They don't need optimum, but maximum attention: All children are ours!

By: Muamer Bandić

Whenever the authorities hide the real content of what they cover in public communication with platitudes of undefined content, even from experts, it is justified to fear that they are trying to save long-term on the most vulnerable categories of our society. This shows that unrealistic promises, wasteful spending, and rapidly accumulating debts are coming due, and that the KS Government is trying to make long-term systemic savings in social benefits, education, and healthcare.

They will boast about distributing various aid, but short-term, just to buy social peace and polish their image before the upcoming elections. But distributed baklava and portions of ćevapi, no matter how modern and positive they may seem, will not solve the accumulated problems within the cantonal system, which is almost falling apart.

I believe this is precisely the path chosen by the KS Government, and this is shown by the lack of basic medicines in clinics and health centers in the Sarajevo Canton, as well as specialized medicines for the treatment of our most seriously ill citizens. They repeat to us like parrots that there is money when there is no theft, that we have never had a better and smarter government, and that we have never been better off, but the daily reality of our lives refutes them at every step. The lack of even the most basic utilities, which we all pay for, particularly refutes them.

I am starting to wonder if our esteemed ministers even go to the stores and how they procure basic foodstuffs?! Do they wonder how our seriously ill fellow citizens survive and what life is like for a Sarajevo family with a member with special needs? Do they ever meet these people, look them in the eye, and ask how they live?

It is heartless and shameful that ministers communicate with parents of children with special needs and educators who work with these children through the media. Children with special needs are the most vulnerable category of society and require special care from all of us.

I understand the Ministry's need to regulate the areas under its jurisdiction and I further support them in improving the system, but these changes must be transparent and communicated in a timely manner with the educators who work with children and the parents, because they are the ones who bear the greatest burden of raising and educating children with special needs. It is impossible to do anything without the consultation and involvement of these people in planning and the implementation process.

Therefore, all changes must begin in agreement with parents and educators, because they are the ones who will feel the changes the most and ultimately implement them in practice, whatever they may be. The KS Ministry of Education is acting autistically, absurdly, and paranically, planning something in secret within a narrow circle of trusted individuals and without any agreement with those most affected by these changes.

Moreover, we have reached a situation where people who do the work do not understand what the Ministry wants, nor what exactly it is planning. And the privileged caste of the chosen, accustomed to populist spin through the media, does not understand at all that systemic interventions, especially in the area of social protection and education of vulnerable categories, are not solved by directives from above. That time has passed, because this is no longer a one-party society, but a society of all of us citizens.

Some people clearly have a problem sitting down at a table with parents and educators, talking openly, and explaining what is happening and what is actually intended to be achieved by certain moves. Everyone would really like to hear, especially parents and educators, what exactly this “optimum” that Minister Hota-Muminović is talking about is?

No one has told us yet, neither the Ministry nor the Minister! And these children do not need an optimum, but our maximum support! And as long as I am involved in politics, I will always fight to provide maximum support to these children, their parents, and the educators who work with this population daily.