Those who ask for more than individual rights deprive others

Here are some reasonable questions a reader posed yesterday:

One question I have for you though? In your opinion, what can and should be expected from the citizens to take to prevent a possible escalation of the situation?

And one more question? Sometime in 2006, a constitutional program for Bosnia and Herzegovina was proposed. It is the so-called “April package” of 2006 proposed by the Americans and the EU. [It] was reportedly not accepted because one or two votes were missing. No one knows reasons why. Some politicians today still talk about the rehabilitation of the April package. I’m interested in your opinion on that? I was very young then, and do not have a notion of what “April-package” is?

Citizens are the key

Citizens are the key to preventing escalation. Only if popular opinion in Republika Srpska turns against Dodik will he moderate. Ultimately how citizens vote in the next election will determine his fate and the fate of the much-needed constitutional reforms. The Americans and Europeans can help. They can hold Dodik accountable with sanctions and ensure transparency about his finances and his relationship with Moscow.

What reforms, should citizens support? My own preference is a Bosnia and Herzegovina that reduces its elaborate system of protection of (ethnic) group rights towards better protection of individual rights. Several European court decisions have pointed in this direction, which EU membership will require. Best to get it done sooner rather than later.

The current, ongoing negotiations about the country’s electoral law are not going to produce that kind of reform. To the contrary, the current ethnic group leaders will use these negotiations to consolidate their own hold on power and eliminate competition that could come from politicians whose appeal crosses ethnic divisions. EU and US leadership of the negotiations, which have marginalized the citizens, risks making the situation worse.

The April package failed because of narrow-minded politics

The April package was a complicated array of constitutional reforms negotiated in 2005/6 by all the main Bosnian political parties (caveat emptor: that was done with support from the US Institute of Peace under my supervision). Notably, it included an “EU clause” that ensured to the Sarajevo government the authority required to negotiate and implement the requirements of EU membership.

The package failed to gain a two-thirds majority in parliament by two votes, both of which belonged to members who broke party discipline to vote against. But that was not the real issue. A major political party that had been involved in every aspect of negotiating the April package voted against it. Its leader wanted to win a seat on the collective presidency and railed against the April package in ethnically explicit terms. He won his seat and the opportunity for serious constitutional reform evaporated.

What now?

The future direction is up to Bosnia’s citizens. If EU membership is the goal, the right approach is constitutional reform that protects individual rights. Even if some member states diverge from it, liberal democracy is a prerequisite for EU accession. Strengthening individual rights would ensure people of all ethnic groups an equal say in how power is exercised and limited . No individual should ask for more. Those who do, often in the name of group rights, are depriving others of their most fundamental liberties.