The government must answer this question. But perhaps the government cannot give an answer, because otherwise it would have announced in its program certain quotas and deadlines. What the government has said in its communiqués and in parliament has been little more than stammering. We continue to ask for aid. Once you get the hang of begging, it becomes an occupational disease. The economy remains stalled. The only branch making any progress is the roadside retail sale of cooling parts and imported knickknacks. From what was said at the press conference by the President and Mr. Ramiz Kamsdesy last Thursday, a clear reform program has apparently been drawn up in recent weeks. What remains is to make this program clear to those who will implement it: the people. If it is not made completely clear, it will remain a fine program in the government archives. We must begin working on our own before the world says, “Enough.” Everyone wants this, but no one has said how work is to begin. More than anything, work can begin only on one condition: rapid, comprehensive privatization. It seems that privatization [?]... Since the fields of the economy are different, the answer concerning privatization cannot be one-size-fits-all either. This is a tangle that cannot be undone with one and the same stroke of an axe. The state has completely withdrawn from the management of economic enterprises. They are collapsing, left as nothing but skeletons, like burned-out buildings. Shall we let them crumble entirely, or privatize them, saving what remains? Government officials see this and acknowledge it, but do not take the final step. They stand as if before a dark abyss—or, let us say, they hover at its edge. The government is hindered in privatization because it cannot find ways to carry it out, or because some of its component elements are not all that willing to follow those paths. Privatization would take economic power away from ministers, deputies, and directors. Perhaps these people find themselves in such a position unconsciously. According to the psychoanalyst Adler, the desire for power is the hidden force that sets human energies in motion. In either case, it is the government that is obstructing privatization. This criticism cannot be directed at anyone else. The privatization of light industry: value the assets at their current worth. Half of this value should be distributed to the workers as shareholders, and the other half should go to the legal entity that comes forward and undertakes to reconstruct the enterprise. This is not a perfect formula. Economists, sociologists, and politicians can attack this formula from every side and reduce it to ashes. But it seems to us the best among the bad options, and the most favorable for attracting foreign investors, without whom we have no way out of the mud. Once this privatization has been achieved, the state must withdraw from direct economic activity, take responsibility for the texts, and mind its own business. Perhaps other formulas for privatization can be devised. Perhaps it would be better for the government to convene a standing consultation with the country’s best specialists from various fields. They could also work with foreign specialists. Such a consultation would save the government from amateur mistakes, from experiments conducted on a ruined economy at a dangerous time. Let us recall the law on land, which is not being fixed even with amendments. The day before, it was annulled by a telex from the prime minister, thereby violating the Constitution. The government cannot move privatization forward—which is the backbone of reform—relying only on the knowledge of ministers and the Privatization Agency, which from time to time announces auctions, calling out like a market crier in an empty marketplace. We have put this idea of the Republican Party before the President. Now a “reform coordination commission” is being considered. This sounds somewhat like the former State Planning Commission, and there is a risk that two parallel governments will appear. President Sali Berisha has stated in recent days that there is no alternative to privatization and that it must be completed by next month. In the marsh republic we have been declared to be, we proclaimed this in our program, and we support the President without reservation on this point, just as we will support anyone else who says the same thing. How far should privatization extend? The 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles were a major headache even for the US federal government. At that time, that government, ...

The charming lawyer Lambart left for his own country three days ago. He saw all the difficulties and hardships here, the things we complain about, lament, and shout about every day. Every morning he got up at 4:00 to get water, which is almost always lacking, but he never mentioned it. We complained, while he talked about other things. For example, he said that Albania would change very soon, that the new legislation was wonderful for foreign investors and especially for Albanians. The community’s lawyer, Lambart, spoke only of good things, and yet all we do is complain... His departure, like every departure of a good person, created an empty space inside me. In any case, it lasted very little, because another foreigner took his place. This is the German Niman. He has come to invest in Albania. “Your future begins now,” he says after a long pause, and I believe him. I believe him because he has come to help us begin the first day of the future. And we must begin that day ourselves. Niman has come only to help, because he cannot begin our future for us. There is another reason why I believe Niman: “I know that when you get up in the morning you have no water to wash with; I know your wife has no money to go shopping; I know you have no home, I know...” Niman knows everything—or, more accurately, he reads it all on my face. Somewhere around the middle of our conversation, he takes a small album out of his bag and, with great, almost childlike enthusiasm, shows me photographs of his two daughters and his wife: “Barbara, Ania, my wife, Ania, Barbara...” At this moment, the German businessman is the gentlest man in the world. He lives here in Albania, too. He lives, rejoices, laughs. We are at the same table and, at the same time, a thousand tables apart. Tomorrow, early in the morning, I and all the Albanians will start shouting politics: “Parliament, newspapers, the President, interpellation, ‘Zëri i Popullit,’ Mr. Hajdari, Imami, Baleta, the Republican International...” All the politicians—Republicanism... All the politicians with their shouting, complaints, and grand IDEAS. Meanwhile, the German Niman will spend the whole day attending to his work, and in the evening I will sit down for coffee at the same table with him. I will be tired, gloomy, pessimistic, while Niman, energetic and cheerful, will speak only of good and true things. Then he will take the album out of his bag to show me Barbara, Ania, and his wife again... Like good Lambert, Niman too the future. That day is today. ... You see. We must start working ourselves, before the world tells us to. is to begin. We believe that work can begin only on one condition: rapid and comprehensive privatization. It seems the government shares this conviction, but at the same time it seems to have got stuck on the question: how is it done? It has put this situation in such a position through incoherence. both cases, it is the government that is obstructing privatization. No one else can be the target of this criticism. The privatization of light industry, transport, trade and municipal services can be carried out by putting them up for sale. These finance chiefs do not even ask how much the newspaper costs to print, what the distribution expenses are, or how much is being stolen from us and bleeding us dry. They know only about the journalists at «Republika», which barely let us afford has kept closed for five weeks and which will be shut again, because that is what the finance chiefs want, as does the government.

