Long live the cantons, until the state dies!

By Rasim BELKO

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Initiatives to abolish cantons as mini-states have appeared sporadically over the past decade or so. However, although the initiators were different, the result was the same.

The cantons remained, and most of those initiators are now out of the political scene of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and their initiatives are somewhere in the back of our public's already short memory.

The events that unfold from canton to canton, like on a movie screen, definitively determine all the reasons for abolishing these mini-states.

Because cantons, as a regionally defined form of government established by law and limited, are increasingly a problem, when they were created to be a solution in the organization of post-war Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Some, the richer ones like Canton Sarajevo, have become stronger than a larger part of the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the political struggle to cut this canton's budget is greater than for the Presidency or the state Parliament. On the other hand, in the smaller, poorer ones, the situations of powerlessness, lawlessness, and institutional anarchy are becoming more rigid and radical for the petty gains of local potentates.

Ten cantons, with as many governments and assemblies, with a whole fleet of ministers, advisors, assistants, and hierarchically downwards, represent the most powerful anti-budget and anti-citizen dragon in the entire political system of BiH.

According to economic estimates and analyses, this dragon would double the budget of the Federation of BiH, and with prudent management of funds, this would largely restore hope for a better life for the citizens of this entity, as well as the entire country.

Proposals to abolish cantons were not only within domestic institutions, and at the time when these proposals were fiercest, around 2017, they were supported by the former European Union rapporteur for Bosnia and Herzegovina, Doris Pack, who said: "There don't have to be ten cantons with ten prime ministers, ministers of all kinds... I was always for – that you have municipalities, above them the Government of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and above it the Government of Bosnia and Herzegovina. As it is in the BiH entity of Republika Srpska.".

But instead of listening to constructive ideas and advice, domestic political thugs decided to jointly multiply every proposal for the reconstruction of the Federation of BiH's structure by zero.

One of the main reasons why those in power, and they have always been SDA and HDZ, rejected the abolition of cantons is the fact that it would create a bottomless budget hole into which they could place their party army, and at the same time extract their wealth from it.

Thus, we have reached a situation where, on a daily basis, we see protests by healthcare workers, police, education, and various others in every canton. Because the political elite quickly consumes money, and the workers, those who protest, vote for that elite the least.

Another reason why the abolition of cantons does not suit them is the control of power in internal political and other processes. Thus, we have cases where the Federal level of government says one thing, and some cantons decide something completely different.

In the first years of the migrant crisis, there was a real possibility of a civil-police war between two cantons. For those who remember, it was at Bradina near Konjic where police officers from HNK and colleagues from Sarajevo faced each other gun to gun.

And so we could go on indefinitely. But it's no use. Internal policy, especially in the Federation, has long ceased to be based on common sense.

Because how do you explain to a foreigner traveling from Baščaršija to Banja Luka that they have passed through Sarajevo, Zenica-Doboj, Central Bosnia, and Una-Sana cantons, and that they have crossed from one entity to another, all within one country.

Even a madman would go crazy.

However, only the naive will expect that this foreign tourist, traveling from Banja Luka to Sarajevo, will count cities and municipalities, without seeing completely different flags and names every few kilometers, as if they were passing through an entire continent.

Because, in this country, the government and the opposition have always had one common interest – to employ party officials and obedient followers on the budget.

That is why there is less and less talk about abolishing cantons, because it clearly does not suit anyone on the Bosnian-Herzegovinian political chessboard.

Everyone has their kings, queens, and pawns. Everyone is an angry enemy somewhere, a firm coalition somewhere else. Because everyone is in power somewhere, in opposition somewhere. From canton to canton, a political composition!

Long live the cantons, until the state dies!