The Authorities and the Elections

AIM Banja Luka, March 29, 2000

How important the forthcoming elections in the Republic of Srpska (RS) are for the politicians is best seen in the fact that in some communes the majority of the most powerful parties have nominated their leaders for the main candidates on their lists. Judging by this it could be said that the pre-electoral campaign has been taken very seriously or that those fiercely fighting for the electorate's votes want us to believe just that.

There are all sorts of things in that fight. To quote all that candidates have said to each other and their voters in these few days would be too much, even if we wanted to single out just pearls, for there are enough of such to decorate the entire Republic of Srpska from head to toe.

Politicians from the ruling structures think that deeds are better than words. Therefore they decided to remind the voters of the great deeds they have accomplished for their sake. Jovan Mitrovic, current Vice-President of the National Assembly of RS and a high SNS official, does not belong to that group of politicians who start their campaign at the last minute. On the contrary, this hard working architect has rolled up his sleeves and started working to the benefit of his voters so that they could repay him and his party with their trust and votes. Jovan Mitrovic is a road builder. That should help him know the spirit of the people well.

Serbs are the people who like to travel a lot which has been evident in recent wars when they practically jammed the roads of former Yugoslavia. Consequently, as soon as he got in power Mitrovic started paving roads with asphalt in his Zvornik and the surrounding villages. To do that, according to the press, he first appointed SNS men for directors in several firms which were necessary for this job. After that he founded a new bitumen mixing-plant station and appointed his nephew director. Naturally, enterprises with SNS members as directors were sub-contractors of the firm run by Jovan's nephew. Under the slogan "a half for you, and a half for SNS" many village roads around Zvornik have been paved with asphalt with people's and state money, which again means people's money, while SNS and Mitrovic were in charge of providing "moral support". The only deficiency of these roads is that they do not last long. Namely, the asphalt is of such poor quality that there is practically no village in which it lasted till the elections.

The SNS's and Mitrovic's enemies say that this was the result of much less funds being invested in Zvornik roads than records show and that this large balance ended up in the pockets of "organisers" of this enterprise. Naturally, that is not true. This is just an error in calculations. The building of roads should have begun two to three months ago and then everything would have been in order. The cutting of ribbons would then coincide with the beginning of electoral campaign. And after the elections, every road is all right anyway.

The cutting of ribbons which incidentally coincided with the electoral campaign has made Nebojsa Radmanovic famous. The current President of the Executive Board of Banja Luka and a candidate of the Socialist Party of RS for the Lord Mayor of the largest town of the Republic of Srpska, officiated at the dedication of a shopping mall some ten days ago. It was the "Elit Shop" well known to the Banja Luka denizens, or the new handcrafts centre, as people call it, although no crafts are practised there except that of trading. The people of Banja Luka have been shopping jeans and similar goods for quite a while in that complex of shops and boutiques. As Radmanovic himself said, the crafts centre has been under construction for ten years now and no official opening was necessary.

Simply, as soon as a shop was finished the owner would move in and start his business as they are privately owned and private businessmen do not care much for ribbon cutting and protocols. Naturally, the only purpose of "formal openings" was to send a message to the citizens: "see dear people of Banja Luka, this trade centre is being built for ten years now and was not opened until the Socialist Nebojsa Radmanovic came to the head of municipal government. See now for yourself whom will you give your vote to".

Nebojsa Radmanovic also joined in the construction of village roads. Last Friday he visited the village of Piskavica, famous for the fact that it provided the greatest number of fighters in the last war. It could well provide the greatest number of voters, if villagers of Piskavica decide to go to the polls. Consequently, two weeks before the elections, Radmanovic visited the building site of the village road and conveyed his moral support to the builders, which was carefully filmed by the local Independent TV. It is interesting that the first Chairman of the Managing Board of Independent TV was none other than mentioned Radmanovic. It is also interesting that the Bistrica - Gornja Piskavica road is under the construction for over a year now although it is only 1,019 metres long. Practically, a kilometre. Banja Luka is these days abuzz with comments: when Prime Minister Dodik could inaugurate a three-kilometre road, why can't the President of the Municipal Board open a one-kilometre road?

