HDZ 1990 President Ilija Cvitanović for the “Centralna.Ba” portal commented on last night’s appearance of SDA President Bakir Izetbegović in the “Summary” show of the Federal Television in which he gave assessments about the demands of Croats in BiH for changes to the Election Law and other issues of importance for Croat-Bosniak relations in BiH, especially the long-standing problem of electing legitimate representatives of Croats in the institutions of the Presidency of BiH and the House of Peoples, which largely contaminates relations between Croats and Bosniaks and makes the state itself impossible and dysfunctional.
“I am saddened by the fact that Mr Izetbegović, in his views on the show, actually admitted that Bosniaks deliberately elected a Croatian member of the Presidency because of the alleged Croatian pressure on Sarajevo through Zagreb, Belgrade, relations with Serbs and the like. This paternalistic attitude of the Bosniak leadership towards the state of BiH and the Croats in BiH is a shameless insult to all those who think differently about the future of BiH as a common state. The problem of legitimate representation in BiH has been present for almost two decades in relations between Bosniaks and Croats in BiH, so there was a willingness to resolve these open issues in a satisfactory manner. , nor in Zagreb.
However, on the issue of electing legitimate representatives of the Croatian people in BiH, there is a blatant clash of two concepts on how to organize BiH as a state and society. Croats want to see Bosnia and Herzegovina as a state of three equal peoples in which the idea of institutional equality of the three constituent peoples will be satisfied. At the same time, the behaviour of Bosniak politics all these years indicates a genuine desire for domination and the majority over Croats in BiH.
The rhetoric that Izetbegović uses “give – receive” clearly demonstrates this relationship “from above”. Croats gave a lot for BiH, it has been said countless times and even historically proven, especially in the unpleasant times of the Homeland War in BiH, they built their sovereignty in BiH in the desire to create a common state together with Serbs and Bosniaks, so that Izetbegović’s argument and false concern for the civilian forces in BiH are rather unplausible and unconvincing. Emphasizing that Croats must give in to the position of the House of Peoples in order to be given the position of a member of the Presidency actually indicates the need for domination and the organization of the state tailored only to the Bosniak people.
Croats in BiH, as a constituent people, are a constitutional category, so the issue of equality arises from the very fact of their constitutive rights. There should be no negotiations about it, nor is it being negotiated. In a situation where we are organized as a state where we have three members of the Presidency as political representatives of three nations in joint institutions, it is very dumb and extremely malicious to argue that BiH is not a simple sum of three nations, that there is a civic option. Which should be respected and the like, while at the same time for Bosniaks, the issue of the existence of an ethnic criterion is essential where they will be recognized and respected even at the local level, which they strongly insisted on when it comes to the Mostar Statute.
It is indicative that the Bosniak political leadership has open issues in relations with both Croats and Serbs, without any readiness for a constructive dialogue that will unlock the riveted positions on issues that have kept BiH unorganized and dysfunctional state and society for decades. Bosniak politics, especially the one that presents itself as a civic option, has brought Croats to BiH “in front of the wall”, we can neither have the space for any calculations and concessions, and we will respond to blackmail and pressure that question our overall national position. Allowed means of political struggle because the messages coming to us from Sarajevo about how it remains to choose the House of Peoples as a condition for the showdown with Croats in BiH, and we have witnessed this in some past times of the Alliance and Platform, shows that domination and majoritarianism is an identity card Bosniak and civic nationalism.
When we change these narratives and are ready to enter into talks on electoral and constitutional reform, respecting all three national positions, without paternalism and domination, we can expect readiness to build BiH as a state and society with a European perspective. /Poskok
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