Muhasilović: It should be allowed for January 9th to slowly fade into oblivion, it is now an SNSD holiday anyway

(Patria) - Since the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina and its institutions could not abolish it, perhaps it is best for the unconstitutional Day of Republika Srpska to fade into oblivion on its own and end up on the margins of daily politics, says professor of geopolitics and international relations Jahja Muhasilović.

In an interview with the Patria News Agency (NAP), Muhasilović emphasizes that tomorrow's celebration of January 9th in Banja Luka is a shameful act of denying the constitutional order of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The fact that the political leadership of Serbia will again participate in this is even more devastating, our interlocutor points out, even though they were not invited by official BiH institutions, which is a direct interference in the sovereignty, territorial integrity, and constitutional-legal order of BiH.

However, unlike in previous years, when January 9th was celebrated with great pomp, Muhasilović says that it is evident that interest in this event is slowly waning, not only among the Serb population in the Republika Srpska entity but also among numerous Bosniaks, who have ignored it.

- January 9th has somehow become more of Dodik's and SNSD's holiday than the entity's day, as the public follows it less and less, especially after the political defeat that Milorad Dodik is going through.

We see that there is no initial energy that existed in previous years regarding the celebration of such dates, which is ultimately good for BiH because Dodik and Serb politics expect us to tear our hair out and grab our heads and react vehemently to all of it.

However, since there are no such reactions from our - pro-Bosnian side, it has in a way led to the defeat of what Milorad Dodik envisioned for January 9th, which is a good thing.

I sincerely hope that this trend will continue in the future and that in some future years it will become a totally marginal and irrelevant event - emphasizes Muhasilović.

He characterized the fact that the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina was unable to rely on its judicial and security institutions to abolish that day as devastating, so it is better for it to fade into oblivion on its own and end up on the margins of daily politics.

Muhasilović believes that it can be said that the BiH Prosecutor's Office, with its long-term passivity, has partially become an accomplice and a key ally of the policy that is undermining the constitutional order of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

- There are people in the Prosecutor's Office who are in collusion with SNSD policy and who think the same way as Milorad Dodik. This is all the more reason why we, as Bosnia and Herzegovina, should root for a political change in that entity, to give a chance to some other Serb parties, to support a candidate who will oppose the SNSD in that entity.

I cannot say that the BiH Prosecutor's Office is entirely an accomplice; the problem is, of course, with some other institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina, primarily the security ones, but of course also the judicial ones.

Why? Because they did not forcibly prevent the celebration of that unconstitutional day. And this is just one of a series of events in which, unfortunately, state institutions have not risen to the task of demonstrating statehood and the existence of the state in that entity.

But, I repeat, perhaps it is better for it to go through this evolutionary process, not revolutionary, which clearly did not happen, but at least evolutionary, so that this entire event becomes marginal and completely unimportant in the political life of Bosnia and Herzegovina over the years. And that will definitely happen, especially if the fall of Dodik and SNSD accelerates, because this project is their brainchild - says Muhasilović.

When asked why there are no braver and more decisive prosecutors to finally tackle the destroyers of the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Muhasilović says that one of the biggest problems is that many of them have been involved for a long time - especially the Bosniak part of the Prosecutor's Office - in some inter-clan wars among Bosniaks.

- They have simply worn themselves out and are wearing themselves out in these fratricidal inter-Bosniak, inter-Bosnian conflicts. And then they don't have time and space to do constructive things.

On the other hand, Serb and Croat prosecutors are not as fratricidal as Bosniak ones. And then, of course, they push certain policies. However, this Bosniak part does not push policies, but rather some narrow, clan, cartel interests.

And of course, when you have such a combination of Serb and Croat policies through the judiciary, which is determined to implement the demands of Belgrade and Zagreb in BiH, to act as proxies, and when on the other hand you do not have a response from Bosniaks sitting in the same institution, who are too busy conducting cartel wars among themselves, then we have such a completely paralyzed Prosecutor's Office that does not do the job it should do, which is to protect the interests of Bosnia and Herzegovina - notes Muhasilović.

From the OHR today, a futile statement in which they said what we already know: January 9th is unconstitutional and its celebration is a criminal offense. Muhasilović says that the biggest problem is the choice of OHR policy.

- The OHR, under the leadership of Christian Schmidt, has clearly chosen a policy of disintegrating Bosnia and Herzegovina and strengthening the other two peoples at the expense of Bosnia and Herzegovina - the Serb and Croat.

Let's remind the public, Schmidt has taken specific steps that have exclusively gone in the direction of strengthening primarily Croatian and Serbian policies, and all of this has been at the expense of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

I fear that besides futility, there is also a certain commitment to pursuing such a policy, which, of course, currently pleases both the Serb and Croat sides in BiH - added Muhasilović.

We also asked him who the real sovereign in BiH is today - the state institutions or those who publicly humiliate them for years?

- Although state institutions are officially sovereign, and recognized as such under international law and the international system, things are different on the ground. There is a very harmful, corrosive decentralization of political power in BiH, which has effectively opened up huge space for Serb and Croat separatist policies at the expense of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

On the other hand, we have a pro-Bosnian bloc that is fragmented, divided, without a vision, very often complacent, and whose inaction or wrong actions very often open up huge space for separatist political forces to implement their will.

In Bosnia and Herzegovina, viewed from the outside, there is a cacophony of political will and political power, and this creates the impression of chaos in the country, or the absence of a cohesive system - concludes Muhasilović in an interview with NAP.

(D.K.)