Why is the choice between Kovačević and Lučić a choice between Sarajevo and Zagreb, between BiH and Croatia!?

(Patria) - Tvrtko Milović, a self-proclaimed failed journalist and political analyst, recently published an analysis on the Odgovor.ba portal in favor of Zdenko Lučić, the candidate of the 'Pentagon' for a member of the BiH Presidency.

Milović is widely known to the public as a former member of the BHRT Management Board, to which he was appointed by the grace of the HDZ, and is known for his scandalous manipulations with the number of children killed in Sarajevo, surpassing even Srđan Puhalo, the postman from Kalinovik.

Milović is vocally promoting Zdenko Lučić, a candidate who comes from the milieu of the infamous SIS (Security Intelligence Service). His brother Ivica Lučić was the right-hand man and chief intelligence officer of Franjo Tuđman, while Zdenko Lučić himself began his political career under the patronage of Miroslav Tuđman, Franjo Tuđman's son.

Milović's main thesis is that Slaven Kovačević (DF candidate) and Darijana Filipović (HDZ) are proxies of party leaders Željko Komšić and Dragan Čović, and that Croatian intelligence officer Zdenko Lučić is a novelty on the BiH political scene.

Of course, this is a rather cheap attempt at manipulation, the nature of which is clearly visible from Milović's own statement that Zagreb will support Lučić's election and that these are national, not party, elections.

From such a statement, it is clear that it is not even important to what extent Kovačević and Filipović are a continuation of Komšić's and Čović's policies. Kovačević himself emphasizes that his civic policy is an expression of continuity, from the civic members of the wartime BiH Presidency, through Željko Komšić, to himself; however, what is important and interesting is Milović's attempt to impose the belief that Zagreb's proxy influence on the member of the BiH Presidency from the Croat people is something new.

It is not!

History remembers the removal of Stjepan Kljuić from the position of president of HDZ BiH, which came directly from Zagreb by Franjo Tuđman. At the time of his removal, Kljuić was a member of the BiH Presidency. History also remembers Zagreb's and Franjo Tuđman's attempt to bring Ivo Komšić, another wartime member of the BiH Presidency, under their political control.

It is superfluous to even talk about the proxy influence of official Zagreb on the policies of Ante Jelavić and Dragan Čović, who were members of the BiH Presidency from the Croat people after the war.

Željko Komšić continued the continuity of civic political action of the members of the Presidency from the Croat people in Bosnia and Herzegovina in peacetime.

On the other hand, Komšić also represents a discontinuity in Zagreb's proxy activities in BiH. Now Slaven Kovačević, just like Komšić, strives to be an expression of civic political continuity, and political discontinuity in Zagreb's proxy activities.

Milović, on behalf of Zagreb and Zdenko Lučić, is campaigning in an effort to have official Zagreb and the Republic of Croatia gain their proxy member in the BiH Presidency.

A few years ago, Croatian MEP Željana Zovko, in one of her rare moments of honesty, complained about exactly what Milović is advocating for today by supporting Zdenko Lučić's election, saying that Croatia does not have its own member in the BiH Presidency.

Unheard of! Britain does not have ministers in the French government! Croatia does not have a member of the BiH Presidency in the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

However, Milović is right on a fundamental issue. If we cannot agree with him on whether it is good or even permissible for Zagreb and the Republic of Croatia to have their proxy in the BiH Presidency, then surely, at the level of political reality, we can agree that the election of a member of the BiH Presidency from the Croat people is a national (state) issue.

Indeed, the choice between the civic sovereigntist Slaven Kovačević on one side and the Croatian intelligence officer Zdenko Lučić (Pentagon) on the other is a choice between whether they will be accountable to Sarajevo or Zagreb, a choice between whether they will fight for the national interests of Bosnia and Herzegovina or for the national interests of the Republic of Croatia.

Voters from the FBiH electoral unit who have no dilemma in choosing between Sarajevo and Zagreb, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia, will have no dilemma regarding the aforementioned choice.

Milović is also right about one more thing. The choice between Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia, Sarajevo and Zagreb, Kovačević and Lučić is also a national, not a party, matter. Hence, Lučić is supported by five Zagreb proxy parties, while Kovačević is supported by one, but not a Zagreb one, rather a Bosnian-Herzegovinian one.

(M.T.)