Staying Alive

Back in 1998 in Sarajevo I gave a speech to The Congress of Bosniac Intellectuals.

In it I talked about the role of ‘ethnic’ political parties and identity politics, praising the thoughtful words of Bosnian writer Ivan Lovrenovic:

He said that the first step in renewing Bosnia and Herzegovina was the "relativisation" of political and national identities: "if we in Bosnia are only Bosniac Muslims, only Serbs, only Croats then we have nothing more to talk about…if you want Bosnia you have to be a Bosnian, and if you want to be a Bosnian you can not be ‘only a Bosniac, only a Croat, only a Serb…I am not less a Croat because I am not only a Croat. If all Bosnians from all national identities can say the same for himself we are right on the road towards rebuilding Bosnia and Herzegovina".

Fine words. What do they mean for politics?

First, they rule out ethnically exclusivist political parties and philosophies. Under the BH Constitution – under your law – all discrimination on ethnic or other grounds is illegal. So what is a Serb or Croat or Bosniac political party fighting for?

Any party organizing itself or campaigning directly or indirectly on an ethnic ticket aims to practise discrimination. "Vote for me not because my policies for everyone are good but because I’m a Serb (or a Croat, or a Bosniac). If I achieve power trust me to look after the ethnic interests of my people first and foremost."

Of course our own very nomenclature reinforces one or other stereotype in such cases. Thus from the start of the Bosnia drama (as still now) we have talked about the ‘Bosnian Serbs’ and ‘Bosnian Croats’ – not the ‘Serbian/Croatian Bosnians’. Somehow the ultimate identity emphasis is put by us – as indeed by them – on their Serbness or Croatness, not their Bosnian-ness.

This of course suits those who say that there can never be a meaningful shared non-ethnic Bosnian identity anyway, hence the whole Bosnia and Herzegovina project as supported by the US/EU is doomed to fail.

The Bosniacs’/Bosnian Muslims’ must take a view on these questions. President Izetbegovic once told me that after what had happened in Bosnia there could be no ‘ethnic disarmament’ for 50 years.

Quite why it should happen then after five decades of the different communities firmly emphasising their distinctness was not clear to me. The Yugoslav regime did a pretty determined job in pushing the idea of ‘brotherhood and unity’ for nearly 50 years, and look what happened then.

Meanwhile in the USA the debate rages in a different form. Are more women inclining to support Hillary because she is a woman? Are more ‘blacks’ inclining to Obama because he is (sort of) black? And if so are they the real racists? Read the heated exchanges until you come to the thoughtful intervention of JT234 and then the witty T Gracchus.

And then read Mark Steyn:

It’s the identity-uber-alles blocs that prevent the black guy from finishing off the feminist or vice-versa. As the Bee Gees so shrewdly observed: