People of Sarajevo, sleep peacefully because 'no one dares to beat you' except the Troika's police!

Written by: Muamer Bandić, member of the Presidency of the Party for BiH and representative in the Assembly of the Sarajevo Canton

While they proclaim themselves champions of European integration, promising us Europe, democracy, equality, transparency and a better life at every turn, the authorities in Sarajevo are banning a peaceful protest march under the motto “We demand education tailored to students and their teachers” organized by the Independent Union of Primary Education and Upbringing of the FBiH - Cantonal Committee of the Union of Primary Education and Upbringing of the Sarajevo Canton.

It has been known for months that the current cantonal government and the Union of Primary Education and Upbringing are not on the best of terms, and the strained relations culminated in a highly inappropriate public correspondence between the minister and the union leadership, as well as classic police repression, characteristic only of totalitarian regimes.

Now the confused cantonal government has gone a step further in its Orwellian wandering through the wilderness of post-totalitarian democracy by banning a public union gathering “due to the existence of a real danger that holding a peaceful gathering would endanger the safety of people and property, or would lead to a real danger of violence or a major disturbance of public order and peace.”

Believe it or not, but that is literally what is written in the explanation of the Centar Police Department, by which the authorities reject the Union's request!

With this totalitarian move, the Government of the Sarajevo Canton has once again transparently shown us that everything it publicly advocates on a daily basis, it does the opposite in practice. Apart from continuously justifying that previous governments and ruling parties were bad, this Government of the Sarajevo Canton has proven completely incapable in practice of solving any communal or social problem of the citizens of Sarajevo.

Instead of a serious prime minister and ministers who would solve our everyday problems, create and implement development projects to turn Sarajevo into a modern metropolis of the 21st century, all we have gotten is cheap populism on social networks aimed at the bewildered Balkan poor.

Moreover, this case shows us that they do not shy away from exerting direct political influence on the Police Administration, which should be a professional and politically independent police organization. But for this and such a government, that is a completely “normal” sequence of events, because they have not shied away before from appointing active politicians, who at the same time sit in the legislative branch, to bodies formed by the executive branch.

That only happens in Sarajevo and perhaps in some literary work dealing with totalitarianism as a social phenomenon.

On the streets of Sarajevo, one can rob and kill unhindered, one can drive over 100 km/h, but no one dares to fight for their human and labor rights, not even education workers. If anyone by chance tries, they will be met with a baton, along with a North Korean-style explanation like the one the Union received from the Police Administration of the Sarajevo Canton.

So, my dear people of Sarajevo, sleep peacefully because 'no one dares to beat you' except the Troika's police!