it is "time" for it to change by itself, and that the mechanism of change is not in our hands, that we have no control over our destinies, and, very importantly in the context of Zubčević's text, that all governments are the same and must be endured because in any case you are only changing the actors, not the situation or the script according to which roles are assigned and stories are formed!

My reaction is prompted by two main motives that Zubčević weaves through the text: the first is how it is moral and responsible to withdraw, as Kojović did, describing him as a hero with virtues and qualities that are rare in our political scene, so perhaps such people belong outside politics, on the margins from which they can discuss domestic and world politics over a beer, and the second is the supposedly moral demand he repeatedly makes to Nikšić to emulate Kojović as better than himself, explaining that Nikšić is a good man, but such a person is not needed by the SDP or BiH politics, but rather we need a leader!

Zubčević explains that Nikšić, as a good person, is not good enough because he lacks vision, is not politically mature, etc., in short, he is not a true leader!

Mr. Zubčević, we have had enough of true leaders; we need good people who put the collective interest above party and personal interests, and it seems to me that both Kojović and Nikšić are precisely such people, and in BiH, mechanisms like your brainwashing have effectively ensured that good people withdraw before bad ones because a climate has been created that "they are all the same" and which your "well-intentioned" text also spreads!

Social democracy is not political literacy but social sensitivity, focus on justice and the collective good while respecting the needs and possibilities of individuals! Social democracy is primarily political emotionality and empathy, and then intellect and logic! Nermin Nikšić, from your story, seems to be a man of emotion and empathy, a good man whom people perceive as good and close! So the mistake is not in Nikšić, that he should leave, but the systemic mistake is in the mentality of those who have been shaping public opinion for decades, as you have done in the controversial text that benefits SDA the most and harms everyone else!

In small towns, there are many people like Nikšić who are social democrats with emotion and a humane reception of the world and a perspective of the future based on hope! An example is Fadil Pelesić from Derventa, but also many others who are easy to find and recognize if you are looking for good people and not "leaders", because you know there are four types of leaders: those focused on people, those focused on tasks, those focused on themselves and their interests, and those who are not focused on anything!

We need leaders focused on people, and Nikšić, like the aforementioned Pelesić, is precisely that profile of people, and such people belong in politics, not outside it, and they will conquer the political scene of change in BiH if you, who shape public opinion, give them space and a chance, instead of, as before, creating a space of hopelessness and apathy in general!