Sarajevo's HDZ donates Constitutional Court of BiH to Čović: The last red line has been crossed

By: Muamer Bandić, member of the Presidency of the Party for BiH and representative in the KS Assembly

The process of electing a judge to the Constitutional Court of BiH, where it was known during the application process who the smartest, most expert, most capable, bravest, and according to Dragan Čović, the only legitimate candidate for this prestigious position was, has once again reminded us that Čović's Sarajevo partners consider their voters to be goldfish. Goldfish are generally associated with the myth that they have very poor memories, lasting only three seconds.

The Sarajevo branch of the HDZ truly believes that Bosniaks are just like goldfish and that they don't remember what they were told yesterday about (non)cooperation with nationalists, the rule of law, the fight against corruption, justice, equality, institution building, fighting for the country, and European values.

Despite all the beautiful pre-election promises of fundamental changes, the new government, once it took office, continued where the previous one left off, even making some things more horrific than they ever were. They have broken all the promises and principles they advocated for, sometimes making absurd concessions to the open enemies of the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina and those who hate Bosniaks, just to keep their positions. There were no red lines anywhere, nor did anyone mention them.

It is pure luck that alarms went off with the "Laktaši Agreement" at the US Embassy, and our American friends set some red lines. Never before in the modern political history of Bosnia and Herzegovina has our country and our people been subordinated to the personal interests of individuals as is the case today. Driven by this hunger for personal gain, the current rulers did not shy away from undermining the constitutional and legal order in the FBiH, open political corruption through the buying of votes in the Sarajevo Canton Assembly, handing over important state institutions like the Indirect Taxation Authority and the Ministry of Security of BiH to people who daily express contempt for our country, and who, without any reason, daily insult Bosniaks.

In the Sarajevo municipalities, where they offered the best, smartest, and bravest candidates during election campaigns, and smeared opponents with the dirtiest populist methods, we have ended up with four years of stagnation, disorder, and complete anarchy, while the government was preoccupied with itself, completely absorbed in mutual disputes over attractive construction sites. And regardless of the fact that the Trojka holds complete power vertically, all of this has culminated in the most severe political crisis in Bosnia and Herzegovina, caused by the blind and continuous appeasement of anti-state agents in the political system of BiH. Although Milorad Dodik and Dragan Čović, with every political move and statement, do not hide that they are faithful followers of ideologies and political goals of those convicted in The Hague for genocide and crimes against humanity, it seems that only our smartest and most capable leaders of the Trojka have not seen this and refuse to admit it to this day.

First, they do not want to see it due to personal interests because this criminal duet keeps them in power, thereby showing that they are not actually interested in the future of this country, but in the realization of personal interests in those areas that their partners leave to them at higher levels, and in those parts of BiH, like Sarajevo, where they hold power at the local level. Second, they do not understand the internal logic of nationalism and fascism at all. Nationalism and fascism are not fought by appeasing them and making concessions, especially not those that oppose the logic of law and go beyond the framework of the already fragile constitutional and legal system of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Such an approach only strengthens these anti-state elements, to whom state and entity institutions have been surrendered, and the current political situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as in the Federation of BiH, is a testament to this.

Third, the leaders of the Trojka, in their political actions, neglect the importance of ensuring the stability of the legal order and the established institutions of the state for the future of our country and the security of our people. Wherever they exercise power, be it a municipality, canton, entity, or state, we have received a government that often does not respect and violates the laws and regulations it enacts itself, which sends a very negative message to citizens and devalues both laws and institutions. After all, how can anyone expect citizens to respect laws when the state itself, or its representatives, do not?!

The fact that the work of the House of Representatives of the Parliament of the Federation of BiH has been subordinated to only one task for a year, the appointment of the smartest, most expert, most capable, bravest, and only legitimate candidate for the Constitutional Court of BiH, Marin Vukoja, testifies to how much the Trojka is burdened by the personal interests of individuals. In that bland and rigged process, every principle and every regulation that could be violated was violated, just to fulfill Dragan Čović's will. The daily problems and interests of citizens have been completely neglected, even those with the most severe illnesses in majority Bosniak cantons.

And all this for one party man! The election of a loyal soldier of one party and one anti-state ideology to the Constitutional Court of BiH is no longer swallowing frogs, but, forgive me, shoveling shit, for all of us who want to live in a normal and European-ordered Bosnia and Herzegovina. I don't know and cannot understand how one can shamelessly talk about building a country and progress when the process of electing to the highest judicial instance in our country has turned into a political circus, an obvious corrupt farce in which all regulations, procedures, principles, and ultimately the institutions of the Parliament of FBiH and the Constitutional Court of BiH themselves have been rendered meaningless?

The Constitutional Court of BiH is the last line of defense of the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina, upon which, in these political circumstances, the survival of the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina and our people in these areas depends! Without the political independence and legal professionalism of the Constitutional Court of BiH, this country will not only never be part of the EU, but it will not even exist. Through a politically rigged process of electing a judge to the Constitutional Court of BiH in the FBiH, not a lawyer or a professional judge is being appointed, but a party soldier with no judicial experience, who will remain there for the next 20 years.

While they talk loudly about fighting corruption, we are witnessing a textbook example of corruption, under the auspices of the international community, which imposed this government by nullifying the electoral will of one constituent people. I sincerely believe that citizens who love their country see and recognize this kleptocratic anarchy, political farce, and human injustice that is unfolding before our eyes today. Because of things like this, people are fleeing Bosnia and Herzegovina as fast as they can, and because of things like this, our children are leaving every day. They leave because in every such case of high corruption, they feel that Bosnia and Herzegovina is no longer their country, but the private property of Milorad Dodik and Dragan Čović, in which honest, decent, and politically ungrounded people have no place. The disappointment for Čović's and Dodik's Sarajevo vassals is that the latest research shows that goldfish have impressive memories.

I call on the citizens of Sarajevo, the Federation of BiH, and all patriots to remember what everyone told them, and to judge everyone by what they did and for whom they did it. Elections are coming, so judge for yourselves those who, voluntarily and with their own hands in the House of Representatives of the Parliament of FBiH, participated in this corrupt and anti-state farce, because these people, consciously or unconsciously, are working against your very lives!