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The Albanian transition: When and if it will end?

2023-07-20 11:11:00, Opinione Ardi Sefa

The Albanian transition: When and if it will end?

What will Albania be like in five years?

For most, perhaps, worse than it is currently, for some better. But to seriously discuss tomorrow, it is necessary to speak clearly, openly and without complications about the past and the present.

In recent years, the approach to transition has prevailed in a way that emphasizes its negative characteristics. Some respond that such characterizations distort reality. They are not wrong: it is known, for example, that, despite serious deficits, the period after the 90s was the most democratic and prosperous period in Albania's history. On the other hand, however, the critical approach to it is not unjustified, since we all know the result it had.

That the term "Transition" is used in a way that simplifies a complex reality is not necessarily negative. But to clarify the landscape, it is necessary to emphasize that it is used to describe an entire political and social reality, that is, a set of practices. Many misunderstandings are resolved when it is underlined that the Transition, in this context, is not only the year 1990 onwards. However, in order not to overwhelm the term and to preserve its usefulness, it is worth examining two other key dates that contributed to the creation of the reality that concerns us today.

The first is in 1944. Today, the contribution of the communist dictatorship to what we call transition is forgotten. But it was important. On the one hand, it undermined the concept of individual freedom and a set of traditional values ??(eg order, law, duty, etc.) which, although necessary for the functioning of any society, were identified with the authoritarianism of the dictatorship of the proletariat, which adopted them as a means of legitimizing it, thus hyperbolizing dictatorial practices.

The period after 1990 follows, which mainly bequeaths to us the dominance in the space of ideas of a primitive, anarchist democracy, a "teenage radicalism", the appearance of which contributed both to the long-term marginalization of the left, and to the need for an ideological offer as a normal reaction to communism.

These ideas were consolidated after 1991, after grafting a new social contract, which in the name of right-wing democratic ideals was based on the institutionalization of the unprecedented robbery of the wealth of the country, but also of future generations, by a broad coalition of large, medium and small interests, thus leading the country to the degeneration of institutions, the disintegration of the state and the disintegration of society.

These 32 years of democracy are perhaps the longest period of our transition, but without question they are also the best period of the Albanian state. Of course, our disappointment is very big, since our expectations in the 90s were many, but the changes are also huge.

The prolonged 32-year transition has caused us to be deficient in the legal aspect, in the construction of the state of law and a blind justice, in the social, economic, industrial aspect, in the individual-state relationship, in health, education and tourism.

As a notion, transition is very general and can be interpreted in many different ways.

The transition is understood as the period of transition from the 45-year communist dictatorship to a democratic system in 1991.

But in the public discussion of the transition there are different interpretations of the transition: When does it start, what are the stages; whether it has finished or not, when it will finish, etc. Basically each gives the transition a different content.

For a large part, the transition (read: democracy) is responsible for all the evils of our society.

It is a very problematic attitude, for several reasons. I will mention only two.

The first is the discrediting of the changes that led to the democratization of society and institutions, from the fall of the dictatorship to "free" elections with "free" votes.

The second is that the "attack" on the transition is used to delegitimize democracy, rights and freedoms, which we have, for better or for worse.

The Albanian transition with all its problems has its roots in the uniqueness of Albania's history, especially in the 45-year period of the communist dictatorship.  

Unlike many other countries of the Communist East, Albania never made a revolution, but a transition of power from the high communist nomenclature to a "middle" and "low" nomenclature, yes communist. This is because political dissidence had disappeared in all these years, intellectual movements almost did not exist, different political, artistic, intellectual, religious and institutional thought had been killed in the embryo, state terror was at its apotheosis.

The prolonged transition was kept afloat by the political elites, who did not circulate, but were appointed in 1990-1991 and who still hold politics, society, Albania hostage. The new elites in transition were the continuation of the old elite of Enver Hoxha. These appointed elites talked about catharsis, but they did not do the catharsis, imposing on the Albanians the new reality in appearance, but old in essence.

And it is precisely these political elites who feed crime and kill Albanians' hope for change.

The fact that Albania has been governed by three names for 32 years proves that in 2023 we still consider ourselves a communist system as an organization. We have replaced the party-state with 2-3 party-states, to which we recognize the strength of the leaders and not of the law. We all see politics as a springboard and are not based on meritocracy, values, vision. While we see the elections as a bargain, destroying the concept of functional democracy, the chances we may have for development.

But how long will it last until the end of the Albanian political, economic and social transition period? Maybe a few years, maybe even a few decades. We had the chance to complete the transition in the first years, but 1996 with the blatant and open election robbery, the bloody and barbaric year 1997, 2005 or 2013 could have been the starting point. But everything in these years and after these years proved that the Albanian elites did not want the transition to be completed and the Albanians were never ready for a society of liberal and legal democracy, which would guarantee the functioning of the state of law, freedoms and basic human rights, the professionalism and integrity of those who represent us in politics and in institutions, the correction of the wounds and injustices of the past, etc.

The Albanian elites failed to create a normal democratic state because they discovered the taste of power and staggering wealth before they discovered the taste of freedom and social justice.

Albania failed to create a healthy political culture, to have functional political parties and effective, honest and contemporary political leadership that works throughout the country.

In these 32 years, Albania did not have a consolidated judicial system due to the interventions and damages brought to it by politics.

The protracted transition caused Albanians to be killed, beheaded and robbed for property that was often alienated and robbed "by law".

But when will the transition in Albania end?

The transition continues and will continue as long as the collaborators and offspring of the dictatorship were never punished for their crimes and roam free.

How long will their arrogance exist when they meet their victims on the street and "greet" them with cynicism. The transition will continue as long as yesterday's executioners continue to pretend to be good people.

Our transition will end when the elites appointed by the previous regime, the corrupt and unpunished elites in these 32 years, are finally removed from the political scene; when the rule of law, laws and rules are respected; when independent justice wins over crime, the ruling mafia, the economic and criminal mafia.

The transition in Albania will end when the politicians realize that they are no longer impunity.

The transition in Albania will end when finally no person will manipulate the historical truth, when every politician and citizen will have an honest relationship with the facts and the truth...

But...

If I return to the question with which I started these notes: What will Albania be like in five years?

After five years, I fear that the country will still resemble Albania in transition, since the materials with which it was created (attitudes, customs, etc.) come from there, but at the same time it will go beyond it, because the conditions that kept it alive until recently, were simply replaced.





20:32 Opinione

Paraldox

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