LAGUMDŽIJA’S UNITARY BiH PROJECT HAS FAILED AND CANNOT SUCCEED

BANJA LUKA, DECEMBER 28 /SRNA/ – The problem with Zlatko Lagumdžija and his political generation of like-minded individuals is not that they lost political power, but that they never understood the moment in which they found themselves, assessed Mario Đuragić, adviser to the Serb member of the BiH Presidency.

Đuragić stated that they had a historic opportunity to make BiH acceptable to all of its peoples, but squandered it, guided by the illusion that BiH could be built against the will of the Serbs and Croats, with the support of internationals that nowadays are clearly losing global influence. “Instead of compromise, they offered domination. Instead of agreement, imposition. Instead of equality, political engineering wrapped in the ‘civic state’ phrase,” Đuragić told SRNA. In reality, he added, this was not a civic project, but an attempt to shape BiH according to the measure of a single political-ideological elite that believed, with the help of international mentors, it could reshape the country outside the Dayton Peace Agreement and contrary to the will of the constituent peoples. “Today, as his generation disappears from the political arena, the fact remains that BiH is deeply divided, with lost trust not only among politicians, but also among the population, especially among younger generations from different parts of BiH who no longer have either the desire or the opportunity to get to know one another, understand one another, or build a common future,” Đuragić assessed. According to him, a state in which young people see no reason to make an effort, because they have never felt that they belong to the same political community, is not the result of ‘separatism,’ but of misguided policies coming from Sarajevo. “It is especially important to say this: the attempt at political elimination of the legitimate representatives of Serbs and Croats in BiH has failed, as has the illusion that the constitutional order can be suspended through international pressure. Even those who once supported such an approach are today forced to acknowledge reality – BiH cannot survive on decrees, sanctions, and political deceptions,” Đuragić stated. He believes that Lagumdžija probably today sincerely believes he is acting in the interest of ‘his BiH,’ but history has often shown that the greatest damage has been done precisely in the name of ‘good intentions’ that paved the way for failed projects such as the BiH envisioned by Lagumdžija.