The Yugoslav Muslim Organisation (JMO) from the Introduction of King Alexander’s Dictatorship until Sarajevo Points (1929—1933)

Abstract

U članku se na temelju neobjavljenog arhivskog gradiva i literature prikazuje djelovanje Jugoslavenske muslimanske organizacije u razdoblju šestosiječanjske diktature do objave stranačkih Sarajevskih punktacija. Njezino je djelovanje, kao uostalom i svih drugih političkih stranaka, zabranjeno na početku kraljeve diktature. Stranačko vodstvo odbacilo je ponude za ulazak u diktatorsku vladu i tako se našlo u trajnoj oporbi prema novonastalom stanju. Pasivno prihvačanje, režima, politička apstinencija, bez izdavanja posebnih naputaka pristašama na terenu, ali i izostanak bilo kakvih javnih političkih ocjena obilježavali su stranačko djelovanje u prvoj fazi diktature. Preokret je nastupio početkom 1933. objavom Sarajevskih punktacija, kojima je Jugoslavenska muslimanska organizacija potvrdila tradicionalne elemente stranačkog programa o potrebi istinske parlamentarne vladavine i uspostave autonomne Bosne i HercegovineAt the beginning of the King’s dictatorship, the Yugoslav Muslim Organisation (JMO) was banned, like all other political parties. The party’s leadership refused an offer to enter the dictator’s government and was in continual opposition. The passive acceptance of the regime, political abstinence without special instructions to supporters in the field, as well as the absence of any type of public political evaluation of the dictatorship characterised party activity. In contrast to local party organisations that stopped political activity in the dictatorship, leadership of JMO in Sarajevo continued to maintain mutual contacts. Their conduct was coordinated with the leaders of the other banned parties, especially the Serbian, for which it was believed would provide the framework of authority in the event of a renewed parliamentary life. Two opposition centres towards the dictatorship, Zagreb and Belgrade gradually formed and were based on earlier political party relations. They were linked by common demands for the return of constitutionality and parliamentary life, but opposed with respect to solutions of state crisis and the form of future constitutional-legal arrangements. Under these circumstances, the leadership of JMO needed to decide between independent political activities, narrower collaboration with leaders of the opposition in Belgrade or adherence to the Croatian state-legal opposition in Zagreb that was already hit by repression at the beginning of the dictatorship. The leadership of JMO supported both opposition concepts, Croatian state-legal in terms of a return to 1918 and the formation of a new constitutional-legal solution, under the condition that Bosnia and Herzegovina obtain the position of autonomous units, and Serbian according to which there would be first a renewal of parliamentary life and a return of lost power in the government and then subsequently a negotiation of state arrangements. Calculating that the leaders of the old Serbian political parties will provide the framework of governance in the event of a renewal political-party life, the leadership of JMO made a decision to closely collaborate with the Serbian opposition. In the meantime, relations with Zagreb and the Peasant Democratic Coalition (SDK) developed through individual contacts with the leadership of the Croatian Peasant Party (HSS) and its representatives in Sarajevo. Close collaboration with leaders of the opposition from Belgrade should have guaranteed JMO’s return to power in the incidence of political change and make impossible every agreement based on the division of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The appearance of anti-regime oppositional Zagreb and Ljubljana Points at the end of 1932 and at the beginning of 1933 trapped JMO until then oriented to the avoidance of independent political statements, especially of a state-legal nature. This opened up a conflict with the palace exposed it to state repression and brought into question coveted participation in the government with other leaders of the Serbian opposition. So, the party leadership of JMO composed their own political-party statement, which confirmed their opposed standpoint towards the King’s dictatorship. The Sarajevo Points represented just a new shaping of the old party autonomous programme, which JMO inconsistently emphasised during its political life prior to 1929, but was in considerable contrast to the constitutional and political-national background of the dictatorship

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