The ethics of political crime
BY GAVROSH LEVONJA
Until now, politicians had not been targets of crime, despite the contrasts between them, however “fierce” those contrasts might have been. Apart from a rare exception, where it was more a matter of a threat against some third-rank figure or someone lower down, never before had magazines been emptied at politicians. What was called “crime” until recently had been defined as no more than a beating or a public insult directed at an opponent. But the events of recent days are showing that what a large part of public opinion feared is happening. The attack on MP Azem Hajdari, known as a symbol of democracy, seems to have opened the way for politically motivated attacks. Two days ago, within a span of 24 hours, three political figures or people linked to politics became targets of attacks: the chairman of PBDNJ, the Kosovo defence minister, and the anti-trafficking investigator. Although only one of them lost his life, it now seems that crime is turning its attention toward people in politics.
After the attacks two days ago, most politicians will rightly, and surely, ask one another who will be next tomorrow. The point here is not that politicians are special people who, because of the positions they hold, might be immune to crime. The problem is that this category of people has followers, many of whom are fanatics who, driven by a desire for revenge, may resort to actions that are exaggerated to the point of absurdity. Add to this the aim of manipulation by some politicians, who exploit political crime as a pretext to carry out their schemes, and then anything can be expected. What happened after the killing of Azem Hajdari was the clearest example of how far the consequences of a political murder can reach. In the atmosphere that has been created, and bearing in mind the Albanian mentality, the only way to prevent politically motivated crime is for state structures to function. Only a state whose mechanisms function rigorously will prevent crime from spiralling as people try to impose their own laws. And in this case, that would begin with identifying the perpetrators of Azem Hajdari’s murder and the executors of the political assassination. Otherwise, attacks on politicians will become fashionable. Experts in the fight against crime say that the failure to identify and punish criminals creates the best ground for crime. The fact that, just days after Hajdari’s murder, other people in politics were attacked speaks very clearly.