On Sunday, 30 January 1994, the President of the Republic, Sali Berisha, returned to his homeland after making an official and friendly visit to Malaysia and Brunei as part of efforts to deepen economic cooperation with these countries. On Sunday, 30 January 1994, homeland after making an official and friendly visit to Malaysia and Brunei as part of efforts to deepen economic cooperation with these countries. At Rinas Airport, President Berisha was welcomed by the Chairman of the Presidium of the People’s Assembly, Pjetër Arbnori, Prime Minister Aleksander Meksi, members of the government, and others. ATSH

-The enforcers of ANC, ANN oppose the fiscal system- -Tax reform—another target in the presentation of socialist leaders as anti-reformers- -Tax reform combined with the social aspect- -In 1989 the tax burden was 44.2 percent of gross national product- -Tax reform—an effort to protect domestic producers- By respecting the transparency of tax laws as a necessary requirement for blocking the way to tax evasion, the government is enjoying the political disadvantage created by the opposition’s baseless attacks and its manic efforts to gain political benefits. The tax laws enacted so far, precisely because of their economic and administrative advantages... socialist leaders as anti-reformers. With crocodile tears, they lament the farmer’s plight—those who until yesterday oppressed, degraded and exhausted him. Hypocritically, they lament his plight: the advocates and defenders of the destructive processes of collectivization and herd collectivization. Those who, through their misguided policies, fleeced him by buying his products... precisely the social aspect, the necessity of distributing the tax burden more fairly and on a broader basis. These laws have been drafted in such a way as to take into account the current stage of development of the relevant entity. Tax burdens have been set according to a reasonable criterion. Likewise, other draft laws, such as “On Certain Amendments to Law No. 7678, dated 3.3.1993,” “On Excise Duties,” “On Certain Amendments to Law No. 7777, dated 22.12.1993, on the Tax System,” and those concerning changes to customs duties and turnover tax, simultaneously represent an admission of shortcomings by the government and an ambitious objective of its own. They are efforts to correct the defect: indifference toward protecting and stimulating domestic production. They are efforts to pursue a protectionist policy in service of this goal. Such a thing is dictated by the need to invigorate domestic production entities. But we have said before, and say again, that today’s opposition is not based on reasoning and logic, but is driven by political purpose. As long as this continues, they will continue presenting themselves as anti-reformers. SHPETIM LUKU of tax laws as an essential requirement for curbing tax evasion, the government is enjoying the political advantage created by the opposition’s baseless attacks and its manic attempts to gain political benefit. The tax laws enacted so far, precisely because of the economic and administrative advantages they offer, have become the target of strong opposition, first and foremost from “ZP,” which conveys its party’s judgment on this issue. And perhaps the very degree of opposition and attempts to benefit politically is an accurate indicator of the quality of the laws and draft laws put forward by the government. The application of the fiscal system is essential and beyond dispute, since the revenue it generates is used to meet the state budget’s necessary funding requirements. Only the opposition denies this necessity. Asked whether the fiscal system should be applied or not, it answers in favor of the second alternative through its interpretation of the tax laws. But it remains clear that when politics takes precedence over economics, when one chooses to write about economic problems while cloaked in political passions, the result is self-discrediting. Tax reform is another field in which [?] is receding.

