Round Two

Almost a week has gone by since last Friday’s protests. Originally, the plan was for the Socialists (PS) to continue their protests again this Friday. In response, the Democratic Party (PR) would have a gathering on Saturday that was supposed to celebrate “freedom and democracy.” Freedom and democracy where?

Ambassadors from various EU countries as well as the US met with Edi Rama and Sali Berisha this past week and urged them to stop the gatherings. Since then, Berisha has canceled Saturday’s events. As of Wednesday, Rama has yet to cancel Friday’s scheduled protests.

So what happens? It should be interesting to see. If Berisha backs off the protests and Rama continues, and if Rama’s protests get out of hand again, Berisha gains an upper hand. His common complaint is that the PS is trying to wrest power any way they can. By continuing with a protest that has the potential to be volatile, it seems that maybe Rama will lose a little legitimacy. But who really knows?

The other issue concerns rule of law. Ina Rama (no relation) is the head prosecutor. In conducting an official inquiry into how three people were killed, she issued warrants for the arrest of 6 high-ranking officers to gather evidence and proceed with the case. Ina Rama has called for the help of American ballistics analysts to see whether the bullets that killed the protestors came from weapons in the security forces’ possession. Although Berisha says this is not possible, he refuses to arrest the six officials. Does that remind you of the PD saying nothing important was in the unopened vote boxes and then burning them? Either there is nothing to worry about and you cooperate, or there is something to worry about and you block the investigation. It can’t be that there is nothing to worry about but you block the investigation. It goes against common sense. The PD has said these arrests are merely political.

As in the US, Albanians are extremely party-oriented. But there is an added dimension: many people’s jobs rely on politics. If there is a change in government, they may lose their jobs. New directors may come in and they will have to pay new bribes just to land a job. Regime changes can be costly, so people ally themselves with the party not only because of their politics, but also for practical purposes.

It’s useless to sit and point fingers and talk about who is bad and who is good. These two leaders are doing Albania and its people a huge disservice. Both are equally as guilty and equally as responsible. These men hold the future of Albania in their hands. Either they can continue the same patterns of attacking the other side; creating an even more partial system; or and wasting all their time infighting, or they could take responsibility and see that improving Albania for the future should be their common goal. Seeing how these politics are playing out and seeing the division within society is sad. It’s caused me to look at the American political system with a different set of eyes and to come to the conclusion that political systems should be ones of inclusion, not division. They are created by people to serve the people, and any system that doesn’t accomplish that is failing. Although we may not agree on the means, most of us hope to improve conditions for our children despite our varying methods in achieving this.