Democratic Alliance for Changes Established

AIM Sarajevo, January 21, 2001

More than two months after the parliamentary elections in Bosnia & Herzegovina, post-election negotiations, talks, and not rarely vehement debates, resulted in the establishment of the Democratic Alliance for Changes (DAP). The Alliance, for the moment certainly on the level of B&H Federation and clearly indicated on the level of the state, is headed by B&H Social Democrats (SDP) as individually the most powerful party in Bosnia & Herzegovina.

Ten political parties of B&H Federation, members of the Alliance, adopted a document on mutual party obligations, priority directions of action and an operation plan. Apart from the mentioned SDP as the leading party, members of DAP are the Party for B&H of Haris Silajdzic and the New Croat Initiative (NHI) of Kresimir Zubak, and a series of small parties such as the Party of Pensioners, the Liberal Bosniac Party, the Civic Democratic Party and others. In other words, outside the Alliance for Changes are the nationalistic Croat Democratic Community (HDZ) and the Party of Democratic Action (SDA), the parties which have for the first time after ten years lost the coalition parliamentary majority and therefrom the possibility to appear in the new administration, but also the Democratic People's Community (DNZ) of Fikret Abdic and the Bosnian Party of Mirnes Ajanovic. There are no representatives of the former ruling ethnic oligarchies in B&H for the simple reason that the Alliance for Changes de facto means that the administration in B&H can and must be formed without the former power holders, the SDA, the HDZ and the Serb Democratic Party (SDS). The controversial Mirnes Ajanovic from Tuzla is not in the Alliance because nobody wished to see him at the negotiating table: his tragicomic political appearances ranged from carrying Tito's pictures in the morning to maps on the final division of B&H in the afternoon, and reached a climax with a pile of lies and vulgar insults of the leaders of SDP, so that he was immediately rejected as a possible member of the Alliance. The DNZ is not in the Alliance either because of its president, Fikret Abdic. Although the post-war opposition activities of the DNZ is not questioned, the personality and deeds of Fikret Abdic are controversial for the members of the Alliance because Sarajevan prosecutor's office suspected him of crimes and treason during the past war. Since Abdic's reaction to the raised charges can be brought down to the message "I am a citizen of Croatia so that court in Sarajevo does not concern me" on the one hand, and at the same time to the unquestioned position of the leader of the DNZ on the other, the Alliance for Changes set a condition to the representatives of the DNZ who were interested in joining the Alliance: you will either change the president of the party or let your president change his attitude towards official institutions of B&H, that is, prove his innocence at court, if he is innocent. Since none of these were fulfilled, the DNZ is officially not a member of the Alliance, although it voted in favour of the DAP's candidates for the leading posts in the parliament.

At the sessions of the Chamber of Representatives of the state assembly and the B&H Parliament, candidates of the Democratic Alliance for Changes were elected chairmen and deputy chairmen - mostly from the SDP, the Party for B&H and the New Croat Initiative. The question of the post of the second deputy in state parliament remained opened, because due to the absence of two deputies whose votes belong to the Alliance, its candidate Ivo Lozancic (NHI) received an equal number of votes as the candidate of the HDZ Mariofil Ljubic (20 votes each), so the ruling coalition of the HDZ, SDA and SDS quickly ended the session by proclaiming Ljubic the winner!? At the next session of the assembly, according to the available information, the chairman of the Chamber of Representatives of B&H Parliamentary Assembly Sead Avdic (SDP) will initiate the vote of confidence to the hastily proclaimed second deputy chairman which will, in case of the presence of all 42 representatives, result in just as quick replacement of Ljubic. On the entity level, there were no such problems, so the candidates of the Alliance "smoothly" won although in a tight ratio with the nationalistic block.

It is interesting that on the state level the Alliance for Changes had the support of the parties from Republika Srpska, primarily of Dodik's Independent Social Democrats, as expected, and even Ivanic's Party of Democratic Progress (PDP) although their president marked his prime minister's post in RS with the attempt of the members of SDS to return to power in RS. Because of this very move of Ivanic's, the Alliance for Changes formally remained only on the level of B&H Federation and informally on that of the state. It is possible to preserve such a situation only until the formation of the government of B&H because the vote for the prime minister of the Council of Ministers in the state assembly and formation of his cabinet will inevitably show who will form the post-election coalition with whom in order to take over power.