When I leaf through the opposition press each morning—“ZP,” “Aleanca,” “Koha jone” (more accurately, it should be called “Their Time,” since it is never ours)—a question always comes to mind: has anything good been done in these two years since the democratic forces came to power, the forces in which the exhausted Albanian people, tortured and spiritually worn down by the long dictatorship, had placed such great hopes? If you take these doom-mongering newspapers as your reference, then once again one must say, “Woe is us, it seems we will never be saved!” These doom-mongering mouthpieces try every day to convince us that Albania is heading toward further ruin, that the government is incapable and corrupt, that officials are mediocre and cynical, that most parliamentarians are amateurs and wicked, that the state is violent and police-like, that chaos, terror, misery and poverty are closing in on us from every side, and that there is no way out as long as the PD, PSD and PR coalition is in power, because these political forces are incapable of governing and are morally and politically corrupt and degenerate. So, criterion. Likewise, the other draft laws, such as -Can you love a person when you kill their hope for tomorrow? ...poor you, people, who voted for them and abandoned the PPSH (now it doesn’t matter that it has changed its name to PS, AD, etc.!), because, had we not told you a thousand times that only the Albanian communists are capable of leading this people? They have great experience; they successfully led the Albanian people for fifty years from one victory to another and created the life you are now seeking but cannot find. And all of this is your fault! Go on, then, live with these prices, this insecurity, this state of disorder and lawlessness! As long as the PD is in power, there is no hope! This is the daily alarm sounded by these neurotic opposition mouthpieces, who not only paint everything black and foretell doom day and night, but criminally seek to destroy Albanians’ hope—their faith in democracy, their faith in freedom. And is there anything more criminal than trying every day, every hour and every minute to kill the hope and faith of a people who are exhausted, suffering, tortured and oppressed for such a long time—the only handrail holding them toward the future? Of course not. But blinded by the fever of power, these servile mouthpieces of politicians who long ago signed their own failure have also lost a principle sacred to every newspaper: love of humanity. For how can you love people if, day after day, you systematically kill the holiest thing they have, their hope for tomorrow?! This is truly unacceptable. And all the more so when you have no reason to do it. Fortunately, however, people do not live in imaginary realities, except for the mentally ill. They know that concrete reality is the best adviser for the steps they take in life, and they have senses with which to perceive it and minds with which to analyze and judge it, regardless of the dark veils these hopeless heralds of disaster try to create. They have now come to seek [?] for the Albanian people—the very people they oppressed, degraded and exhausted until yesterday. Hypocritically, they profess concern for them: the inventors and advocates of the destructive processes of collectivization and the formation of cooperative livestock herds. Through their misguided policies, they exploited the people by buying their products in the countryside at derisory prices, turning the income obtained from the countryside into ineffective projects. Those who deny the necessity of a fiscal system are the very inventors of the taboo concepts of the socialist political economy: centralized net income and enterprise net income. Through these instruments for implementing a disguised tax policy, the tax burden in 1989 was 44.2%. In 1992, the burden was 17.8%. It is true that it evolved in 1993, just as it is true that it will increase in ’94. But tax policy in Albania does not have as its purpose the state’s financial greed. It has been designed and implemented with the social aspect always in mind as a limiting factor. The laws “Tax on Property” and “Personal Income Tax” have as their strongest argument

READING THE DECISION ON THE PAY RISE Under the Council of Ministers’ decision dated 31.12.1993, the base salaries of employees of budget-funded institutions are increased by an average of 32.7 percent. The monthly per-person compensation for increased prices of certain food items and bread, for employees themselves in the civilian or military state sector, is incorporated into the monthly base salary. A substantial pay rise is being granted to intellectuals. Thus, a “professor, head of research” will receive 11,800 new lekë; an “assistant professor, research master” 10,550 lekë; and employees holding the scientific degree of “Doctor of Sciences,” when they are not employed full-time at higher education institutions or scientific research institutions but collaborate in their work, will receive 11,600 lekë, etc. External lecturers teaching at higher education institutions will be paid, for each teaching hour, 17.5 percent of the daily base salary of a lecturer at the higher education institution, etc. The decision’s financial effects apply from 16 January 1994. “RD” CORRESPONDENT

