When the 'balije' ride, they carry a ton of gold from the bazaar

By: Rasim BELKO

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Milorad Dodik is probably one of the most hated political figures on the Bosnian-Herzegovinian chessboard. Due to his pro-fascist, anti-Bosnian, and subservient attitude towards Serbia, he has long been a persona non grata in Sarajevo, although never officially declared as such.

In that Sarajevo valley, mostly Bosnian Muslims live, and since the 90s of the last century, Bosniaks.

Isn't it ironic that these Sarajevo Bosniaks are giving increasing amounts of citizens' money to Dodik junior, who is inevitably his father's right-hand man.

Irony has long been overcome in the intertwined interests of the statelet in the west of the Balkans.

Thus, after conquering the "Serbian" Banja Luka for Dodik senior, Igor Dodik entered the "balija" Sarajevo, or as the elder Dodik would say, "Tehran".

Much has already been written about the company Prointer. Everyone knows who runs it and for whose interests it works. But, everything is still shrouded in secrecy, away from public view.

Tenders are sources of wealth. They often end up under the table, and by the time the judiciary finds them, the money ends up in exotic countries and its trace is lost.

Younger Dodik had someone to learn from how to do it "under the table". And given that father Dodik has experience in cigarette transactions during the war, Igor knows that Bosniaks are suitable for taking big deals, right under the noses of other Bosniaks.

So, these days, stories are circulating again in "nerdy" circles that Igor Dodik and his Prointer are buying all IT tenders, and that many Sarajevo IT experts are existentially threatened because of it.

And everything would be different if Bosniaks knew how to make a turn from "baliluk".

Because how can common sense explain that the Bosniak political elite is filling Igor Dodik's bags while his father constantly repeats the story of the breakup, impossibility, and non-existence of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Who can explain that money is given to the son of a man who denies genocide, belittles victims, and celebrates criminals.

Who in Bosnian Tehran finances a policy that would build monuments to Chetniks at Vrace, right next to the monument to a glorious common past and common ancestors.

There are those who can. And they share the name "balija". The term "balija", as Hajrudin Hromadžić once wrote in "Novosti", comes from the ancient Greek word for the immortal horse of Achilles.

And the Bosniak "balije" do not falter in their march of self-destruction. Since time immemorial. Since they exist. Today's are even worse. For a little of that IMT, they would sell the City Hall, the Miljacka, and the Eternal Flame. But we are not surprised by such people. We know them, petty souls who trade our lives like foreign currency smugglers.

I wonder what the role of all the patriotic forces of Sarajevo is in all of this. Those patriotic forces that beat their chests, hiss at every Dodik's "there is no Bosnia".

Or is it all a charade for us naive ones, who still believe that they are fighting for a better tomorrow, for the state. We believe them every time, every time they deceive us.

The "balije", therefore, the immortal horses of the Greater Serbian policy of SANU, which Achilles-Dodik is implementing, consciously and voluntarily finance their own, but also our disappearance.

For these Bosniak "balije" and for Igor Dodik, Merlin's "Happiness is not a full bag of money" has long been invalid.

I just wonder what will happen to Sarajevo, which does not play the role of the horse of the most prominent SANU figure.

Because, that Sarajevo must urgently find an answer. Otherwise, it will ride us too.