Bosnia's political leaders have figured out that they should 'divide and conquer' Bosnia's society and now they view the country as their kingdom, presidential candidate in the 2018 election, Mirsad Hadzikadic, told N1 on Tuesday.
The Agreement was signed by the leaders of the three strongest national parties that won the election – Bosniak Bakir Izetbegovic, from the Party for Democratic Action (SDA), Serb Milorad Dodik, from the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD) and Croat Dragan Covic, from the Croat Democratic Union (HDZ).
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It was supposed to end the months-long blockade that prevents the country from forming a new government after the October elections.
Bosnia’s path toward NATO membership is at the core of the political bickering. Although they initially supported Bosnia’s path toward the alliance, Bosnian Serbs have changed their minds a few years ago and now refuse to let the country make any further steps toward membership, while Bosniaks insist on it.
The swords are being crossed now over the next step on that path – sending the country’s Annual National Programme (ANP) to NATO.
The Agreement addresses the issue in one of its 12 principles but with such vague wording that nobody can say for sure what it means.
Hadzikadic said he believes the leaders will manage to implement the Agreement, but that this means, in essence, a division among Bosnia’s citizens.
“Honestly, I think it can be done because they already agreed that it needs to, however, the problem is now to explain to the public what they actually want, and it seems to me they want a division in the end,” he said.
He said that he believes Izetbegovic has given into Dodik’s demands, that Bosnia’s path toward NATO membership is stops.
Another principle Hadzikadic commented on contained in the Agreement is a demand from Dragan Covic.
Bosnia’s Croat ethnic parties have been complaining about the election law in the country. The Croat member of Bosnia’s tripartite Presidency is left-leaning Zeljko Komsic and nationalist Croat parties, especially Bosnia’s Croat Democratic Union (HDZ), have been arguing that he is not a legitimate representative of their ethnic group since he was elected thanks to mainly Bosniak votes while most of the Bosnian Croats really voted for HDZ leader Dragan Covic.
But Hadzikadic asked “who will be the one to define who is legitimate?”
“What I don’t understand is: how come three people have a right to decide on the future of Bosnia and Herzegovina?” he asked.
“That is something that should be the subject of a referendum, and they say ‘we will decide ourselves where and what needs to happen in the process of distributing the power’. They behave as if this was the kingdom of Izetbegovic, Dodik and Covic instead of the country of Bosnia and Herzegovina,” Hadzikadic said.
It would be best for the country if one representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina emerged, instead of those representing Bosniaks, Croats and Serbs, he said.
“I think that this is one of the key issues for a better Bosnia and Herzegovina, for someone to emerge from any side, but the best effect would be if they would come from the Bosniak side, someone who wants the good for all citizens regardless of who they are,” he said.
People living in Bosnia also have a very specific understanding of the concept of identity, he said.
He explained that people have hundreds of identities, based on their profession, their position in the family and other spheres of life, and nationality is only one of those aspects.
“The question is only which identity is primary at a given moment,” Hadzikadic argued.
He said that since nationalists do not know how to come to power by creating a better economy, they have figured out they should utilise the saying ‘divide and conquer’.
“I asked students what defines them, and those in the US, for example, said they are ‘engineers, women, etc.’ But when you ask people in our region, they say ‘Bosniak, Serb, Croat’. That is the result of constant manipulation, a constant type of rhetoric, as they saw that the path to power is possible by using that national identity,” he said.
Hadzikadic argued that “it will take a lot of time for that to change.”
“Until now, throughout history, we have managed to get by under some other power’s boot, and it is due time for us to take over control,” he said.
“They (Bosnia’s political leaders) use basic feelings for their own use so they remain in power and the people are in that process victims,” he concluded.