DISTANCING FROM E. HOXHA’S DICTATORSHIP A CRITICAL ISSUE FOR THE PS ALBANIA NEEDS A CONSTITUTION, NOT EARLY ELECTIONS INTERVIEW WITH PS MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT MR. TEFIK AJAZIT (Taken from “Voice of America,” 30.1.1994) In an interview given to our correspondent in Tirana, Xhevdet Shehu, Socialist Party MP Tefik Ajazi speaks out against his party’s calls for early parliamentary elections and argues that the Socialist Party has not yet distanced itself from Enver Hoxha and the communist dictatorship. Mr. Ajazi, the SP is said to be a new, renewed party that has distanced itself from the communist past. Do you share this view? —None of us can say that we are fully-fledged democrats, and no one can say that their party has been completely renewed, regardless of the names the parties bear. What is essential and common to these parties is that they seek to overthrow the communist dictatorship of E. Hoxha, which was implemented in Albania in a way entirely different from those in Eastern Europe, and replace it with a free-market economic system, the most successful alternative, since all the others proved harmful in the challenge the latter posed to Eastern communism. I say this, and no one can dispute it: more than 90 percent of the Albanian people voted for change and for the program of the former Party of Labour. As for the SP’s renewal, I think it concerns several important issues. First, very little has been done to bring into the ranks of the socialist alternative those politically persecuted by E. Hoxha’s communist dictatorship—or, indeed, into its leadership; there is no such person in the party leadership. Another fact, which continues to be debated and is said to require a congress to decide on it, is this: socialist thought in a market economy should be reflected through a socialist press that is renewed, not 53 years old. The names and titles of newspapers do not matter to me; what matters is the year they began publication and the press’s support for a new alternative such as ours. I think distancing itself from the communist past and E. Hoxha’s dictatorship is one of the SP’s most critical challenges, and a way to demonstrate the extent of its renewal. Let us hope this happens as soon as possible. —This year began with political tension created mainly by the opposition, with its call for early parliamentary elections. What is your opinion of this? —That is true. First, I think my party’s leadership made this demand hastily, for several reasons. The main and most convincing one is what I said a little earlier: a definitive break with the communist past and E. Hoxha, which would increase the SP’s credibility in the eyes of the people. Since this has not happened, the demand for new elections seems to me premature and unjustified. However, since the opposition is calling for these elections, it is capitalizing on some mistakes made by the party in power. The implementation of Law 24 caused social tensions in Albania and was initially applied on a broad scale. A party is democratic if it conducts its work on the basis of professional judgment and honesty. Such a position would make the call for early elections the opposition’s responsibility. Nevertheless, not all of the PD’s members and leading figures agreed, or agree, with such a law. But the majority did, in fact, give the law force. Personally, I want the female MP to return to parliament as soon as possible, and a round table to be convened on issues of national importance—not early elections. —Mr. Ajazi, the SP has often been criticized for extreme left-wing positions and for being dominated by former communists. In your view, how well does this match the reality of the party you belong to? —At present, the two main parties bear responsibility for the crisis, or for the poor course of democracy’s further development. The greater responsibility for democratic tolerance lies with the party in power. Whether I like it or not, I am obliged to submit to the game between government and opposition. However, both main parties have often been criticized for extreme positions, the Democratic Party as well as the Socialist Party. Great value is added to democracy when an honest struggle against extremist tendencies takes place within the party itself. The Democratic Party took a proper stand against Mr. Katakula’s extreme right-wing position and his violation of the PD’s program regarding his attitude toward work. As for the SP, in a comparable case—that of Mr. Kastriot Islami, whom I respect as a scholar—he expresses extreme left-wing convictions, which are unacceptable for the party he represents. The SP’s mistake is that it did not take a position against this person, leaving room for suspicions that the extreme left dominates the SP. The SP leadership should keep this firmly in mind. —You are in the opposition. How do you see the relationship that should exist between an opposition member and someone in power? —This requires considerable political culture and knowledge of a multiparty system, which we lack. But we are convinced that we are acquiring it and will do so faster than other countries in Eastern Europe. Patience with mature, constructive thinking in the opposition helps democracy and a country’s development. The only thing the Albanian people do not accept or tolerate is corruption among those who govern. tolerate is corruption among those who govern. Proper, constructive relations with one another depend on their culture, education and personal judgment. —What do you think of the party in power and its government over the last two years? —The overthrow of E. Hoxha’s communist dictatorship and its replacement with a free-market economic system is, first and foremost, the achievement of all democrats, regardless of which party they belong to. It is, however, particularly the achievement of the Democratic Party: it won as an anti-communist force because its program was embraced by former political prisoners, honest former communists, former intellectuals, workers and peasants. These are two important things to consider when assessing a democratic party. There are people in government who give the impression that they work well, but despite the shortcomings that are inevitable in a transition, there are also others who would do well to make way for intellectuals in the future. Albania has plenty of such people. Reform in Albania will progress better than in other countries of Eastern Europe. ATSH

At the conclusion of discussions with the Albanian authorities, the European Union Commission was received yesterday by the Chairman of the Council of Ministers, Aleksander Meksi. During the meeting, the two sides discussed the programs designated by the European Union for Albania, which amount to 75 million ECU, or 10 million more than last year. Ms. Hugler, head of the mission, emphasized that, per capita, Albania has received more aid from the European Union than any other country. This year too, according to her, aid for the countries of Eastern Europe benefiting from the PHARE program has been reduced, while that for Albania has increased. Prime Minister Aleksander Meksi expressed the wish that the designated programs begin to be implemented as soon as possible. ATSH

“Through Germany” (Page 3) — Travel impressions by the poet Agim Shehu — Tomorrow in “RD” Page 2 — Interview with Minister Ilir Manushi on achievements and prospects in the fields of housing, water supply, urban planning, etc. Page 3 — Against Islamic countries or against the democratic state and the country’s interests? Written by Dr. Hysen Cobani