Storm in a teacup
The Bosnian prime minister has just resigned in protest at parliament’s failure to pass the government’s version of a bill introducing VAT.
Ooops, sorry. Wrong month. That was November.
The Bosnian foreign minister, the Bosnian Serb rep on the three-member presidency, and the prime minister of the Bosnian Serb statelet (RS) resigned last weekend in protest at actions by the international high representative to force cooperation with the war crimes tribunal in The Hague.
This tells us that (i) Paddy Ashdown’s actions — he’s the high rep — have hit a raw nerve, and (ii) resignations are perhaps more easily tendered around here than elsewhere. See, other than the nice Audi that comes with the job (and the expense account that allows you, for example, to buy 4,000-dollar suits, according to the last audit of the government — or maybe it was only 2,000 bucks, but never mind) there’s actually little real power associated with office. Well, there’s the power of patronage which is more easily exerted when you’re in public office, but ultimately this country isn’t ruled by those at the top, and certainly not by those at the top of country-wide (state-level) institutions. Here more than elsewhere, power is essentially local: in towns and villages, in cantons, or at the level of the two entities that make up Bosnia.
The presidency member has retracted his resignation in the meantime. Maybe that Audi really is a damn good car?
Be that as it may, some interesting things have been said in relation to this whole story — my personal favorite is Ashdown’s statement that if someone wanted to resign because they were asked to cooperate with The Hague, that was their problem. Spot on! (For more, head over to the excellent take Gordy has over at East Ethnia and to Transitions Online [premium content].)
I wonder what the folks at the grandly-named “European Stability Initiative” — basically a bunch of ex-staffers of the high rep that found out, after they left, that really the high rep had too much power — make of this? One of them was on local TV recently and was, uh, not all that convincing. They’re basically saying, “why don’t we leave this up to the locals — their politicians are grown-ups and we should be democratic and let them do their thing without interfering.”
It would take much more than a few resignations to make me believe in that!
Everything in Bosnia is a farce!
Mr Ashdowns suddenly “woke up” and threatened RS, Mr Ivanich resignes, Belgrade is alarmed, not to mention Mr Sanader who comes with Ms Kosor to Mostar (Kosor is candidate for the president of Croatia). And what is left to me, or my neighbour?
Accidentally I was born in this country, educated here and in GB, and with Masters degree have to live with 200 Euros rent.
(By the way, I read how much Mr Ashdowns is paid for his job here, and you told me about Mr Ivanich. Long live democracy a la Dayton!
Comment by Quod — December 26, 2004 @ 12:14 am
Quod,
I’m afraid neither your rent nor your salary, nor the fact you had to leave the country to get a decent education, is primarily Paddy’s responsibility, and you’re certainly not making 200 Euro because he’s making so much more. I’ll never cease to be amazed at the way certain people — and I’m not including you here since your post doesn’t tell me enough — think that all we need to do in Bosnia is to get rid of the high rep and things will get back to normal. I certainly don’t think that the high rep is without any blemish and in all cases a force for good, but the idea that Bosnia would be better off without it is a dangerous illusion. (Of course, that’s ultimately for the people of Bosnia to decide, not people like me — or indeed, people like the high rep.)
Comment by Teekay — December 26, 2004 @ 10:20 am
It is obviously useless to discuss the subject. But you did misunderstand me to such extent that I have to reply.
a) I did not HAVE TO LEAVE the country, I obtained my BA at the University in Sarajevo, and since I was studying English literature, I received BC scholarship to continue my studies in England.
b) I worked for 30 years in media - do you remember, or you are too young to remember that? WOG in Sarajevo in 1984?
c) Paddy Ashdown’s predecessor Mr Petrich closed Herzegovacka banka in spectacular way, Mr Klein said - also in spectacular way - We know who killed Leotar, and Mr Asdown in a spectacular way sacked 9 minor minor minor officials in RS.
Dear Sir, I know I live in Bosnia, I know, there are people in UK living with ever so small rent, that is not my complain, or point of this discussion. Karadzic, Mladic and Gotovina are free, and they are free because somebody somewhere ( I mean some force outside this country!!!) wants them to be free. You can not convince me in opposite.
And the way Bosnia was “organized” in Dayton is such that this country may have 1.001 high representatives, but nothing will change, no country organized so as Bosnia is, can prosper, nowhere on this globe!!! As far as I am concerned, Paddy can stay here until he retires, and everyone else, I was never cloustrophobis and I do not have anything against foreigners. Some are my best friends!
Merry Christmas!
Comment by Quod — December 26, 2004 @ 4:15 pm
Quod,
re: a) — sorry, I jumped to conclusions. I know all too many people you had to leave the country to get a decent education and assumed you might have been one of them.
re: b) — too young, I’m afraid. Maybe Gordy remembers?
re: c) — I’m not sure what you’re trying to say here, other than that war criminals are not being arrested because it suits some people fine that they’re at large. But I agree that Dayton is not such a great idea, and that the constitution needs changing.
