RESULTS OF NAP SURVEY: Time for a referendum on constitutional change

Written by Rasim Belko

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In the past seven days, the Patria News Agency offered you the opportunity to express your opinion on a referendum that would allow BiH citizens to change the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina and adapt it to the true values of modern and orderly states, instead of the values that alleged fighters for democracy offer us today.

To the question “Are you in favor of a referendum on changing the BiH Constitution, after which citizens of BiH, instead of constituent peoples, would be the bearers of sovereignty, but national declaration in the census sense would be retained,” 86.5 percent of those who voted said “YES.”

The answer “NO” was given by 13 percent, while those who could not decide were 0.5 percent.

The results give us the right to conclude that among the citizens, residents of Bosnia and Herzegovina, there are enough who are aware of the need to change the BiH Constitution.

And not just any change. It is a change that would remove everything that rulings of European and domestic courts, hundreds of international officials, and thousands of meetings have not removed.

Discrimination would be expelled from the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and through that amended Constitution, BiH citizens would bear the sovereignty and rights of their state.

We will not achieve this through agreements with current political leaders; this state of discrimination and crime suits them because they have a perfect space for manipulation for the purpose of electoral and political games.

That is why we must change that constitution ourselves. We, professors, bricklayers, teachers, drivers, journalists, cleaners. We whom it concerns. Because we are the driving force of the process. We, the people.

That is why they keep us divided and quarreling, which is why people, not nations, ethnicities, and religions, but people must oppose them.

Of course, ethnic groups, now recognizable as constituent peoples, no one can forbid from declaring themselves in the census as they wish and feel. But these groups or these constituent peoples have been the basis for the destruction of this state for more than a quarter of a century, as well as an excellent support for their leaders in implementing policies that pull us backward.

That is why people decided to vote for holding a referendum.

Because, in all democratic and developed countries, the referendum is the true and strongest weapon of citizens. It directly enables them to decide on issues important for their lives. Although many will say that elections also fall into this group of tools, practice has shown that electoral machinations do not bypass even much more developed states than Bosnia and Herzegovina.

A referendum on transferring rights to citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina is not an attack on ethnic groups, but on the contrary, an opportunity for all of us to finally move away from divisions and be citizens of BiH, with equal rights on every inch of the state.

That is what people, regardless of which groups they come from, want, desire, demand. That is their right. Until now, this right has been taken away from them thanks to a constitution created for the end of the war.

Bosnians and Herzegovinians deserve a Constitution of peace, life, development, prosperity. Enough of war rhetoric and calling out where you were in the 90s. Because such a story, like many others about protecting one's own from someone else, is just an empty story from those who can offer us nothing new, but use one of the biggest international failures in reconciling warring parties.

At the same time, we, the people, live between the pat position of status quo and suffering because there is no salary, we do not hope for a job.

It is time for the intellectual community in Bosnia and Herzegovina to start thinking with their own heads instead of party heads and to start creating changes for the better. We have waited long, and it should be clear to all of us that progress will not come under the current constitutional and legal order.

Also, whoever holds power in the existing political pool, change will not happen, because they all swim the same distance and technique.

It is time for us, the people, citizens, to be the change we wish to see.

To together show the strength we desperately need so that our children go to our rivers, and not our children's rivers flow into the world to earn a piece of bread.

It is time for a Bosnia and Herzegovina tailored to its people, citizens, and not someone's interests.

It is time for a referendum on changing the Constitution!