His removal from the political scene in the late 1980s is today considered one of the most controversial events that preceded the Bosnian War.

During the war, he joined the illegal Alliance of Communist Youth of Yugoslavia (SKOJ) and the anti-fascist Partisan movement.

He held various high positions in the government of SR Bosnia and Herzegovina and SFR Yugoslavia in the 1970s and 1980s and exerted considerable influence on the politics of the communist party.

[citation needed] While his primary goal was economic reform of then impoverished SR Bosnia and Herzegovina, which he relatively successfully implemented, Pozderac also played an important role in confronting nationalists from Serbia through a series of controversial and risky political moves.

Because the student Brano Miljuš was a high-ranking individual within the Communist party, controversy ensued but Šešelj's efforts were ultimately unsuccessful.

In the 1980s Agrokomerc, one of the leading food manufacturers, was engulfed in questionable banking deals where the corporation issued numerous high interest promissory notes without the proper financial equity.

[5] Abdić would later join Alija Izetbegović in 1990 to form the Party of Democratic Action (SDA) and win the popular vote for the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the 1990 Bosnian general election.

He is criticized for his ideological following of the communist doctrines and for setting processes that did not honor certain liberties viewed in the western world as the core democratic principles, such as the freedom of speech.

If one adds to this, the patriarchic nature of the Balkans, his strong leadership was proven to be the only potent power that could make the difference in SR Bosnia and Herzegovina of the communist era.

Pozderac cannot be viewed as a movement leader but as a patient and principled politician who saw the opportunity for change by working within the system.

His legacy certainly can be credited with contributions to the constitutional recognition of Muslims (historically revived as Bosniaks in 1993) as a constituent people within Bosnia and Herzegovina, along with the already recognised Croats and Serbs, and his persistent position in protecting those rights.