By the way, Paddy is leaving next year. You’ll probably get some German or French dude, and let’s see how that will work out.
Comment by Teekay — December 26, 2004 @ 4:20 pm
“Paddy is leaving next year. You’ll probably get some German or French dude, and let’s see how that will work out. ” - That is exactly what I would like to say - the dudes - no matter from where they came - have done nothing, or almost nothing, they introdeces car plates - sorry, they let criminals pass by, corruption flourish, they make compromises with national parties, and all that is just fine. I see now you are young person. Well let me tell you there was time when this world lived well - without being globalized American way. And if you have a chance - since you are journalist as I can see, do travell through this country. Look how people live, talk to them…
Comment by Quod — December 26, 2004 @ 4:36 pm
Thanks, Quod, for the advice — even though I’m not a journalist, I’ve done that for pretty much the last five years. As far as living well is concerned, check out the debt ledge over at the World Bank and the IMF and see how much Tito racked up there. That’s what made life here sweet, or at least one of the things that made it possible. (Disclaimer: I’m a foreigner, I only vaguely remember the 1980s, and this is a totally unscientific, personal opinion that’s not intended to insult anyone, least of all Tito’s memory.)
Comment by Teekay — December 26, 2004 @ 4:39 pm
And you check the debt that Croatia made in last 10 years, it is for 1/5 higher than Tito’s ever was. (Croatia was just one of six Republics at Tito’s time- that means the debt is higher than Tito’s every was!) Why? To make Zagreb look as it looks.
Alas, I do know something about economy - capitalist - that is, and I know also it is not easy to reach the state of an affluent society, like for example USA.
But, I also know, there are poor people everywhere.
Finally, to close the subject, all I would like to tell to you, or to Paddy, not everyone on this Balkan was always poor, not everyone was - as it seems you think - communist in Tito’s time, and not everyone in this country is uneducated, illiterate etc. Some citizens in Bosnia used to go to Vienna to study, when there were no universities here - 100 and more years ago.
We have bad polticians, we have no democracy, and we have international community that does not know much about Balkan and its history, about its people, and above all community that is looking after its own interests, not interests of people that live here. And why should they? Iraq is the best example. For so many things!
Comment by Quod — December 26, 2004 @ 5:06 pm
Am I really older than Toby? I remember not only the 1984 games, but also the song “Abid.” Goodness, and getting older still! But not to worry, with the pace of history in the area, you are sure to catch up!
Comment by Eric Gordy — December 26, 2004 @ 5:50 pm
Eric, I was teasing you.
It evidently worked.
In my defence, I must say that I don’t remember a thing of the 1984 Olympics.
Comment by Teekay — December 26, 2004 @ 6:03 pm
Eric,
can’t believe I spelled defense the British way. It’s all my wife’s fault.
Quod,
I’m not going to tell you what your country “was like” back in the 1980s; I wasn’t here, spatially and in a sense even temporally.
What I can say is that Croatia today is — at least in principle — headed in the direction of a functioning market economy with quite a few comparative advantages. Yugoslavia in the 1980s was stuck in an obsolete ideology that clearly wasn’t producing anything of value in a real market, propped up by the Fund and the Bank for reasons of U.S. strategic interests. Call me simplistic, but that’s the basics.
It makes sense to incur debt if you’re in situation (i); if you’re in (ii), it’s just going to make everything much more difficult by preserving obsolete structures.
By the way, very much what’s happening with the Bosnian economy these days…
Comment by Teekay — December 26, 2004 @ 11:39 pm
I am old enough to remember the Sarajevo Olympics. I watched them on T.V. from a miserable flat in San Francisco CA.
I can say that debt is the secret of America’s apparent prosperity. Consumer debt at high interest. People use credit cards for everything and most people die with at least a couple thousand dollars of personal debt. The United States itself has a massive foreign debt and a massive foreign trade deficit.
I think BiH has a lot of potential, I agree with TK that it’s not going to get better the minute the international community goes away, it’s their absence at several key points that really made war inevitable, but I think that it is time that EVERYONE in the West and in BiH STOPPED worrying about people in powerful positions haveing nice suit, nice cars, and enough money, and STARTED worrying about getting the job done. $4000 or $2000 for a suit is ridiculous even here in the States. Why clothe so expensively any one man or woman? We are all going to die at some point, and spending enough money to support a family for several months in comfort in BiH and at least a couple months comfortably in the U.S. is just not right. The thing about a suit or other ‘corporate’ type attire is it makes people look all alike, for that you need $2000? I think that it’s important to pay people to do a job, but damn!
Wasn’t it all this power at the local level that made possible some of the worst aspects of the war? Just asking..
Something has to be done about solid work for people, and self sufficiency for BiH. I believe it is possible. This is a country that is full of really well educated and intelligent people and despite the war there are resources still. I remember how hopeful people were at the end of the war. I miss that. It’s too bad that moment when a lot of people were somewhat more open to working together got squandered.
When I see how things still are, I feel really bad. I never met better people than I met in BiH.
Comment by Katja — May 3, 2005 @ 2:36 pm