To plunder a state is quite easy, just ask the corrupt BiH politicians. There is no problem or issue that national parties in BiH cannot turn into a national problem, be it clean air, animal protection, a pandemic or anything else. When a problem is passed through a national filter, then the responsibility is transferred to the other two nations. If that doesn’t work, self-proclaimed national leaders convene nationwide rallies to which they invite opposition parties from their people, in order to shift the responsibility to them. At these all-Serbian, all-Croatian, and all-Bosniak gatherings the confirmation of a decision is set by the national leaders who have already issued it, and for that they need broader support, since they know it will not be gladly accepted by the masses. If the opposition parties do not accept the invitation to such a gathering, the national parties declare them traitors to their people and transfer the responsibility to them, and if they accept the invitation, they will again transfer all responsibility for the unpopular decision they made earlier. And so, the national parties have ruled sovereignly without any responsibility for almost thirty years, and during that time they have been plundering their country and robbing their people, unhindered. And there is peace in Bosnia.
Robbery According to the National Key
We have all learned by heart that the Dayton Peace Agreement is not perfect but that it stopped the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It was supposed to be a temporary solution until local politicians do not agree on something which is better suited to the needs and desires of citizens. A Dayton Bosnia and Herzegovina was supposed to be replaced by one made in Brussels. It was expected that by calming national conflicts and stifling territorial appetites, BiH would move towards the EU, but they did not count on insatiable, corrupt and ruthless politicians from all three nations to continue economically and politically destroying the country for decades after the war.
The national parties, which have ruled for more than twenty years, not only did not advance Dayton and lead the country towards the EU, they significantly set it back. Instead of two entities, they divided BiH into three imaginary, national parts, so that each national leader could plunder his people without hindrance. Instead of parliaments and governments, the fate of the state and citizens is decided by the self-proclaimed leaders of the three national teams. Parliamentarians, who are chosen by citizens to represent their interests, are mere minions, who only confirm agreements of their rulers, and for this they receive a monthly salary in the amount of the average worker’s annual salary.
Thus, the three leading national parties seized power and freely shared the spoils, while the citizens were amused by the quarrel over the national bones that the leaders throw at them as they sit together at a rich table and have fun at the expense of the citizens. Pretending to fight for the national rights of the peoples they represent, their only goal is to devise how to end up with as much money as possible on their own or on the accounts of their family members and friends. At the same time, they act perfectly that they care about their people, as well as that other nations are their hated enemies from which they must protect their people. And while we support them in that play, citizens are living harder and worse, and more and more of them are looking for salvation in other countries that give them the opportunity to live and work normally, all without national tricks. At the same time, it is very important not to forget that BiH is not a poor state, but a robbed state that could satisfy all its needs if we did not allow the criminal octopus to take over the state.
Victims or Accomplices
Citizens often put themselves in the role of victims, but they are not victims. They are accomplices and the situation will not change until everyone takes their share of responsibility. These and such politicians came to power by the will of the citizens, whether they voted for them or did not go to the polls and thus let others vote for them. We are guilty because we allowed ourselves to be blinded by fake national conflicts for a third decade in a row after the war, so we do not see how much of our money ended up in their accounts. We are guilty because we do not mind that alleged national leaders are robbing us, because we believe that it is better for us to be robbed by our own than by others. We are even proud that it is our leader who has the most beautiful house, the ‘smartest’ woman, the ‘most capable’ children and millions in assets and bank accounts around the world. We don’t mind that more and more people are leaving BiH every day. It does not bother us the other countries that were behind us, have overtaken us in every respect. We do not mind that the citizens of all three nations must seek salvation from the Coronavirus in donated vaccines or in neighbouring countries, while the representatives of the nations spend money on the purchase of new expensive cars and on rewards for their inaction. We don’t mind that during the pandemic we were ruthlessly robbed at the expense of people’s health and lives, because even in this area, it is better for our people to take money than someone else. We don’t even mind that helicopters from neighbouring countries put out fires because our national leaders can’t, that is, they do not want to agree to use our helicopters.
