VANITY WITH NO FOUNDATION

Quick Portraits of Leaders of Political Parties in RS

AIM Banja Luka, 19 November, 1997

Political parties in Republica Srpska belong to their leaders so that they can only conditionally be said to be democratic. Quick portraits of their leaders best explain their physiognomies and significance.

Aleksa Buha cannot be said to be the leader of the Serb Democratic Party. Buha is just the president of its presidency and he was appointed to the post by the main board of this party. The president is usually elected by the convention. But now that he is here and that he is mimicking and playing the role of the head of the party, it should be said that Aleksa Buha is in fact a man who does not interfere with his job. He has best shown this while he was foreign minister of RS. In public appearances he is rigid and absolutely uninteresting, with no sense of humour, as if educated in some third-rate political school of the former regime. As such he would not have been able to complete the famous political school in Kumrovec although Miodrag Zivanovic, former lecturer of this school, would have signed his diploma for the sake of comradeship.

The Socialist Party is managed by the pair Zivko Radisic and Nebojsa Radmanovic. The steerman, or the navigator is in Belgrade. It is a fact that Radisic is an honourable man, but he is also a man of rigid party discipline - just disciplined, but not creative. He is the motive force of the two, although older than Radmanovic. Nebojsa Radmanovic is a man of chamber political possibilities, a classical personnel manager from the former system, usable in a perfect organization where everything is known in advance. Contrary to him, Zivko Radisic has become aware that nothing is as it used to be. This party in RS is still using Slobodan Milosevic as its greatest argument, which makes its future uncertain.

The leader of Serb Radicals, Nikola Poplasen is an extremely intelligent politician. His almost slavish loyalty to his boss in Belgrade, Vojislav Seselj is confusing. As if he were conditioned by something. Otherwise, whether one agrees with his political platform or not, one would have to take him seriously.

One of the most controversial personages and leaders is Predrag Lazarevic, president of the Serb Party of Krajina and Posavina. As a member of the political council of the Serb Democratic Party he was extremely close to Radovan Karadzic, and later joined the Serb Radical Party by becoming close to Vojislav Seselj. At the moment he is very close to Biljana Plavsic. When speaking of him, one could safely compare him with Dobrica Cosic who was once cleverly said to be the prisoner of his books. One could say that Lazarevic is the prisoner of his dreams (and dreams are dangerous when they do not come true). They both wished to become fathers of the nation. Cosic of the entire nation, and Lazerevic only of Krajina. For a time Cosic played the role of the father until he disinherited his children, and Lazarevic still has not succeeded in anything of the sort. Lazarevic has skilfully avoided to have the attribute "democratic" in the name of the party, because he does not believe in democracy which is perfectly clear from all actions of his party. And the party - is Predrag Lazarevic.

Comparatively new party on the political sky of RS is the Serb National Union - Biljana Plavsic. Therefore, everything is clear - Biljana Plavsic. Everything else is not even worth mentioning. The man ranking second in the party is Ostoja Knezevic, a man from the margins of the former league of communists and then the Serb Democratic Party. He is a man with no political stand and he is usally said that a century may go by before he is capable of reaching a political decision on his own.

This Union might make big boom in the early elections, but among serious political analysists, it is believed that its popularity will last for a very short time.

The leader of the Democratic Patriotic Block, Predrag Radic is an exceptionally unenterprising politician. He is capable of turning even a situation with best prospects for him to excel against himself. He survives thanks to loyalty of a few closest associates, but he is amazingly quickly squandering his once great political capital. This is linked to the fact that this politician of very fine political assessments links his destiny to wrong parties and their leaders. He introduced personal inclination into politics and he reacts emotionally and vainly, which makes it impossible to forecast a brilliant political career for him.

Nikola Spiric, of the Democratic Party for Banja Luka and Krajina, is a man who minds his owns business. If he makes a wrong assessment, he very quickly shifts his political train on to a new track. He is an excellect switchman. Never makes mistakes. He will remain in politics more as an exotic spice than as the main course.

And last but not the least, Milorad Dodik, president of the Party of Independent Social Democrats. This party is indeed the only one in RS which is not a "leader's" party. Along with Dodik, there is Dokic, Bastinac, Mitrovic, Simic, Kraguulj... The part of the electorate which votes in its favour is Lijevce polje. It is interesting that it is the only party with completely urban characteristics and activities, and yet the country votes for it, which proves that unfortunately, and perhaps fortunately even, the most urban territory of RS is Lijevce Polje. A classical Serb paradox!

The Party of Independent Social Democrats is a party of the Serbs - Europeans, as opposed to other Serb parties which are still deeply rooted into the Balkans, but not just any Balkanms, but the one entangled in to darkness of the centuries and it is of Ottoman provenience.

Nikola N. Guzijan