[ALBSA-Info] Press: Shekulli, 8/11/2000

[Agron Alibali]

[] 

An Albanian newspaper has said that Albania is now a
protectorate of the international community but this
state was not created by foreigners but by the
country's own politicians. The paper said that it was
time for both main parties to stop looking abroad for
approval and to start looking to the public and each
other. The following is the text of a commentary by
Kleo Lati entitled "Is Albania a protectorate?",
published by the Albanian newspaper 'Shekulli' on 8th
November 

The Albanian press writes day in and day out about the
future status of Kosovo and gives different opinions
about what it should be, underlining that it is now
being governed as a protectorate by Kfor [Kosovo
Force] troops and the UN administration. 

But what is Albania's "status"? The question sounds
incongruous, but it is not exactly so. For some years
now there has existed in Albania an absurd reality, a
reality that has nothing in common with the democratic
society we claim to be. Our politicians (without
excluding every individual of our society, either) are
to blame for Albania being turned into a protectorate.
We know from history that smaller and weaker countries
have been protectorates of bigger and more powerful
countries. 

If Albania is a protectorate, one must specify the
state or country it depends on. The peculiarity of
Albania's situation is that it is a protectorate not
of this power or that, but of the entire international
community. It is 10 years now since Albania found
itself in this peculiar status, utterly unworthy of an
independent country, but very convenient for those who
have ruled or are ruling it. Albanian politicians are
unable to make decisions according to their own
judgment without previously soliciting foreigners for
their opinion and, more often than not, do nothing
without the "permission" of foreigners. This might
have been justifiable in the first years of pluralism.
At that time Albania and the Albanian politicians were
leafing through the ABC-book of the dreamed of and
still inexperienced democracy for the first time, and
were in need of international support and assistance.
This kind of protectorate - if we may give it that
name - should not have circumscribed, much less,
excluded the role of the Albanian political class in
the management of the political, economic and cultural
life of the country. However, the unexpected happened:
even after 10 years have gone by, which means that the
Albanian politicians have 10 years of experience, they
continue to behave like little children. After the
demise of communism, Albanian politics has a 10-year
history, but instead of a positive experience, it has
gone through major crises, scandals and failures. All
this shows us the bitter truth that we lack a mature
and responsible political class, which would proceed
from the major interests of the advance of the country
and the progress of democracy. 

Let us be reminded of the 1997 events, which forced
the international community to send the ALBA mission
to Albania to establish law and order and distribute
humanitarian aid. The OSCE ambassador, Daan Everts,
and the well-known Vranitsky, were in fact the
political "arbiters" of the international community
who ruled over Albania's amateurish and quarrelsome
politics. Ambassador Everts had the last word on any
political problem, big or small, and ruled on any
problem or friction between the government and the
opposition. Vranitsky's saying at his repeated press
conferences in Tirana has remained proverbial: "I have
been here several times, but I have not yet figured
out who is the angel and who the devil!" 

Consider what is happening to this day: we have to
wait for Ambassador Ahrens' last word over any
problem, of major or trifling importance. Without his
"signature" and "seal" (which are actually the
signature and seal of an important part of the
international community), our current rulers would not
compliment themselves very much on the new Election
Code. The pronouncements of the representatives of the
international community carry great weight with the
politicians of "protectorate" Albania, which, although
it is not called this name by the civilized world, is
treated as such by our politicians due to their
ineptitude, subservience and provincialism. The party
in power feels happy at the positive assessments of
the current government on the part of the
international politicians and bodies, seeing them as
arguments in support of their political stands,
without bothering much about what the opposition or
part of public opinion says. The opposition does the
same. It celebrates and uses for its boisterous
propaganda any word coming from foreigners (be they
individual personalities or international bodies) and
criticizing the government for its blunders or
expressing concern about various problems of the
disturbed Albanian reality. This kind of vassalage,
typical of countries under a foreign protectorate, has
now become an insult for the Albanian intellectuals
and the civilized part of Albanian society. 

Albania is no protectorate, but it is treated as such,
not by foreigners, but by Albanian politicians. 

Source: 'Shekulli', Tirana, in Albanian 8 Nov 00 p 13 



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