Can We Trust Dodik: For and Against the State

By Rasim Belko

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The Armed Forces cannot be deployed to the BiH border to stop migrants, stated BiH Presidency member Milorad Dodik at the height of the migrant crisis.

The BiH Armed Forces will go to the border and set up tents for the examination of those entering BiH, Dodik stated with the first serious signs of coronavirus. He even added that he had received the consent of the other two members of the BiH Presidency for this, which would suggest that he himself, Milorad Dodik, was the one requesting the army at the border.

Until recently, Dodik was stating that "Bosnia and Herzegovina as a state does not exist, that it is a temporary creation, that he does not recognize it..."

The same Dodik is now seeking the help of the Central Bank of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and in addition, he is asking state institutions to request 200 million euros from the International Monetary Fund, 100 million per entity.

Wait, he is asking state institutions to do that. Didn't Dodik recently announce the blockade of those very institutions?

"Only a comprehensive system of measures from the state level downwards can yield results," Dodik stated today in Banja Luka.

One can hardly believe what Corona has done to the leading political bully in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

All the threats and those malicious and arrogant messages, which caused fear in the country at certain times, have fallen by the wayside. Milorad Dodik has become an advocate for the system and the functioning of the state.

What happened to him?

Is Milorad Dodik so afraid of COVID-19? Or is he perhaps more afraid that those in Sarajevo will leave him in the lurch after Serbia and Russia have already left him out in the cold?

Aleksandar Vučić deployed the Army to Serbia's border. Unprovoked, the Drina River became the border between BiH and Serbia. The same Vučić, whom Dodik looks up to like the sun, has not shown any interest in the citizens of Republika Srpska, let alone in helping Dodik.

Vučić is preoccupied with his own problems, and he has left Republika Srpska to the institutions where this entity belongs - the institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Even the Russian brothers no longer call Milorad Dodik. There isn't even Petr Ivancov to console him anymore. Everyone has turned their backs on him. Not even Dragan Čović has spoken out to offer any comfort.

Absolutely nothing, the secessionist world has collapsed, and now Dodik is so easily agreeing with those he accused of everything and anything yesterday.
Can the coronavirus change one's mind?

This coronavirus, if everything goes well and without the most severe consequences, can have an impact on our system that even the greatest international powers have not been able to achieve.

Because this is an opportunity for Dodik and other politicians, as well as the peoples of Bosnia and Herzegovina, to realize that those closest to you are the most important. This situation with the virus has shown that best.

Can we believe that Dodik has finally understood? Has it become clear to him that Sarajevo is much closer and more important to Banja Luka than Belgrade?

If so, then we will remember the coronavirus epidemic as the virus that turned the heated political climate into a path towards a better tomorrow.

Can we trust Dodik?

He himself is to blame that neither Serbs nor others in Bosnia and Herzegovina trust him anymore. Those who remember him from the beginning of his career know how he entered politics and came to power by playing the card of democracy and coexistence.

And then he turned, as if bewitched by some dark magic. He became worse than those he persecuted. He grew on nationalism and tensions and seems to have reached the zenith of his power. He keeps Republika Srpska in darkness and under absolute control. Until yesterday, he called the state a failed project.

What is certain is that Dodik must have realized that there is no benefit from all the visits to Moscow and Belgrade. That story has fallen by the wayside.

Therefore, I wonder if the fight against one of the greatest scourges of modern humanity will be enough for Dodik to realize that Bosnia and Herzegovina is his state and the state of his people.

Will Dodik understand the necessity of the functioning of the state institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina even when we are not in an epidemic?

Can Dodik steer the political helm in a new direction?

He is on slippery ground; we will see in which direction he will slide.