It is an undoubted fact, and a completely new one for Bosnia & Herzegovina, that the parties united in the DAP have spent more than two months on negotiations but not on distribution of posts and functions - which was in the focus of all discussions in the until recently ruling coalition of the SDA, HDZ and SDS - but on determination of the principles of common political action and the principles on which work will be based. The DAP Operation Plan is stressed as the most important document which states the goals, instruments, persons responsible, but also deadlines (which is another novelty) by when the objectives should be attained. The document is based on the Brussels resolution of the Council for Implementation of Peace which directly ensures support of the international community. The document is divided into ten groups of objectives: the first group consists of economic reforms, then there are the objectives which refer to common institutions, and then come the struggle against corruption, cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal, relations with the neighbouring states, return of refugees and banished persons, implementation of the decision of the Constitutional Court on constitutive nations, prevention of illegal migration and narcotics trade, and finally protection of cultural and historical and sacral buildings in B&H. This first serious and comprehensive plan for overcoming the crisis in B&H envisages in the very first year passing of more than a hundred laws and taking other political measures that the former authorities obstructed and kept B&H constantly on the verge of ruin. Of course, most of the planned actions refer to the program of economic reforms, operation of joint institutions and struggle against corruption, but the Operation Plan includes changes of the structure of the Council of Ministers which is not in accordance with the Constitution of B&H, and opening of the delicate question of introduction of the Chamber of Peoples in the Assembly of RS. Members of the Democratic Alliance for Changes agreed to regulate in the first phase the protection of all three peoples in RS and B&H Federation by a temporary decision of the High Representative (as already made public by Petritsch who wished to assist the Alliance), and to fully implement the decision of the Constitutional Court that all three peoples are constitutive on the whole territory of B&H.

The parties gathered around B&H SDP presented more than serious intentions, received unconcealed support of the international community and passed the first test of unity in the assembly procedure of election of the heads of the federal (entity) and state parliament. However, the true test of viability and consistency of the Alliance for Changes will be the nomination of the prime minister of the Federation, but especially of the state of B&H and his cabinet of ministers. While when the prime minister and his cabinet in B&H Federation are concerned it is believed that there will not be major problems except with cadre which after formation of the DAP inevitably arise, the candidate for prime minister of the state and his team will be the reflection of the situation on the level of the state of B&H. The current three-member Presidency of B&H, Radisic-Jelavic-Genjac nominated again Martin Raguz (HDZ) to be their candidate of prime minister of B&H Council of Ministers, who has been discharging this duty for a couple of months already. The Democratic Alliance for Changes has already announced that candidacy of Raguz is just a waste of time because he will not win the sufficient majority for ratification of the election in state parliament, and warned the Presidency to give up on their candidate before he experiences a debacle and offer the post to the most powerful party in the country - the Social Democrats. The Serb member of the Presidency Zivko Radisic (of the Socialist Party of RS) did not declare publicly his view of this problem, preserving his long held position of "not interfering with his own job". The Croat member of the Presidency Ante Jelavic (HDZ) categorically denies the possibility that, as he put it, he even utter the name of a member of the SDP, least of all support him for the future prime minister, while the Bosniac member who is in fact acting member of the Presidency after departure of Izetbegovic, Halid Genjac, astonished his partners from the HDZ and the SDS with the statement that he was ready, if Raguz failed to win, to support the candidate of the Alliance because only he could have the majority support of the parliament.

It can be assumed that the candidate of the Alliance will have the support of the party of Prime Minister of RS Mladen Ivanic, too. However, the problems will arise if Ivanic's party demands to participate in state administration, which is something that should be expected. Since the prime minister of RS made up his mind to cooperate with the SDS on the level of the entity government in RS, and the main principle of the DAP is the administration without the SDS, the HDZ and the SDA, it is impossible to expect that Ivanic's candidates will be accepted by the parties of the Alliance which openly opposed the nationalistic concept of rule. Ivanic's arguments that he cannot ignore the will of the voters many of whom placed their trust in SDS, went up in smoke when the Alliance for Changes in B&H Federation was established. That is because the SDA and the HDZ have a much larger number of seats in the parliament of the Federation than the SDS has in the People's Assembly of RS, and the DAP is mercilessly leaving them out of the administration. Everything in fact comes down to the allegedly still indecisive Ivanic – is he a nationalist who is trying to put the SDS back in power although the leaders of this party are nowadays tried in The Hague for genocide, persecution and crimes, or is he a democrat who wishes to introduce big changes in Republika Srpska and in the whole of B&H?

It is obvious that the question of the new authorities of both entities and the state of B&H does not depend on whether government can be formed without the SDS, the HDZ and the SDS in them, but whether somebody wishes to do it and whether it is the true goal of the proclaimed democrats of the post-war period in B&H. The parties of the Democratic Alliance for Changes are openly manifesting that they are ready and that they have the strength to do it. Other, like Ivanic's PDP, would still like to play a little with the nationalists and little with the democrats. But here in Bosnia people say that it is impossible to do anything of the kind for long, because nobody has ever been “a little pregnant”. It is just a question of either open confession or revealing the essence.

Ivana DRAZIC

(AIM Sarajevo)