Stolac, Čapljina, Tuzla, Krajina… SDP has turned into a score written by HDZ, and Nikšić, Dizdar, and Mijatović are diligently reading the notes!

By Rasim Belko

Stolac is a city that has become a synonym for apartheid tailored by HDZ BiH. A city where Bosniaks have been systematically reduced to second-class citizens, from the right to political representation to the right of the dead to rest in peace. And while local potentates are drafting spatial plans and planning the relocation of cemeteries, what hurts just as much as the persecuting apparatus itself is the silence of those who lived off that story.

Once upon a time, in the era when he was the “young red lion” from Stolac, Nermin Dizdar built his name precisely on this story of apartheid. He was the face of resistance, a symbol of rebellion against the HDZ machinery. Without that Stolac context, there would be no Dizdar, no political ascent, no ministerial seat. Stolac was his political springboard.

And today? Today about Stolac – not a word. Not a sound. Not a sentence. As if apartheid has disappeared, as if the Bosniaks of Stolac have ceased to exist.

What has changed? Only Dizdar. From a rebel to a systemic cog, from a symbol of resistance to a minister in a government that is silent in the face of HDZ's apartheid. Today he is closer to HDZ than to his own fellow citizens. And this is not just about Dizdar – it is a reflection of SDP. A party that has renounced the values for which it even existed, in order to, in silence and with the smiles of its HDZ partners, enjoy a piece of power.

Because this is not an incident – this is a pattern of behavior. We see the same scheme everywhere: in the Tuzla Canton, the citizens' needs for connection with the capital are ignored, because SDP leaves the monopoly on road construction to HDZ, and most serious projects go to Herzegovina, where HDZ rules.

In the Federation, partnerships are built so that no one rocks the boat, in institutions where silence is treated as currency with which the stability of seats is bought.

SDP has long ceased to be a party that produces conflict over values and justice – today it only produces silence. And that silence is always at the expense of those who are least protected: the people of Stolac, Čapljina, Mostar, the disenfranchised and cut off in Tuzla and Krajina.

Political cynics will say – the system grinds even the greatest rebels. Idealists will ask – did everything have to be sold? Even Stolac, the city from which you started, the city where people protected you from the attacks of HDZ fanatics?

Nermin Nikšić and his cadres – from Dizdar onwards – are today proof of how far SDP BiH has strayed. Mostar, Stolac, Čapljina, Tuzla – these are all places where the price of that betrayal is measured. The price paid with silence.

And while SDP remains silent, Bosnia and Herzegovina is sliding into a quiet acceptance of apartheid and clientelism. And the only constant remains the same: those in power – satisfied; the disenfranchised – betrayed.

Because, to make the absurdity complete, SDP with Nermin Nikšić, Nermin Dizdar, Vojin Mijatović, and that whole cast of “imposed reformers” shows greater discipline in serving HDZ’s interests than Milorad Dodik himself. Dodik at least occasionally threatens, slams the door, stages a crisis to show he has “muscles”. SDP, unlike him, obediently carries out orders, justifies, and covers up all HDZ excesses with silence, from Stolac to Mostar, from federal institutions to state institutions.

Today, HDZ has in Nikšić and Dizdar what it doesn't even have with SNSD: partners who will not even try to open a front, who will not even think of problematizing discrimination, apartheid, and humiliation. For Dodik, HDZ is occasionally an opponent with whom he must trade. SDP is HDZ’s coalition appendage that has already gotten used to the role of a silent escort.

It is sad, but a fact, SDP has transformed from a party that swore by anti-fascism and social democracy into a kind of political servant of Dragan Čović. It is no longer a partnership, nor an alliance – it is mere execution. Nikšić and his stooges have today become the standby defenders of HDZ’s interests, from state government to local communities, and with a zeal that even surpasses Dodik’s tactical obedience to Čović.

Stolac is just a reflection of that betrayal. What is happening there today – silence over apartheid and institutional discrimination – is the same practice that SDP applies across the country. Only in Stolac is that betrayal most visible, most naked. And perhaps precisely because of that, it is the hardest to bear: because it was from that city that the political journey of Nermin Dizdar began, a man who today symbolizes all the silence and all the compromises of SDP.

And while they calculate in Sarajevo, pretend to be a “civic alternative” in Mostar, and nod to Dodik in Banja Luka, people in Stolac and Čapljina live apartheid, and their former protectors have become accomplices. Because, to make the absurdity complete, SDP with Nermin Nikšić, Nermin Dizdar, Vojin Mijatović, and that whole cast of “new reformers” shows greater discipline in serving HDZ’s interests than Milorad Dodik himself. Dodik at least occasionally threatens, slams the door, stages a crisis to show he has “muscles”. SDP, unlike him, obediently carries out orders, justifies, and covers up all HDZ excesses with silence, from Stolac to Mostar, from federal institutions to state institutions.

SDP has turned into a score written by HDZ, and Nikšić, Dizdar, and Mijatović are just diligently reading the notes.