“...today the homeland mourns and weeps for them, heroes shed their blood in the fields and by the huts they are killed and die together with the heroes of the struggle...” democratic verses down to [the] p[l]amtën and national unity [?] GLORY TO THE MARTYRS OF GJIROKASTËR, HEROES OF LABËRIA “...today the homeland mourns and weeps for them, heroes shed their blood in the fields and by the huts they are killed and die together with the heroes of the struggle...” ...today the homeland mourns and weeps for them, heroes shed their blood in the fields and by the huts they are killed and die together with the heroes of the struggle... — Because the martyrs of Gomsiqes, Vrionit, Topojanit and Gjakovë raised the national flag step by step in blood...

To answer you gives pain to the valley [?]

The PD’s “Program” THE ALTERNATIVE TO BRING ALBANIA INTO THE EUROPEAN CURRENT The development of, and orientation toward, a solution to the Kosovo issue took the central place in the PD Program approved at its Congress. This political document of Albania’s largest parliamentary party strongly and comprehensively supports the right of the Albanians of Kosovo to self-determination, up to and including independence. The document emphasizes that any unprincipled solution to the Kosovo problem will lead to a renewal of the crisis and conflicts in the Balkans, making completely illusory any programmatic initiative to channel foreign capital into Albania. In solving the Kosovo problem, the PD Program takes into account two possible alternatives. The first is a solution to the Kosovo issue within the territory of the former Yugoslavia; the second sees this problem within a Balkan solution framework. In any case, the PD Program, considering the Kosovo issue as the Gordian knot of all our national problems, envisages a determined and active stance by the Albanian state and its foreign policy. This political commitment of the PD is clearly expressed in this Program, as a result of which Albania and the national issue will be able to enter with dignity into the currents of Western civilization, while at the same time the region’s vital and geopolitical problems will also find a solution. The PD Program also contains assessments of the privatization process, the market economy, human rights, local government, institutional reform, and European integration. (Continued on page 5)

The Democratic Government before a difficult test By Besnik Mustafaj A. MASSOVA E PASUNUAR According to a recent statistic from the Albanian state, 600,000 people live at the poverty line. This figure is not small. It shows that the burden of the transition is heavy for the most vulnerable masses of the population. For this reason, the progress of economic reforms and their success cannot be measured simply by privatization rates, by the fall or rise of inflation, by the consolidation of the budget and other macroeconomic indicators. They must also be judged by the government’s ability to preserve a minimum necessary level of social cohesion. Albania emerged from communism with a society destroyed morally, without a tradition of the rule of law, and with a completely inefficient economy. In these conditions, the democratic government has been faced with a twofold task: to create the institutions of a market economy and to cushion the inherited social wounds. This is precisely where its greatest difficulty lies. The government cannot be content with rhetoric. It must provide concrete proof that it is capable of protecting the weakest citizens. If this does not happen, social discontent will spread and become a serious obstacle to the reform process itself. A democratic state is not measured only by freedom of speech or pluralist elections. It is also measured by the ability to guarantee a minimum of social justice. Albania does not have the luxury of neglecting this dimension of democracy. On the contrary, in conditions of extreme poverty, this dimension becomes a condition of political stability itself. The government must build clear, affordable, and fair social policies. Economic assistance, the pension system, health care, and public education cannot be left to improvisation. Only in this way will reform gain social legitimacy. (Continued on page 2)

by Bedri Dedja ... A short piece, but one charged with faith in change, for the day when the free vote will give Albania a different face. In this sense, June 30 remains a symbolic date of democratic turning and popular hope. More than an electoral event, it is a moral test for Albanian society. The author links this hope to the need for civility, responsibility, and national consciousness. A vote is not only a formal act, but a direct relationship between the individual and the destiny of the country. Therefore, June 30 takes on the meaning of a shared commitment to pulling Albania out of stagnation and out of the inheritance of fear. (Continued on page 5)

DO WE HAVE POWER AND ARE WE USING IT FULLY? The conditions of illiteracy and analphabetism. Likewise, all of Albania of 22 March, when it is today engulfed in many of the vices and habits of the past, with much of the people and the army of the unemployed within it, all while surrounded by countless and unexpected difficulties. Does this have to do with the lack of power and of its corresponding structures? Or the opposite? Are these observations, in some sense, somewhat exaggerated? On a broad scale, this is true, because power exists and, although still unstable, it functions. However, it is not yet able to carry out its main function, that is, to govern. And why? A good part of the causes are found in the lack of state culture, in the mixing of competencies, in the inability to enforce the law, and in the absence of a clear vision of public priorities. Without going into details, it can be said that today’s power suffers from two fundamental illnesses: fragmentation and lack of responsibility. Often different structures, instead of coordinating, work in parallel or in contradiction with one another. This creates administrative chaos and citizen disappointment. Power is not only a matter of offices, stamps, and orders. It is, above all, the ability to make decisions and implement them for the benefit of the public. Where decision-making is absent or endlessly delayed, arbitrariness, corruption, and loss of trust arise. To get out of this situation, the administration must be strengthened, the lines of responsibility clarified, and a new ethic of public service established. Only then will power be not merely a formal reality, but a true instrument of democratic transformation. XHEVAT MUSTAFA

PUBLICATION OF NATIONAL POLITICAL NEWS AND COMMENTS (Continued on page 5) (Continued on page 2)