Šepić: Mostar - BH Blok at a crossroads

By: Senad Šepić, President of NB

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There is a famous thought experiment called the „trolley problem“. In it, a trolley is unstoppable heading towards a group of people on the tracks who cannot get out of its path. You, as an accidental observer, are next to the switch that can divert the trolley to another track where one person is located, and choose to kill that person instead of the five who would die if you chose to stand still and do nothing. Will you pull the lever?
 
Research shows that the vast majority of people would pull the lever in an effort to reduce the number of victims. Of course, this situation is theoretical and too extreme, so there is little chance that any of us will ever find ourselves in a similar position to the observer by the switch. But, life and politics sometimes bring dilemmas that can be compared to this one, and in which you are in a position where the only thing you have to consider is that your actions (or inaction) cause as little damage as possible.
 
Parties gathered in the BH Block recently found themselves in such a situation after the local elections in Mostar. The dilemma was whether to act and support the SDA candidate or stand still and allow the election of the HDZ candidate. Let's set aside for now the (probably true) speculations that SDA and HDZ have a behind-the-scenes agreement to cede Mostar to Dragan Čović in exchange for concessions regarding areas that are a priority for SDA, such as Travnik, or institutions like the Clinical Center of the University of Sarajevo – the question before the BH Block was whether they were up to the task given to them by their voters or not.
 
In a situation where the choice was reduced to the dilemma of SDA or HDZ, the BH Block, lost in the wilderness of political interests, completely forgot to ask themselves what their voters would choose in such a choice. Would their average voter agree that their inertia, indecisiveness, and disorientation would lead to the continuation of HDZ's rule of the city, or would they want change at any cost, even if it means choosing the SDA candidate despite all the justified and serious criticisms of this party's work and policies that I also have?
 
Utilitarianism dictates that we MUST act and „pull the lever“, and that such an act is not only permissible but morally obligatory. According to such interpretations, simply being present in a situation where you can change the course of events towards a more or less better outcome obliges you to participate. Abstinence, wandering in search of impossible alternatives, nor delaying the inevitable outcome are solutions. International community support is useless, merits for holding elections are useless, everything is useless if you are not in a position to impose your solution, and the BH Block could not do that at any moment.
 
Meanwhile, while the BH Block waited for the stars to align somehow and for eighteen councilors to support Irma Baralija without any provocation, SDA, through a media and field offensive, forced them into disagreements, which was something that could have been expected from the beginning. Since its inception, the BH Block has not been a solid and clearly defined platform, but rather an illusion of a basis for further expansion, which SDP and Naša stranka have never seriously approached. Despite announcements to the contrary, it remained an exclusive club for protecting the interests of these two parties, and it was already clear at the local elections in Tuzla and Gračanica, where NS nominated counter-candidates to SDP mayors, that the BH Block did not have a bright future.
 
In Mostar, it was definitively confirmed that monolithicity does not characterize this bloc, and the blame for this should not be sought in Mostar but in the leaderships of these parties, which clearly cannot get along even with each other when there isn't an easily attainable interest at stake, as is the case in Sarajevo. If it were otherwise, the BH Block would have acted jointly in Central Bosnia, Krajina, the aforementioned Tuzla and Gračanica, and here again, the short breath of coalitions formed out of short-term interests is evident.
 
For serious changes in Bosnia and Herzegovina, a policy is needed that will look beyond the Sarajevo basin, based on a sincere will and desire to move things forward, but not only in the Republic of Sarajevo but also in the Republic of Krajina, the Republic of Mostar, the Republic of Tuzla, and other larger and smaller centers-republics that can carry change. A broader coalition, with broader horizons, over a wider territory. It was hypocritical to say before the local elections that Sarajevo should be an example of change – why was it not possible for these changes to happen in other areas simultaneously with Sarajevo, and why should others wait for at least another electoral cycle, and with an uncertain outcome?
 
Decisive, open, and well-communicated cooperation are the key to success, even if it sometimes involves sacrificing one's own interests and principles. That is why, before the first round of voting, I openly told the parties of the BH Block and SDA in Mostar that they share more common values than they have differences. We all share more values in BiH with everyone in general, and these values must be more important than the differences we insist on. When it comes to Mostar, no matter how much contempt we have for SDA and how much I observe with disgust what that party has become, compared to HDZ's tolerance for Ustašism and nurturing the achievements of the Joint Criminal Enterprise of Herceg-Bosna, I would have no dilemma.
 
I don't believe that the voters of the BH Block in Mostar would have one either, and it is up to SDP and Naša stranka to explain to them that the continuation of HDZ's rule is what they wanted when they went to the polls on November 15. The possible justification that a certain councilor or councilors want to remain abstinent because they implement party policies in the City Council and were not elected there as free agents does not hold. Abstinence is action, just as the example of the „runaway trolley“ teaches us. The BH Block is at a crossroads, and it is solely up to them whether they pull the lever or not.