Neither warrior nor cultured man from Forto, 'peasants' are braver and wiser

By Ernad Metaj

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A mother doesn't curse Forto for saying something stupid, but curses him for defending that stupidity. With his interview for the esteemed magazine The Guardian, the Prime Minister of Sarajevo Canton only confirmed that he should never have held such an important position. His statement that peasants won the war and that Sarajevo has turned from a city that was the center of urban culture into a center of nothing has justifiably angered the public in the capital of BiH.

In an instant, Forto made us forget the nebulae of ideologically instructed Sanja Vlaisavljević about expelling Santa Claus and pork from Sarajevo. Forto cannot be proud of this, because he did not defend Sarajevo from Sanja's conscious deceptions; he buried the city, where the most important political figure is currently located, even deeper. In fact, if it were up to Forto, Sarajevo, and with it the entire BiH, would capitulate to the resurgent policies of SNSD and HDZ, which do not hide that their goal is to finish what began in the war, and that is the division of BiH.

Only Forto's statement that the interview topic was not aggression, but the current government's aspiration for Sarajevo to experience a cultural revival by waging war against trash, is worse than the statement itself. If Forto had the capacity of a leader, he would know that any talk of economic and tourist development of Sarajevo Canton is impossible without addressing the increasingly radical destabilization of BiH. In doing so, Forto completely neglected the media significance of The Guardian and the opportunity to strengthen Great Britain's friendship towards BiH, whose politicians seem to understand the danger looming over BiH better than he does. Thus, Forto confirmed his lack of statesmanship by reducing his own politics exclusively to the Sarajevo perspective, which sees the state only from Kozija ćuprija to Marijin Dvor.

"While BiH is burning, Forto and the rest of the gang are combing their hair" is a bad comedy that the Prime Minister of KS and the president of Naša stranka, which mostly has no reaction to the orgies of Chetniks in returnee settlements in RS, are serving us these days. Peasants probably live there, and they annoy the nice city folk who vote for Naša stranka. Sarajevo folk, which mostly makes up the membership of Naša stranka, are mostly silent about the events in RS, as well as about the evident split in the coalition with SDP in Mostar. Just like the "red berets" from Banja Luka, communists also bother him, whose criticism opens the way for the fascist desecration of the Partisan cemetery.

SNSD, and especially HDZ, do not seem to have been a big problem for Naša stranka. A bigger enemy was and remains the Chairman of the Presidency of BiH Željko Komšić, and now the Vice-President of SDP Vojin Mijatović has also become one. The former proved to be a tough nut to crack in Naša stranka's attempt to appease HDZ President Dragan Čović at the state level, as they did in Mostar, and the latter because in his open criticisms, he does not spare Edin Forto's government.

And since we are talking about Sarajevo, let's return to the battle against trash that Forto spoke about for The Guardian. It is precisely thanks to Forto and his government that Sarajevo was the "center of nothing" during the past holidays. Mostar, Banja Luka, and even many smaller towns where nice city folk do not live were a magnet for tourists with rich New Year's content.

Jahorina is again this year a better and more important ski destination than Bjelašnica, and how Forto wins wars was also shown by the distribution of money for culture and sports in KS. If we exclude the Sarajevo Film Festival, which has long grown so much that "urban" culture cannot be ignored, it has received little support. Obviously, in the division of power with coalition partners, Forto considered the "pride parade" more important than culture, so he still allowed those who are less urban to push their voters.

Forto's interview for The Guardian was also a reason to demand his resignation. It seems that Naša stranka has the most reason to do so, because Forto's work results are negatively affecting its rating. In addition, according to a recent SDP poll, only 17 percent of respondents expressed complete satisfaction with the government's work, and interestingly, Forto is not that popular in Sarajevo either.