Political messages from the Economic fair in Mostar

By: Armin Aljovic

Economic messages from the economic fair in Mostar are more or less a cliché. Repetitively and repeatedly they talk about cooperation, progress and development. Even those who authored the messages knew they meant nothing. Reality is entirely different. Mostar is still the only town in Europe in which citizens do not have the right to vote in local elections. It is the town where people who live on one side of the river have never crossed to the other side – because there live people who pray differently.

Since Mostar saw no progress in the last two decades, it is hard to believe that would happen after the 20th Mostar Economic fair. The city is governed by the same people who have brought the symbol of Herzegovina down to its knees.

This year's fair was the least an economic show. Rather, it looked like a fair and exhibition of HDZ politics. The organizer mentioned 800 presenters from 30 countries. The public should be acquainted with numbers of contracts that telecom operators or military industry signed in Mostar. We are talking about state companies which rented showroom with the tax payers’ money.

Mostar locals have come up with another running joke – about Mostar being the only international fair in the world where all exhibitors speak the same language. If it was not for the deputy agriculture minister of China, Qu Dongyua, there would have been very little demand for translating services.

So instead of economic projects, the public was presented political projects of Dragan Covic assisted by Croat prime minister Andrej Plenkovic whose country was the main sponsor of the fair. Covic's project, as he said it himself several times during the fair, is to change the Electoral law of BiH. And those changes have to such as to allow Covic and HDZ to remain in power. Any other solution HDZ portrays as 'endangering of Croats'. Croats in BiH are told that they are endangered if not represented by HDZ. Only with HDZ they get to exercise their legitimate rights. Although, closer to truth is that, with HDZ in power, everyone in BiH is endangered, except for HDZ. The Croats themselves are endangered, particularly the ones from Bosnia.

Most of the Croats in BiH suffer hardship; a number of them left BiH. It is curious, however, that none of the Croats said to be leaving BiH because they did not like the electoral law.

People leave BiH for economic reasons – they are unable to provide for their families. Covic does not have to worry about it. He is provided by all those who cannot provide for themselves. That's how Covic gets plenty of time on his hands to focus on electoral law, which will eventually benefit only him.