B&H Council of Ministers Re-elected

The Team which Loses Should not be Changed

AIM Sarajevo, 9 February, 1999

In the world of sports, as an axiom, the following slogan is applied: the team which is winning should not be changed. But, sports are sports, an entertainment or an activity of minor importance, so that its rules, fair play inclusive, of course, do not apply to political games. Election of the new - or more precisely, with minor and unimportant changes, re-election of the old Council of Ministers of B&H once again confirmed the B&H political rule that the team which is a loser should by no means be changed. Let us be reminded - at the head of the state government, at the constitutionally non-existent post of one of the co-chairmen is still Haris Silajdzic. The vice chairman is by age younger, but by experience older - Neven Tomic. The same three have remained at the head of the foreign ministry: Jadranko Prlic despite numerous other combinations and speculations will continue to discharge the job of the foreign minister with the same two deputy ministers - Husein Zivalj and Dragan Bozanic. But, the other party, from Republika Srpska, which is not too eager to make joint authorities operational, ensured to make it at least slightly different and not a mere copy of the old government. Svetozar Mihajlovic has come to the unconstitutional post of the other co-chairman, and unonymous Marko Asanin to the post of the minister of civilian affairs and communications. After four and a half months of expectations and guesses what the new council of ministers would be like, the so-called continuity prevailed in combinations made by political parties. "They are a good team, only their results are bad", one of the opposition leaders told us in jest.

Voting for Oneself

The latest session of the chamber of representatives of the parliamentary assembly of B&H when the new-old council of ministers was elected, was almost tragicomical. Deputies of the Serb Democratic and the Serb Radical Party boycotted this session, deputies from the Social Democratic Party and the New Croat Initiative voted against the proposal, so in the conditions of a hardly gathered quorum, Haris Silajdzic, Jadranko Prlic and Neven Tomic were forced to vote for the council, that is for themselves.

Deputy and president of the main board of the Social Democrats, Sejfudin Tokic, who is also one of the founders of the alternative council of ministers of B&H (the shadow cabinet) warns against the incompatibility of responsibilities of the legislative and the executive authorities, reminds of the law on election of deputies which is still in force and which precisely says that responsibilities in the executive and the legislative authorities are incompatible. However, since this law was adopted in the "dark ages", in 1990, its validity in the new system should be examined.

Only deputies of the Coalition for United and Democratic B&H and of the Croat Democratic Community gave a favourable evaluation of the work of the foreign ministry. The cadre are members of their parties, and in their opinion there were the "objective circumstances" which aggravated the situation. Having voted against, Sejfudin Tokic says: "How can one agree with the allegedly positive results stated by Silajdzic in his report? For the past two years, the council has passed only five legal documents, and in order to join the European Union, it is necessary to do much more. The present structure of the authorities would need 200 terms in office and twice as many years to enable Bosnia & Herzegovina join the European Union. They failed on the most important tests of responsibilities of central institutions; what I mean is return of refugees and banished persons, operation of customs, which was also clearly stated by the international community through the conclusions of the Madrid Conference. The composition of the council of ministers of B&H is obviously adapted to personal vanities and party affiliations. In this sense, one can hardly expect more efficient operation and anything good from such a council", says Tokic.

This is the opinion of the opposition group in the chamber of representatives of the parliamentary assembly of B&H formed of the Social Democratic Party, the Social Democrats and New Croat Initiative. And although it is represented in this chamber with almost 17 per cent of the total number of deputies, its opinion is hardly heard and even less respected. This was evident during election of members of parliamentary delegations to few European institutions. Social Democrats and SDP were extremely keen on having their representative in the delegation to the Council of Europe. It was only logical because these two parties have the best developed international cooperation and they are the only members of the Socialist Internationale and Association of European Social Democrats which can play a decisive role in the future of Bosnia & Herzegovina, especially when its joining European integrations is concerned. The ruling national parties have once again remained deaf to their arguments, so the composition of the delegation to the Council of Europe remained reserved just for them. The opposition group refused to accept the offered crumbs from the table of the authorities, it considers election of assembly commissions and delegations illegitimate, and if it can do nothing else, it will inform competent international institutions about its stand.

One could hardly say that the authorities are very upset because of it. Struggle for posts, leaders' vanities and ambitions dominate everything else, while all other interests, general and national, if appropriate demagogic empty talk is excluded, are far less important.

Mladen PAUNOVIC

AIM Sarajevo