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Çeku: Majko confused in presenting the Stability Pact P. 3

Lands in Malësi e Madhe P. 5

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By Agim NEZA Albanian politics has been eclectic throughout almost the entire period of recent years. This eclecticism stems from the divisions and disagreements our leaders have experienced. As a result, our country's leaders have always had a tragic fate: they have been killed, forced to leave politics, or not allowed to return or be buried in Albania, or have been called “traitors to the nation” or “threatened” with arrest as the only way to remove them from the political scene. Perhaps this bitter experience has meant that the West has always viewed our politicians with suspicion, as a result of the accusations and arguments they make against one another, using the most varied epithets such as “corrupt,” “dictator,” “puppet,” “drunkard,” “smuggler,” etc., but they have never described their opponent as “incapable.” These accusations rarely end up in court files; even when they do reach the courts, they burst like “soap bubbles.” But apparently, the satisfaction of our politicians does not lie in concretely identifying the “corrupt” politician or government official; it is simply the aim of filling the pages of the press, outside democratic rules, seeking to convince ordinary citizens that “I am the honest politician” and “I can put paradise right” for you. These repeated promises by some politicians have made ordinary citizens somewhat optimistic about a better standard of living. Ironically, however, this optimism is undermined simply by the fact that we are on the eve of two congresses of two parties and clans choosing their leaders, and by the fact that this eclecticism creates dilemmas and puts Albania's experience in the eyes of Western leaders at risk: Albania is a country unpractised in politics and, amid its constant dilemmas, is always searching for a capable and honest statesman to lead the nation. This is conditioned simply by the fact that... [The source text is garbled and interrupted here.] ...moral authority to lead the government; indeed, resigning from the posts of Prime Minister and Chairman of the PS, Nano is today considered “clever to regain the power” (“clever enough to regain power”). And in this “battle” for power on both sides, the rivalry between former associates along their respective political lines in the two largest parties, involving Nano - Majko in the PS and Berisha-Pollo in the PD, appears to be a contemporary rivalry. But if this contemporary rivalry is serious and there is no “underground” (“secret”) agreement, as not infrequently happens in Western politics too, we should not be surprised if, at the two parties' congresses, one of the rivals is forced to leave the hall amid the delegates' cheers for their idol. This could happen even though their “idols” would not want such a thing to happen. When this rivalry turns into a serious clash between the leaders most trusted by their electorates, and since in this clash we see no alternative particularly different from their parties' own programmes, this politics affects not only Albanian citizens negatively but also international organisations. The latter not only bear out their forecasts, but cannot determine the most accurate course for Albanian politics. As a result of this political and civic eclecticism, we (Albanians) are always in turmoil, and clashes between our politicians consequently create instability in the country and little hope for a better standard of living.

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Today in the SUPPLEMENT STORY by Didier Daeninckx, POETRY by Ndoc Papleka and Bashkim Çepelle, GRAPHICS by Medi Belortaja