The Elections and the People

Triumph of Queues in front of Embassies

AIM Sarajevo, November 21, 2000

In this country everything has become absolutely relative a long time ago. Everything is possible and nothing is imperative. Every trifle can be promoted as a public success and every success can be drawn into the mire of complete insignificance. The just completed elections fit into this formula, although there can still be some cheating with a percent more or less. There is plenty of space for all kinds of interpretations, and everybody can be proclaimed to be a loser or a winner depending in whose interest it is, what he has hoped for and what he is prepared to do. Stale-mate positions, or being “neither here nor there” as people would simply put it, have always suited those who are neither here nor there.

There are results for everybody: “civic parties” are advancing, and ethnic parties are not gone, the “concept” has not been changed, but it might be, yet it is not at all certain; the small ones have completely sunk, and the big ones have not grown, and so on and so forth, to eternity. Like the state like the policy, like the parties, like the people. Once in these parts this was classified as the wisdom of the “middle of the road”, as alleged “tolerance” and benevolence. Nowadays it has hopefully become obvious that this is not what it is all about, but total confusion, absence of knowledge and feeling for politics, but primarily for democracy, incapability to articulate one's own and collective feelings, wishes and intentions.

The final outcome of the elections showed unambiguously that the spectacularly announced “changes” did not happen in this country because the potential forces that could have brought about these changes, not even together, no matter how like cats and dogs they may have seemed (Lagumdzija, Silajdzic, Zubak, Dodik, Ivanic, Kadic, etc.), had neither the brains, nor the knowledge, nor the wisdom, nor rational “modesty” to subordinate their self-infatuation to the ultimate goal – overthrowing of the coalition of ethnic parties. On the other hand, the historic, firm and efficient coalition of ethnic parties (SDA, HDZ and SDS) still has no problem with the fundamental code: all our goals differ, except one - to remain in power and triumph over “loud-mouths”. Not a single soul among the opposition was capable of drawing a conclusion from the Croatian (six plus two) and Serbian (DOS) story in which the cunning and the wise ones clenched their teeth in order to overthrow the already atrophied dinosaurs through utterly “unprincipled coalitions”. Over here, every one of them wanted to do it alone, not wishing to be deprived of the laurels of victors. This shows two things: first, our assault troopers from the opposition in fact were not keen on “changing the concept” but primarily on winning power. Had they been keen on the former they would have first torn down the old concept with a new coalition, which was crucial, and then they would have negotiated on the part in the victorious administration which should have been less important than the “change of concept” in normal circumstances. Second, it turned out that neither the years of advantage over Tudjman and Milosevic nor billions of dollars offered by the international community were sufficient for us to mature in the political sense and reach at least the foretaste of a democratic society. The result is crushing. Both Croatia and Serbia (as the so-called Yugoslavia or without it) will set out towards Europe like an express train leaving us for decades and permanently behind. Over there there are people who know what politics is and how things should be done.

The story about the “stupid people” is false, insolent and defensive. The people are the same everywhere, only the politicians can differ. The Serbians, the same ones as in the past, will be Europeans soon, without visas, customs dues, with a convertible currency, with foreign companies at their door, etc., just because they had the brains to put up DOS against Milosevic. No Kostunica, Djindjic, Korac, Obradovic or similar marginal figures could have done it individually. Over there a typical example of a loser who has gone astray is Vuk Draskovic. Although he was the only – apart from Milosevic whose shelf-life has expired like that of our wise guys from the “Dayton generation” – who had party infrastructure and an envious number of voters, and support from abroad, where is he now? Gone down into Belgrade history. Just because he wanted to go alone.

There is another thing, which is more of anthropological than of political nature. The Balkan is the territory where, with a few exceptions, not a soul has ever succeeded on the basis of individual quality, by outgrowing the crowd, like a positive example. Over here, everything is still collectivist. The reason, and emotions, and fear, and hatred. Collective frustration is above individual commitments, expression and assessment. It seems that everybody feels best when the lights are turned off because it is impossible to see who is capable and who is not, who can and who cannot. That is why you could not hear a given name or a family name in whispers in offices and coffee shops about assumed election results. People talked about “us” and “them”, if “we have beaten them” or if “they” had “passed” again. All that with hatred and aggressiveness. The losers, in human and political terms, as a rule are all those who do not mentally belong in the mob, but are individuals ready for such, individual competition with themselves and the world around them.

For the time being in Bosnia, “no pasaran” for changes. Therefore, those who cannot endure that – to the queues in front of embassies. Those who remain let them try to be comforted by a fact that is not too comforting but everybody must have some kind of comfort in order to survive. Every stale-mate position, neither here nor there, such as this one with the election results the wretched, ignorant and well-paid foreigners over here had expected so much from, not realising that apart from their mental structure there is another and a different one, has its bad but also good sides: here and now nobody will rule in the sense in which they ruled before the elections. It will be difficult for the ones to totally and ultimately outvote the others. That is why they will have to negotiate, and so will even those who had so far looked at each other only through the sights of their guns, both those who had loved each other and those who had hated each other. Until the next negotiations. Until one party prevails. And we will somehow proclaim it democracy.

Zlatko Dizdarevic

AIM Sarajevo