FLASH
Shkruar nga Anisa Bahiti
History does not judge leaders by the number of terms they win, but by their ability to listen when their people raise their voices. Power is temporary. Protests pass. Speeches are forgotten. But what remains is the way a government treated its citizens when they demanded to be heard.
Those who have come out there, in front of your office, could be your children. Listen to them, Prime Minister, because they are not "agents" of "enemy" foreign services, as some of your close associates tell you and as some parrots whisper behind those counters that you often anathema to.
It's us, it's my generation, those who were born when you and Berisha entered politics, even then with the student movement, and they haven't seen any other model in life except the two-sided coin of SP-PD.
Listen, Prime Minister, those younger people, a little older than your son, who come out there are students, people who remember nothing in their lives except the Rama 1, 2, 3 and 4 governments.
Listen, Prime Minister, because they don't want much. They are used to little. They want that free healthcare that you promised 15 years ago. And today, if you wanted to see it, get in the car and go see the hospital in Lushnja. They are the children of those villagers in Myzeqe who get up at 4 in the morning, get their milk, vegetables and fruits and bring them to Tirana to sell, and pay more for fuel than in Italy. And they hear every day how the Price Board, which has become like the cauliflower trust, mocks them.
Listen, Prime Minister, to those mothers with children who come out to protest and the State Police douse them with water as if they were women standing up against an Iranian regime.
Listen, Prime Minister, because among those women there are many intellectuals and good people who can barely make ends meet because the real public enemy, inflation, has made them bow their heads in the face of life's troubles.
Listen, Prime Minister, because the word belongs to them. They cannot have the fate of Zeqine, where one day their thoughts are heard and then forgotten.
Listen, Prime Minister, because a good portion of them voted for you and today they face the arrogance of the cashiers in state offices and of every kind of tax collector.
Listen, Prime Minister, because most of them are renting houses and can't buy a car, just like your Mirlinda from the ANA. Listen, because it's not Russians, Serbs, Greeks or Arabs who want to overthrow the government with hybrid war. It's those you've tired of with the oligarchy, with expensive schools, with hospitals where the camels are calling.
They are those thousands of ants that fill the state coffers every month and end up in the pockets of 5-6 oligarchs. They do not have villas, they do not have private planes. In fact, they are not even against the Zvërnec project or any other project. They are those who want hope, because they are drowning in despair. Build for once, Prime Minister, the new ring road that passes through the Paskuqan area and see those shacks that look like places in black Africa. Listen, Prime Minister, because a large part of them are young people who are just looking for one more chance in life.
Listen to those who tell you nonsense about foreign agencies; kick their asses, because they are the ones who brought these people out into the streets with their arrogance, arbitrariness, corruption, and incompetence, and they speak in your name and your power.
Finally, I must say two more words.
History does not judge leaders by the number of mandates they win, but by their ability to listen when their people raise their voices. Power is temporary. Protests pass. Speeches are forgotten. But what remains is the way a government behaved with its citizens when they asked to be heard. And today, they are not looking for luxury, they are not looking for privileges. They are looking for dignity.
I am among those people who believe that you still have the opportunity to listen and understand your people. But if you don't, you will not simply lose one more investment in Albania.
You will miss the chance to go down in history as a statesman.
And then you will not be remembered for what you built, but for what you did not hear.
For the voice of your people.
So, listen to the youth, Prime Minister.
*Anisa Bahiti, publicist and director of Infoweb Media
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