Which 'friend' does not allow us to be normal? Bosnia and Herzegovina between false allies and domestic sycophants!

Written by: Rasim Belko @rasimbelko

“The main cause of the crisis is Bosniaks, who outvote Croats by electing two Bosniak members of the BiH Presidency,” HDZ leader Dragan Čović fired off yesterday at a meeting in the OHR, in a game where he tried to primarily emphasize the crown of his political aspirations, while beneath it concealing the weight of the attack on the constitutional order orchestrated by his partner in secessionism, Milorad Dodik.

Expected from Čović, because anything else would be a lie.

Despite the fact that Čović repeated this to him before the entire composition of the PIC Steering Board, High Representative Christian Schmidt today, before the eyes of the BiH public, played the fool with the mask of a bad actor, claiming he had forgotten what Čović said because they talked about many things.

As if it is not known to anyone even slightly versed in Bosnian-Herzegovinian circumstances that Schmidt has learned by heart what Čović and Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković are demanding from him, which is exactly what Čović repeated to him at the meeting.

So, Schmidt is lying to us, while the media write that some decisions are being prepared in the OHR, and the fact that the OHR does not deny this reporting brings anxiety that the German diplomat will soon continue along the paths of apartheid from 2022 and 2023.

Another fact from the June session of the PIC Steering Board could be a confirmation of the previous one, and is reflected in the fact that political weaklings were invited to the gathering, who need to repackage themselves to such an extent that they become strong, so that without Dodik they can lead the state forward, and deliver to Čović the election law and a third entity.

Because, realistically, today more visibly than two years ago, Michael Murphy's Sarajevo political kindergarten does not have the strength to operate the bulldozer that should take Dodik to the dump of our political history. In the meantime, British Ambassador Julian Reilly gave birth to a political kindergarten in the Republika Srpska, so now we have two political premature babies.

It is somewhat insane, bordering on political pedophilia, the expectation of British-American diplomats and the OHR that their political weaklings, with far less electoral legitimacy, will tame one wolf and eliminate the other, and then lead us to the tame regions of the European Union.

I would rather say that this is yet another charlatan's mockery by the Westerners of Bosnia and Herzegovina and its citizens. Far from it that Reilly, Murphy, those who order them or follow them are a frivolous political-diplomatic clique.

On the contrary, but precisely because of that, it is increasingly evident that what they are doing in Bosnia and Herzegovina is a serious charade in which they pretend to bring us solutions, while actually leading us thirsty across the water, the only problem being that we, as citizens and Bosnia and Herzegovina, are too persistent and refuse to die.

Few in Bosnia and Herzegovina still have doubts that our political representatives are some kind of players in the process of reforming Bosnia and Herzegovina. But it is time to remove the veneer from the story that Russia, China, Iran or Turkey are players who contribute to the problem here or slow down the state's progress.

In the Steering Board and the entire PIC, there are no Russians, Chinese, especially Iranians, and Turkey has minor influence even though it represents the countries of the Islamic world. So, the do-gooders who every six months express concern for the situation in BiH are all cream of the crop - the whole of Western Europe, all with the British and Americans.

If we know that it is a publicly proclaimed fact that the Americans, British and Western Europe are our closest allies, how is it that three decades after the war, Bosnia and Herzegovina is unable to transform into a modern, orderly European state.

Let's not lie to ourselves, it is not Putin or all that Eastern elite blocking us, but we live with a blindfold over our eyes and lie to ourselves that our allies are helping us, while precisely those allies are holding both the blindfold over our eyes and our legs tied so that we cannot approach Euro-Atlantic institutions.

Over time, they have also loaded onto us, along with this tying of eyes and legs, the right wing of the European Union, so handicapped we have to jostle with Orbán and the like. And above all, these our Western allies continuously and in every way push Serbia and Croatia to the forefront as a kind of little tutor who carries out what the big one says.

The problem of handicap that the West has imposed on us and controls will soon have to be resolved. If the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina do not do it, no one else will. Because, it is clearer today than ever before — Schmidt, Murphy, Reilly and the like are not here to create a functional, sovereign and legally regulated state, but to tailor its fate according to regional hegemonic interests and their own geopolitical games.

The question is not whether Schmidt will make some decision — he will make it, as last time, in favor of Čović, and leave Dodik room to parade as a martyr. The question is whether we, as citizens, political actors, intellectuals and the media, will finally stop playing the naive audience in this charade and say enough.

Because as long as we agree to be advised by those who left us in this state, everything will remain the same — BiH will remain an undefined, politically ravaged and divided country where Schmidt's apartheid amendments, Murphy's anonymous experiments and Reilly's school of controlled chaos take precedence over laws, the will of citizens and the future of the state.

It is time to stop waiting for Schmidt, Murphy and Reilly to draw our borders, pass laws and choose leaders. Bosnia and Herzegovina will not be an orderly country as long as others are ordering it.

It remains for us to decide — will we continue to accept the role of extras in our own country or will we finally take the lead. Because Bosnia and Herzegovina is not Schmidt's, not Murphy's, not Reilly's, and least of all Dodik's and Čović's. Bosnia and Herzegovina belongs to its citizens. And nothing, absolutely nothing, will happen until the citizens rise up and tell them all that. Loudly. In every place. And without fear.