Five directions of action against Denis Bećirović

By Armin Aljović

To be clear from the start and not to hope in vain - the SDA's election campaign will not include a plan for the economic recovery of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the strengthening of the rule of law in the country. All economic agenda of the once strongest party in BiH has been reduced to one sentence by Bakir Izetbegović: We need to wait another eight years for the living standards of citizens to improve.  

National parties of all three peoples in Bosnia and Herzegovina actually want to exclusively, and only that, once and for all, clarify in the next four months who is a true Bosniak, who is a legitimate Croat, and who is a Banja Luka or Sarajevo Serb. Without clear ethnic divisions in Bosnia and Herzegovina, there is no moving forward.  

The editor-in-chief of Večernji list, Jozo Pavković, explained this in the case of HDZ and Dragan Čović in four points: The Plan B for the upcoming elections implies “broader coalitions, greater connection with Croatia, retaining older and more experienced people in politics, while the primary topics in the election campaign will be national.” Dodik and SNSD have the task of convincing citizens in RS that the Serbs from the Alliance for Change have faded so much during their four-year mandate in Sarajevo that they are practically very difficult to distinguish from Bosniaks. 

Here are five directions of SDA's movement in the months leading up to the elections:

1. Direct at least 95% of all media attacks exclusively against Denis Bećirović?

2. For now, do not attack, do not waste energy on other opposition candidates for the BiH Presidency?

3. Discredit Bećirović's messages in every way that he will work to unite all BiH patriotic forces in Bosnia and Herzegovina, depoliticize the Presidency, and represent all citizens equally?  

4. Highlight the picture of Denis Bećirović at Tito's grave! Hide pictures of other SDA officials where it is visible that they were in Dedinje. Especially the picture of the late president Sulejman Tihić.

5. Through media from RS, present a potential victory of Bećirović as the doomsday for Republika Srpska, and through the HDZ's media machinery, announce his entry into the Presidency as a curse for all future Croatian generations, which, possibly, almost certainly, can only be mitigated by Saint Dragan Čović himself.

There is no doubt that national parties have the right to organize their election campaign in a way they believe will bring them the best results. Politics, for example, that of Denis Bećirović, which has been particularly in focus in recent weeks, is also a matter of personal taste. Those who like the policy of a “president for all citizens regardless of faith and belief” will support him. Those who have a different vision of the country will seek salvation from another candidate and other political parties. 

However, it can and should be problematic for journalists and citizens that the brutal media onslaught against the rivals of national parties is financed by the tax money of all citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In Bosnia, they would say, “you are making a fool out of me with my own money.” Namely, it was recently announced that the Bosniak member of the BiH Presidency, Bakir Izetbegović, gave money from the BiH Presidency reserves to a private media outlet that is at the forefront of the campaign against Bećirović. The editor of an opposition media outlet recently complained to the Press Council of BiH that BH Telecom paid 100,000 KM to an SDA newspaper just three months after they appeared on the market, while he could not get such a contract even after 20 years of presence on the media scene of Bosnia and Herzegovina.  

Can the media machinery of national parties stop the victory of civic policies in October? As misfortune never comes alone, so the pro-Bosnian parties did not come alone to the political battlefield of the nationalists this summer. The legitimate High Representative of the international community in BiH, Valentin Inzko, recently said very openly, directly, in fluent Bosnian on Federal TV that he hopes people will elect new political parties and new young people in the October elections. Of course, Inzko did not say who to vote for, but he said who to avoid at all costs if citizens want good for themselves.