Ready for the Seats: The 'Trojka' Has Mastered the Art of Manipulation

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

All the lies and deceptions of the imposed Sarajevo government are best reflected in its attitude towards our young fellow citizens. I will not remind you of all the populist promises they made before the elections, because we are in an election year anyway, so you will hear the same stories from the same characters in this year's rerun, pre-election program.

I will only remind you how the KS Government manipulated the best students with an average grade above 8.0 last year, who were "exempt" from paying tuition fees. However, due to "procedural" administrative complications, our best students could not exercise this right. Only after public pressure and the intervention of the KS Assembly were students allowed to get a refund of the paid funds.

This already tested model of market-style fraud, by subsequently changing conditions, criteria, and procedures that make it difficult for young people to realize the offered rights, has been applied again to the public call for subsidizing housing solutions for young people in the Sarajevo Canton.

I believe most readers remember that call and the justified dissatisfaction of young people with the amount of funds allocated compared to the real prices of real estate in Sarajevo, which even culminated in protests in front of the KS Government. But what remained hidden from the public and what Minister Bošnjak, nor the KS Government, do not want to talk about is that there is a group of about a hundred young people who are included in the final ranking list of persons who have been approved funds for subsidizing housing, but who have never received the funds thanks to the well-established system of fraud by subsequently changing conditions, criteria, and procedures.

And this happens regardless of the fact that the goal of the public call was to motivate young people to stay in Sarajevo and build their future in their country. In the end, some of these young people were grossly deceived in the phase of realizing the rights promised to them by the institutions that should be working for their benefit, which is in complete opposition to the goal of the public call. Thus, this imposed government has once again shown that it is only playing with our youth, creating a general atmosphere of insecurity and distrust in the institutions of the system. That is, to put it directly, with such a stepmotherly and extremely corrupt attitude towards our youth, this government is driving our children away from here!

Policies that are adopted must also be implemented, otherwise we can talk about the most brutal populism. The government cannot function in such a shameless way, promising citizens one thing today and killing their will to live during the implementation tomorrow!

Love for the homeland is not created in such a rather disgusting way, nor is a modern society built. A modern society rests on the trust of citizens in the institutions of the system; otherwise, the society disintegrates. And this government is doing everything to achieve that!

The political agenda that the 'Trojka' has brought to our political scene is unscrupulous propaganda manipulation of citizens solely to occupy seats. Nothing is sacred, nor are there any limits to lies and deception. Policies and projects are subordinated to the realization of personal interests of individuals, not the public interest. Even in cases where some projects have been realized to some stage, they have left behind loose ends and serious doubts about the transparency and legality of the process. We have a government that only deals with itself and "its people," which is evident whenever we walk the streets of our city. The old saying best describes the disproportion between the government's promises and practice: Where they promise you a lot, go with the smallest bag!