CHILDREN OF THE SAME FATHER

How Political Parties in RS were Formed

AIM Banja Luka, 14 November, 1997

At the moment there are 64 political parties in the Republic of Srpska. Status of the following five of them is questioned: Serb National Revival, Party of Serb Orthodox Harmony from Celinac (leader: Radivoje Glavasevic), United National Democratic Party which appeared last year in Banja Luka, Yugoslav Democratic Party from Banja Luka (leader: Jovan Spremo) and League of Communists - Movement for Yugoslavia. All the other parties, at least from the formal and the legal aspect, are not contestable, which means that 59 of them exist and act publicly and legally on the territory of the Republic of Srpska.

The listed five parties are questioned because they failed to register in the usual manner their political activities at the court in charge. The Yugoslav Democratic Party, the United National Democratic Party and the Party of Serb Orthodox Harmony did not participate in last year's republican elections, nor in this year's elections for local authorities in RS, nor have they applied to run in the forthcoming early parliamentary elections in RS scheduled for 22 and 23 November, 1997. In the meantime they neither acted nor issued statements in the manner which is customary for activities of political parties.

The current differences within the United Left of the Republic of Srpska brought to the surface the question of the existence of such a party or united parties, especially because it was mostly formed of members of the League of Communists - Movement for Yugoslavia (SK PJ). This means that realistically there is either the League of Communists- Movement for Yugoslavia or the United Left formed of certain other members. For the moment, the faction of Milorad Ivosevic has the advantage in the controversy on the Left, because it succeeded to register for the parliamentary elections. The OSCE has officially accepted its candidacy, while the SK-PJ of Dr Mica Carevic could not be accepted. Of course, this may result in transition of the already small number of members of the SK-PJ to the United Left, although it will not qualify for the parliament either.

The datum about the number of political parties makes investigation of their "origin" and the manner in which they were formed very interesting. The thesis which seems to be correct is that majority of political parties have originated from the same "matrix", that they have the same ideological, political, organizational and methodological starting point. Most of the parties are closely related to the still ruling Serb Democratic Party (SDS), and not a small number of them could be said to be "blood relations" of the Serb Radical Party (SRS) of the Republic of Srpska. More than twenty political parties on this political scene have been formed as specific branches of the two, for our circumstances, large parties. In other words almost half of the parties in the Serb entity are children of the same father.

For example, from a faction of the Serb Democratic Party, in fact its leaders, many of whom were ministers in one or a few governments, some of them even vice prime ministers, then deputies, members of the main board, who finally became discontented, and then rebels and dissidents, the following parties emerged: the National Party of RS headed by Radoslav Brdjanin and Milan Trbojevic (both were deputies, ministers and vice prime ministers of RS), the Nikola Pasic Radical Fatherland Front, the leader of which is Bozidar Bojanic, and which emerged from a faction of the SDS called the Serb Democratic Union - Fatherland Front, the Party of Democratic Centre from Trebinje headed by Dragomir Grubac, former member of leadership of the SDS and his supporter in Bijeljina Ljubisa Savic alias Mauzer, one of the leaders of the Democratic Party of RS. The Fatherland Party also has its origins in the SDS, at least its Prijedor wing headed for a time by Milorad Milakovic. The same is the case of the Democratic Patriotic Party of Predrag Radic about whom one need not even stress what he meant in the hierarchy of the SDS and the structure of its power (member of the main board, mayor of Banja Luka). This summer, Vojo Kupresanin, one of the forefathers of the SDS and republican high official, founded a party of his own - the Serb Fatherland Front. The Party of Serb Orthodox Harmony from Celinac, the Serb Democratic Union from Teslic, the Serb Emigrants' Democratic Party from Bijeljina and many others can also be considered to be a specific transmission of the SDS - almost all leaders and majority of their members have until recently belonged to the SDS.

The biggest number of "turncoats", especially those from high and important posts in the SDS are in the just founded Serb National Union (SNS) the president of which is the current president of RS Biljana Plavsic. Leaders of this party - Ostoja Knezevic, Svetozar Mihajlovic, Djuradj Banjc, Ostoja Kremenovic and Novak Kondic - were until just recently members of the Main Board of the SDS, state and party officials. Numerous chairman of municipal assemblies, executive councils, directors, deputies, of the SDS, who used to run things in the name and for the Serb Democratic Party, have all joined the SNS.

The Serb Radical Party (SRS) of RS does not lag far behind in the "concern" for its political offspring. A few parties, some of which are parliamentary, formed of its officials, members and sympathizers, exist nowadays in RS. Here is the list of the political "products" of the Radicals. Back in July 1993, supporters of the monarchy were the first to separate and formed the National Radical Party to the name of which they later added "Nikola Pasic" and they still act under this name headed by Dubravko Prstojevic. After excommunication of Predrag Lazarevic, Ljuba Puvacic, Djordje Umicevic, and presidents of municipal boards of the SRS in Prnjavor, Srbac and a few other municipalities, the Serb Party of Krajina and Posavina was forned which managed to become a serious party in this part of RS and to participate in the local authorities of the municipalities in Krajina and Posavina. After that, the discharged president of the municipal board of the Modrica SRS and his wife Gordana Vidovic founded the Serb Peasants' Party (she is still its leader) and they are constantly trying to reach the republican parliament, but so far they have managed only to become members of a small number of municipal assemblies. In the meantime, some Radicals in Zvornik formed an independent party which does not have aspirations to become influential outside its municipality and it is called the National Radical Party of Zvornik (its president is Vitomir Tomic).

Former high official of SRS, Nikola Spiric, last spring after leaving SRS, formed the Democratic Party for Banja Luka and Krajina and immediately set out in an uncompromising struggle for power, agreeing to form the authorities with whoever can help him do it. So far he has succeeded in three municipalities in RS. After him, Goran Planicic founded a party for himself in Bijeljina and called it the Serb Progressive Party.

People who are well informed about developments among the Serb Radicals in RS claim that soon another party will be formed by their former high officials which will have both the "Serb" and the "Radical" in its name. One should be reminded that back in autumn 1994, a faction of Serb Radicals headed by Branko Djukic, left the SRS and Nikola Poplasen, and similarly to Jovan Glamocanin in Serbia who separated from Vojislav Seselj, formed "just" the Radical Party, but it later also added the name of Nikola Pasic to its name. Later on this party (in the beginning of 1996) merged with the SDS - Fatherland Front and that is how the "united" Radical Fatherland Front Nikola Pasic was formed.

Such a large number of parties in the electorate which has less than a million voters is not the result of a wish for democracy, but rather unsparing struggle for power and positions which can be attained more easily and quickly by entering the authorities. Pluralization of the political scene is just a convenient pretext. The fact that the listed parties all originate from the same "father" or "fathers" is the reason why they do not stand, even hate, each other, and have great difficulties in working together which is manifested in the inadequate constitution of local authorities around the Republic. Except by Freud's theory about narcissism of small differences, this intolerance among the Serb parties cannot be otherwise explained.

Miladin Kostovic