However, the road in Piskavica is not finished yet so that Radmanovic was unable "to officiate its dedication" but, as he himself had put it, the completion of works is expected very soon. Until the elections, to be sure. During his stay in Piskavica, Radmanovic also visited the building site of a production plant which will provide employment for the local population, keep the young people in the village and so on and so forth. The way Radmanovic self-confidently posed to be photographed at the site, onlookers could think that he was personally financing the building of production plant from his own pocket or at least the Socialist Party with funds collected as membership fee.

But it is not quite so. The plant belongs to a private firm from Banja Luka "Dekorplast" which produces plastic fittings. We didn't manage to find out whether Stojan Jorgic, owner of "Dekorplast", is a member of the Socialist Party, but has not yet made that public. And even if he is, it is a question what his private firm has to do with Nebojsa's electoral campaign.

Naturally, the question is also what is Radmanovic's connection with the Socialist Party now that he was expelled from it. But, before the schism among the socialist in the Socialist Party of the Republic of Srpska, Nebojsa Radmanovic was nominated as the main candidate on the list for Banja Luka and, according to the OSCE rules, it cannot be changed now. Consequently, Radmanovic keeps smiling from posters which his former party printed for his electoral campaign.

Dr Branislav Lolic, a young paediatrician - pulmonologist from Banja Luka, once a very promising doctor who between health care for children and politics chose politics without hesitation, has also started his electoral campaign. And that was not enough, but he included in the campaign the entire Medical Centre of Banja Luka, with all doctors, nurses, patients and their relatives. Namely, Dr Lolic, a high SNS official and Director of the Clinical Medical Centre in Banja Luka, recently decided to put the hospitals of Banja Luka in order. Putting these medical institutions in order was truly necessary, but they need much more besides discipline.

Namely, hospitals have no drugs, bed linen, sanitary material, and the food for patients is so bad that only those who have no other choice, eat it. Salaries of the medical staff are such that they hardly make ends meet. But, Dr Lolic has just now decided to have the Centre in apple-pie order. First, he forbade the doctors to engage in private practising of medicine in their own free time, and threatened that the violator of this decree would be fired. He did not raise their salaries. Then he forbade smoking to nurses who work 12 hours a day without a break. After that he forced everyone who was eligible for pension to retire and laid-off "redundant labour", which means fired all temporarily employed staff. In this way he made the only child cardiologist retire so that the Banja Luka Child Clinic no longer has a cardiologist. It neither has a pulmonologist because the only one, the mentioned Lolic is busy with politics and putting the house in order and therefore receives patients only on Wednesdays, if he is not busy.

Also, Dr Lolic prohibited all visits except for those from 4,00 to 5,00 p.m. All this would be fine have not patients' families been forced to bring to hospitals everything - from bed linen to drugs and meals, naturally if they want their relatives to be treated properly. But, Dr Lolic forgot to include in his "measures" the repair of toilets and bathrooms which are in terrible shape. For example, at the Gynaecological Department only one toilet is working and used by 30 sick women. All this would not be so strange had Dr Lolic come to this position recently and therefore, as a new director, decided to put the house in order. Those well-versed claim that with these measures Dr Lolic is not only campaigning for his party, but for himself as well. Allegedly, he has his eye on the function of the Minister of Health in Dodik's Government and he might make it because the Prime Minister has already commended him publicly and "supported his efforts" aimed at the general revival of the Clinical Centre. Dodik himself was very busy these last days. On Sunday, exactly two week before the elections, he officially opened (again that famous ribbon) 19 houses for refugees in Srebrenica, which have been finally completed after two years of work, and imagine, just before the elections. The presentation of the keys to flats, police stations, hospitals and schools is organised daily all over the Republic of Srpska. Naturally, Dodik's electoral trump card is his Government. Thus, everything the Government does is an electoral point for both him and the SNSD. It is therefore not surprising that just a month ago the Government organised the distribution of donation parcels to pensioners which it has so generously presented them with. The fact that poor old people are suffocating and fainting in queues waiting for jam or flour (because there is still no oil), that they have to wait for three days from dawn to dusk for parcels in distribution centres is just one of unwanted side-effects of Government good intentions.

These are just some examples of the abuse of power for political promotion and how they can work to the benefit of the people when elections are near. The opposition has not been so hard working in this form of pre-election campaign for simple reason that they do not have the power and therefore nothing to build roads or "rebuild" hospitals with. But, some of them have already been in power and showed what they know. One only has to turn the clock back and remember "the good managers and their good deeds".

Jelena Pavlovic

(AIM)