— IN PLACE OF A CHRONICLE ABOUT THE VISIT OF MR. KAMDESY, EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN OF THE IMF. — The man to whom the world has entrusted the administration of its capital, the man who could have worked “wonders” in Albania merely by signing a check, sat down for three consecutive days and spoke with all the representatives of the administration and the superstructure of Albanian society to take its pulse at a moment when the surgical operation of reform has begun. The “noise-makers” proclaiming the fatal consequences “that reform will bring” to Albania were forced to fall silent before the logic of the man who administers one of the world’s largest pools of capital, at a meeting with representatives of enterprises and trade unions, when he made clear that the only alternative for Albania’s salvation is reform. The man who could have signed a check and, for this day, put the roads right for pensioners and those receiving assistance apparently does not want the surgical operation in Albania to be performed under anesthesia—money has made it so that ... (Continued on page 2)

The chairman of the ARP, Mr. Sabri Godo, received, at their request, a delegation from the Belgian-Albanian Chamber of Commerce, headed by Mr. Zhak TIMMERMAN, president of the chamber. The delegation also included Mr. Mari Pol HANSON, secretary-general, as well as the well-known Belgian lawyer Zak Lambart. Mr. Zhak TIMMERMAN informed Mr. Godo about the purpose of his visit to Albania. “Our delegation came here,” he said, “because we had obtained the necessary information about the situation. We are accompanied by Timmerman and by well-known Belgian businesspeople from various fields in which Albania is in urgent need. The important investment is that we are investing in these people with readiness, but also with suitable legislation for cooperation. (Continued on pages 4–5)

AN UNUSUAL STYLE OF FINANCE The bosses who run the finance department know how to get two or three skins out of one hide. We believed this until the day it hit us. The Italian Republican Party gave us 4 tons of paper for the newspaper, since our state neither gives it to us nor sells it to us. They imposed a 5 percent tax on the newspaper for this gift. Then another 15 percent tax on the newspaper itself. There remains a third tax: for reading the newspaper, though that will be a little difficult, because just try to find out which citizen read it. These finance bosses do not even ask how much the newspaper costs at the printing house, what the distribution expenses are, or how much has been stolen from us, stripping us of our money. They know only about a 15 percent tax. Our concern is not our salaries as journalists at “Republika,” which are barely enough for us to buy bread; we are also concerned about the newspaper, which someone has kept closed for 5 weeks and which will be shut down again, because that is what the finance bosses—and the government—want. *** For a year we have been calling for the privatization of vineyards, olive groves, orchards and gardens. When their owners had them, they flourished ... (Continued on page 2)

Only a few days ago, the vineyards of all the agricultural cooperatives in Durrës were robbed in a peculiar way. Throughout the night, the person who witnessed the scene condemned it, stammering as he spoke. The farm’s eight guards, rifles slung over their shoulders, worked all night to fill some large baskets in the cars waiting with their lights off. It was not clear why the guards were working with rifles slung over their shoulders. While they worked, another eight guards, with automatic weapons in their hands, paced back and forth from time to time, shouting at those who were working. Every evil has its good side, too. They say that after the grape theft, a proposal went to the parliamentary secretariat—not to privatize the agricultural cooperatives, but to privatize... the guards....

OPEN LETTER TO PRESIDENT BERISHA - YOU CANNOT BE GEORGE WASHINGTON, NOR ROOSEVELT, NOR TRUMAN, BUT ONLY THE QEMAL ATATURK OF OUR TIME.... READ ON PAGE 3 The pseudo-intelligentsia is destroying Albania - THE GREATEST ALBANIAN CRISIS WILL BE THE INDUSTRIAL CRISIS - WE WILL ONLY PRESERVE THE STATE SCANDAL, WHICH NANO, ÇÇI AND OTHERS ARE... - IN TIMES OF CRISIS, POLITICIANS SHOULD NOT SPEAK FROM THE PARLIAMENTARY TABLE, BUT FROM THE DEFENDANTS’ BENCH. - THE INTELLECTUAL—PASSION FOR SCIENCE AND ART, OR THIRST FOR POWER AND INCOMPETENCE? - CONSTITUTIONALISTS FOR DEMOCRACY TODAY CHRONICLE... - ...

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