Sabina Ćudić – a heroine of hypocrisy and the face of political hollowness!

By: Rasim Belko

Sabina Ćudić likes to accuse. She likes to lecture, interpret moral heights, and issue political certificates of approval. However, when accusations are directed at her – when the finger is pointed at her, she doesn't defend herself with arguments or facts. No, then she hides under the skirt of immunity, like a retired parliamentarian who remembers the law only when she needs legal cover from her own irresponsibility.

And that's what happened in the case of the performance she staged during the pandemic while the FBiH Parliament was meeting in hotels, and when a defamation lawsuit reached her, instead of arguing with her own words, she tried to use the system, i.e., parliamentary immunity.

That's what happens when principles are just props for election slogans, not guidelines for political action.

Naša stranka, with Sabina Ćudić as its most prominent symbol or one of them, has been pushing the narrative of fighting for human rights, freedoms, and European values for years. It all sounds like a fairy tale of liberal purity — until you look at the reality.

Because the reality is simple, and the opposite of Naša stranka's claims.

When the wife of minister Staša Košarac testified about domestic violence, Sabina Ćudić did not support his dismissal. These are those “principles” – which always apply to others. In reality, Naša stranka writes laws and moral rules for opponents, but erases them as soon as they interfere with their coalition agreement.

Because, for example, when they were in opposition in Sarajevo Canton or at the Federation level, they objected to everything, and when they became the government, they changed the rules of procedure so they wouldn't have to listen to the opposition.

And what about the “principles” that Naša stranka put forward as a condition for entering the Council of Ministers of BiH? They were written with an almost solemn tone, presented as a political holy grail. Promises of unblocking institutions, progress towards the EU, electoral reform, and fighting for transparency... were – viewed retroactively – just a paper screen for entering power. Today, not even Sabina remembers them.

Because while voters were hypnotized by the ideas of a “European Bosnia and Herzegovina,” their “liberal” darling and the principles she proclaimed were a mask behind which lay an agreement with Milorad Dodik and SNSD for the Council of Ministers. Yes, that same Dodik, whom Sabina claimed would not have influence, would not profit, and later that it was “not realistic” for his best man to receive hundreds of millions of marks. And today – Dodik's best man will build the Indirect Taxation Authority building for 100 million KM, and Sabina Ćudić just shrugs.

And not only does she remain silent – but with inexplicable cynicism, she tries to accuse the opposition from Sarajevo of cooperating with Dodik. The opposition! Even though Dodik is in power precisely thanks to her signatures, her agreements, her Main Board. And it could have been different. And while Ćudić sarcastically mocked the possibility of money being poured into best men, now the public is laughing at Sabina, her unbearable lightness of manipulation, and cynicism with a scent of betrayal.

Is this liberalism that Naša stranka and Ćudić have been propagating to us just a label, and the content – a naked desire for power?

Sabina Ćudić is today the most serious candidate for the president of Naša stranka. At least because no one serious has yet expressed a desire to lead that party. And that is a logical choice – because in a party that has betrayed everything for positions, the leader can only be someone who has carried out that betrayal best. And perhaps that is good news. Because if anyone can bring this political charade to its final implosion – it is a woman who has turned the fight for rights into a facade, and parliament – into an echo chamber for her own vanity.

Naša stranka today is not liberal. It is not progressive either. It is a party of political duplicity, an orange variant of everything it once supposedly spoke out against. And Sabina Ćudić is its face: cynical, protected, and without the slightest discomfort when she tramples on the ideals she herself proclaimed.

The citizens of Sarajevo, as well as the whole of Bosnia and Herzegovina, may have forgotten the concrete promises that representatives of Naša stranka once made to them. They may no longer remember all the slogans about justice, responsibility, and a new political culture. But one thing has remained alive – the feeling of being deceived. And not a naive feeling of disappointment, but the bitter taste of betrayal.

In that light, Sabina Ćudić's possible presidency of Naša stranka would not only mark the end of a political endeavor – but the final act of one of the deepest political betrayals that the citizens of these regions have experienced in the post-Dayton era. Naša stranka promised change, but delivered adaptation to the system they claimed to change. Instead of resisting corruption, they are today significantly represented in judicial proceedings. Instead of principled action, we have witnessed trading.

If she becomes president, Sabina Ćudić will not only be the face of the end of a political project – she is the period at the end of the sentence called Naša stranka, in the orange color of disappointment.