Čović, the first of Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina, does not mind that Dodik blocks the use of military helicopters to extinguish fire in the area where HDZ wins almost 100% of the votes. It was important that Dodik flew in his helicopter to Čović ‘s birthday and admired his magnificent family crest. Neither do his voters, who will rush to the next elections to vote for that same Čović and his party because he seemed to protect their national interests. It will be that the fire, the lives of people, protection of property, poverty, unemployment and emigration do not fall under the national interests.
We Are Together, as a Group
National leaders have found a perfect formula according to which they pass every problem through the national filter and explain to their people that they do not actually have that problem, but that the other two nations are trying to seduce them, deceive them and eventually destroy them. It doesn’t matter if it is human rights, animal protection, ecology, weather forecasts or anything else, they manage to question vital national interest and then they don’t have to do anything.
If it is a matter of larger problems that are not solved by the previous formula, then the convening of nationwide gatherings is at hand, to which all parties belonging to a certain nation are invited. At these rallies, the opposition parties only confirm the previously made decision of the national leaders, who will transfer all the responsibility to the opposition parties. If the opposition parties do not agree to that, then the ruling parties, with the help of the media close to them, call them traitors of their people. National parties come out of such nationwide gatherings even stronger every time, and opposition parties even weaker.
Croats have even institutionalized these all-Croat gatherings , so that when the HDZ BiH needs broader support and when someone needs to shift responsibility, then they call in HNS – Croatian National Assembly who unreservedly support Čović. This constant support from the Croatian opposition parties has led to the loss of their power so that HDZBiH does not have any serious competition that could endanger them in the next elections. HDZBiH owes the greatest gratitude for that to Željko Komsić, who with his candidacy for a member of the Presidency of BiH, enabled Čović to homogenize the Croatian electorate and get majority support based on the story of the need for national unity so that other nations would not elect Croat representatives. The fact that HDZBiH has the greatest power in the country with the lowest percentage of votes and that it is the only party without which no significant decision can be made at the level of BiH or at the level of the Federation of BiH, is deliberately ignored.
Dodik is also happy to gather Serbian opposition parties when he has to do something that he has been saying for years that there is no chance that he will do it. The Serbs go a step further, so when Aleksandar Vučić needs it, these nationwide gatherings extend to Serbia as well. The practice has already been established that such all-Serbian gatherings take place on the anniversary of “The Storm”, in order to draw the public’s attention from the celebration in Croatia, to the apparent Serbian unity. Opposition parties used to be more inclined to do so, but over time they realized that such gatherings weaken them. Therefore, rarely accept Dodik’s calls as they were able to become serious competitors to SNSD. They already have a serious chance, after 15 years, to topple Dodik and the SNSD in the next elections, from all positions of power.
Izetbegović has a problem because he still cannot decide whether to organize a Bosnian or Bosniak assembly, with the noticeable tendency to increasingly give up on Bosnian and move to Bosniak, in order to parry Dodik and Čović. He even allows conversations with Vučić, the president of Serbia, to be reduced to a story about Serb-Bosniak relations, and not about the relations between Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The SDA has another problem, and that is that their opposition is mostly real or seemingly multiethnic parties, so they can have more support when they organize an all-Bosnian, instead of an all-Bosniak gathering. It is interesting that multiethnic parties respond only to all-Bosniak, but not to all-Serb and all-Croatian gatherings. In fact, they should not respond to any but should keep the same distance from all national parties, because the difference between them has melted.
They Are All One and the Same
The national parties were completely different during the war and immediately after the war, but now the difference between the SDA, HDZ and SNSD is almost non-existent. For all of them, profit is the only interest. This was seen best during the Coronavirus pandemic, when all three parties were busy with dubious purchases in the millions, instead of caring for the health and lives of citizens.
Although no nation has ever benefited from these nationwide gatherings, they continue to fall prey to the same deception and support their national leaders in these imaginary conflicts that allow them to sovereignly rule and plunder the state. Isn’t it strange that “conflicting” national leaders always agree on the division of functions and money, but when something needs to be done for the citizens, then they draw a national card and the games begin.
