Referendum: Greater Serbian noise, Bosnian Serb shame

By Muharem Cero

The announcement of the Constitutional Court of BiH's decision on the unconstitutionality of the referendum on January 9th ultimately means the authorities in RS are once again facing the obligation to implement the Constitutional Court's ruling on the unconstitutionality of January 9th.

The referendum was not only unconstitutional but was an attempt to circumvent the implementation of the Constitutional Court's ruling.

No matter how much the RS authorities intended to circumvent and thwart the removal of January 9th as the entity day, they are nevertheless compelled by this latest decision of the Constitutional Court to engage in implementing that decision.

It is clear that the referendum manipulation is merely an attempt to circumvent the implementation of the January 9th ruling.

The constitutional and legal position of RS is confirmed by yesterday's decision, stating that the provision of the Law on Holidays which designates January 9th as a holiday is legally invalid.

The Constitutional Court of BiH has set a deadline of 6 months for harmonizing this provision with the content of its decision, and RS and the National Assembly of RS have not acted in accordance with the constitutional decision.

Only playing on administrative-bureaucratic deadlines can relativize yesterday's decision of the Constitutional Court. Namely, the court announced its decision, but it only becomes binding upon delivery to Republika Srpska.

This deadline for the dispatch of court documents is set at 30 days by the rules of the Constitutional Court, with provision for delivery and publication in the official gazette.

Whether the bureaucratic game and Dodik's sleepers in BiH institutions will succeed in "buying time" and legalizing the upcoming celebration of January 9th depends on the BiH institutions and the Constitutional Court of BiH itself.

It cannot be ruled out that Dodik's Greater Serbian ideologues are installed in BiH institutions, and therefore this process should be closely monitored.

Judging by the initial reactions, turbulent, loud, and ultimately unfounded, the structures around the Great Manipulator (Dodik), named Karan, the omnipresent academic Kuzmanović, the indecisive Čubrilović, and others who will soon emerge (the usual Greater Serb Kecmanović, and not to exclude the ideologues of the Serbian Orthodox Church) will make this time difficult, and likely use it to deepen national animosities.

The fact remains, however, that Greater Serbian remnants in Bosnian Serb politics have been defeated.

What they will do and what they are prepared to do in their defeat remains an open question.

The court decision itself has opened up space for Bosnian Serb politics, and it is to be hoped that they will recognize and politically capitalize on it.

If we can believe in the political sincerity of Ivanić, Čavić, Borenović, and Govedarica, it is to be hoped that they will use this opportunity in the interest, above all, of the Serb people in BiH and the manipulated Serbs of RS.

When someone obsessively self-manipulates, it is an isolated sin. Ultimately, curable. But when someone manipulates a collective and confronts it with the sin of manipulation, then it is a political crime, and that is precisely what Dodik and the group around him are doing.