ISSUE AN APPEAL TO THE FAITHFUL

By DRITËRO AGOLLI At last, a date will be marked on the calendars: “Constitution Day.” For eight years running, people waited for the calendars to have a special page on which this event would be marked, but the page remained blank and could not be called white, since it was washed out, covered in dust and smoke by the destruction, ruin and fires amid the turmoil of political, economic, moral and spiritual crises. This calendar page was [damaged]… by the lack of the desire… to have a basic law establishing stable democratic rules, to eliminate insecurity and establish stability and calm. It is rare, in the world and in Albania, for the social and political classes that have come to power to have dragged out the drafting of a constitution for nearly a decade—a period equivalent, on average, to one-seventh of a person’s life or one-third of a generation’s. But unfortunately, some, with Mr. Sali Berisha at their head, want to extend the absence of a constitution to the length of a generation, 25 years, by which time Sali Berisha will be 75 and his grandchildren will be [in the] twenty-first century. For this reason, after shouting throughout Albania, “No to the Constitution,” he set off around the world with a sheet of paper in his hand to collect signatures against this document, real and fake signatures. He set off like Don Quixote in Spain, taking a Sancho Panza with him, and then came here to deceive us about how he had encountered giants, when in fact they were windmills. But Spain’s Don Quixote was noble and did not lie, whereas our Don Quixote lies, and that is where the difference lies. The Constitution is now in the hands of the people. It awaits their blessing and signature, regardless of the signatures collected by the [butilonet] or [gargaljonet], whoever they are and wherever they come from. The people will sign for the basic document, for the new, national, democratic, modern and long-lasting Constitution which, as Mr. Rexhep Meidani rightly says, is a strong and healthy foundation for the development of the rule-of-law state, universal freedoms and rights, and our European future, for us and for our children. As such, this document has been supported by the OSCE, the Council of Europe, the European Parliament, the UN, the EU and the USA, and has been favorably regarded by the Venice Commission. It is therefore extremely strange to hear Mr. Sali Berisha stammer that Europe has not said to vote in favor of the Constitution. Sali Berisha insults the people, treating them as fools, and insists that they believe his absurdities. What more does he want from the mouth of Europe, when Doris Pak says that Albania must have its own Constitution (ZP, November 21, 1998)? But can Albania have a Constitution without voting “yes”? So let this four-letter UFO, SALI, stop treating us like such fools. And so, at last, the calendars to come will also mark a historic date: “Constitution Day.”

Exclusively in “Zëri i Popullit” the official appeals of the Muslim, Catholic and Orthodox communities Exclusively in “Zëri i Popullit” the official appeals of the Muslim, Catholic and Orthodox communities