Liberation from the Past: Đenan Galešić on Dangers for Bosnia and Herzegovina

(Patria) - At this week's session of Krug 99, publicist and author Đenan Galešić held a presentation titled "Profiles of the Enemies of Bosnia and Herzegovina – Synthesis of the 20th Century and Outlines of the 21st," in which he analyzed the historical and contemporary challenges facing Bosnia and Herzegovina, emphasizing the continuity of destructive processes from neighboring countries that have acted against the Bosnian state and its pluralistic people for two centuries.

"The political awakening of the Balkan peoples in the 19th century led to the formation of nations in Bosnia's immediate surroundings. In this process, the Croatian and Serbian nations could not clearly delineate the borders of their projected national bodies. The borders of these nations were projected onto Bosnia, more precisely onto its co-religionists, and analogously onto Bosnian territory.

All demarcations of these two long-standing national projects were conceived, planned, and agreed upon through the territorial and ethnic fabric of Bosnia. Bosnia's millennia-old religious diversity, with its specific 'Bosnian philosophy of life' as a cultural and civilizational achievement, was interpreted by neighboring national elites as unfinished business, a historical anomaly, a mistake to be corrected or destroyed. Bosnian religious diversity was trivialized and perversely interpreted; it was made into an enemy of projected national homogeneity, and on several occasions, vicious lies and prejudices were created about the Bosnian people that could serve to carry out the worst crimes.

The existence of the Bosnian-Herzegovinian people has been a fact that has been trivialized, suppressed, and denied for 160 years, with the aim of preventing the emergence of two categories: the Bosnian political nation and the Bosnian state. It is important to understand the environment and its attitude towards these categories. The Bosnian question has remained open since the mid-19th century; undefined, indeterminate, and fateful for the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is too weak to be resolved on its own, and too strong to be resolved by forces that deny everything Bosnian, both territory and people.

The question is strange and interesting: what kind of force did this despised and inferior issue possess, that Bosnia managed to survive and remain alive in the face of much stronger powers?

Today's presentation arose from concern for the present and future of Bosnia and Herzegovina and its people. It arose from the desire for the Bosnian person to shed the prejudices of the past and the century before and to bravely step into the future – which will not be possible if they are struck by fear and deprived of hope. The past is dead and should remain dead, overcome by a future shaped by idea and vision – because everything was first in the idea.

The current state of Bosnia and Herzegovina and its people is the result of the action of negative and hostile phenomena and processes. Shaping the ethno-religious components of the Bosnian people in a progressive and liberal way requires a long and deliberate intellectual effort, perhaps several decades. The pace of development is slow, and domestic politics often erect fatal obstacles. As Derviš Sušić said through the mouth of Agan Babunić: "We must cover in a few years the path that those smarter than us took slowly over two centuries."

Historical trends must be recognized and connected with contemporary events, as they still represent burning issues for the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The process began in the 19th century, but in the 20th century, an ideologically constructed interpretation of Bosnia's religious plurality was imposed to such an extent that self-awareness was destroyed, appearing like "an old boundary, a dry stone wall overgrown with thorns and dogwood." A colossal effort is needed to turn that dry stone wall back into a beautiful and functional building, a building that provides a comfortable life for its inhabitants.

In every period and topic that the author addresses, there have been factors that acted hostilely towards Bosnia and Herzegovina and its people. All destructive and disintegrative elements deserve our attention. The aim of this presentation is to expose the aspirational ideologies from neighboring countries that formed the basis of movements whose bearers considered the Bosnian state and its pluralistic people an obstacle to achieving their goals: homogeneous national unity and the division of Bosnian territory.

The experience of the last war confirms that circumstances make people, but also that people change circumstances. The Bosnian people stopped the fascist machinery with their bodies, refusing to disappear. Liberation from the bloody heritage of past centuries, which still drags us back to suffering, must be the main task of the Bosnian intelligentsia and far-sighted politics," is part of Galešić's presentation.