Mehmed Spaho - Kingdom of Serbs, Croas and Slovenes

Kingdom of Serbs, Croas and Slovenes

When the first government of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia was formed on 22 December 1918, whos president was Stojan Protić, Spaho was named Minister of Forestry and Mining. Spaho entered the Government as a representative of the Muslim religious group, and stayed in it until 23 February 1919, when he resigned.

Political gathering of Bosnian Muslims was mostly around the political newspapers that were published after the war. There were two major newspapers, the Vrijeme (the Time) and the Jednakost (the Equality). The political group that gathered around the Vrijeme was called the "Muslim Organization", to which Spaho belonged. They emphasized their programme on 8 January 1919, advocating democracy, constitutionality, justice and harmony, and moreover, they announced their readiness to cooperate with everyone with the construction of the "unique state of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes", on the concept of equality of all three nationalities. The Yugoslav Muslim Organization (YMO), as it will be named, demanded protection of Islamic religious rights and protection of Muslims by the Constitution. The YMO was more a religious group, then a political party. They also demanded that all land must be given to each in order to secure one's exsitsance and to protect large landowners, as that is, according to them, the interest of the state. Not just they demanded the protection of large landowners, who were the Bosnian Muslim beys, but they also requested retention of the serfs. The YMO also favoured decentralization of the state. As oppoesed to the YMO, the political group that gathered around the Jednakost newspaper, the Yugoslav Muslim Democracy (YMD), did nott delt with neither, religious or agrarian questions, but only demanded that the power must be transferred more to the local level, nevertheless, they also supported the Karađorđević dynasty and Belgrade centralism. The Yugoslav Muslim Organization was officially established on 16 February 1919. All Bosnian Muslim organization were united within int, except the Jednakost group, which joined the Svetozar Pribićević's Yugoslav Democratic Party. At its foundation, Spaho wasn't member of the YMO, even though he was a member of the Vrijeme political group, even though, he wasn't among the key persons. As a minister in the first government, Spaho couldn't influence the founding of the YMO. The YMO's first president was a mufti from Tuzla, Ibrahim Maglajlić. Spaho became member of the YMO in May 1919.

In the same year, Spaho entered the Provisional National Office (PNO) in Belgrade. He was among 10 Bosnian Muslim representatives. Before the first session of the PNO, Spaho resigned from Ministry of Forestry and Mining due to his disagreement with the decisions of the Government, as the Government only took away the land of the Muslim landowners. As a member of the PNO, Spaho spoke about the injustice made towards the Bosnian Muslims. In the PNO, Spaho also cooperated with the Croat representatives, and was supported by his party, the YMO, with that. Spaho was very active in the PMO and spoke out about the inequality when it comes to Bosnian Muslims.

In 1920, Spaho was involved in a political campaign before the election of the Constituent Assembly. The election was held on 28 November 1920, and Spaho entered the Assembly. This time, Spaho joined the opposition. Again he was very active, especially around the questions which involved the Bosnian Muslim equality and their representation within the Government. Most of the time, Spaho and the YMO were in the opposition in the Constituent Assembly, however, as the time passed, they eventually deferred to the Government. The Government of Nikola Pašić wanted to get the YMO on their side for the vote of the new Constitution. In order to gain their reliance, he promised them the territorial compactness of Bosnia and Herzegovina, instead of its regional self-government, which was advocated by the YMO. Pašić's proposal was accepted by some members of the YMO. In the letter which was sent by the YMO to Pašić which included the requests for their support to the new constitution, the proposal about the territorial compactness wasn't even mentioned, but only improvements around the treatment of Bosnian Muslims. The YMO club in the Assembly was divided, one part supported the negotiations with the government, while other was against the negotiations. Eventually, Spaho became member of the YMO's delegation to negotiate with the Government, along with Hamdija Karamehmedović and Osman Vilović. On 15 March 1921, they made an agreement with Pašić. In this agreement, Pašić promised to secure the Muslim religious authonomy, make certain changes with the lands of beys, secure the payment of damages to the Bosnian Muslim landowners of some 255 millions of Yugoslav dinars and to secure the territorial compactness of Bosnia and Herzegovina based on its territorial boundaries. The YMO club accepted the agreement and choosed Spaho and Karamehmedovića to be their ministers in the Government; Spaho would take certain economic ministry while Karamehmedović would take the Ministry of Health.

On 26 March 1921, Spaho entered the Pašić's Government as Minister of Trade and Industry. However, his second ministrial position didn't lasted for long. The YMO representatives ofter clashed with the Radicals of Nikola Pašić, accusing them for trying to trick the YMO by not respecting the agreement they made. The speech made by the member of the Radical Party, Milan Srškić, in which he stated that Bosnian Muslim landowners shouldn't get the payments for damage, but the social help, and that only the ones who were really poor, made the YMO leave the Government. Spaho and Karamehmedović resigned on 1 June 1921. Both of them accused the Pašić's Government of not respecting the agreement. However, the Government had a meeting the next day and decided that they would pay for the damage and that the YMO ministers should return to their posts, which they did the very next day. Eventually, the whole YMO club decided to support the new Constitution, while Spaho himself stated that he would only oppose the 135th Article of the Constitution, in which was stated that municipalities of the banovinas will be able to defect to other banovinas if a majority agreed to do so, as this could damage the territorial commpactnes of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Soon, the whole YMO was again divided into factions, one that supported the 135th Article, the other that opposed it; among those who opposed it was Džafer-beg Kulenović. Those who supported the 135th Article were marked as a pro-Serb faction, while those who opposed were marked as the pro-Croat faction, even though the party's official newspaper denied the existence of any faction. Because of the problem with the 135th Article, on 26 June 1921, Spaho made an irrevocable resignation, while Karamehmedović resigned four days later. The new Vidovdan Constitution was accepted on 28 June, while both, Spaho and Karamehmedović, nevertheless, remained on their ministrial posts. On 3 September, while Spaho was on his way to Ljubljana to open a fair, a communist activist tried to assassinate him by planting a 14 kilos weighting naval mine, as he thought Spaho would travel by sea; however, Spaho took the train and avoided the assassination. The perpetrator was arrested and admitted his guilt.