FLASH
Shkruar nga Andi Bushati
The radical change in attitude towards USAID, assistance for democracy, justice, media and civil society also overturns the debate that has developed so far in our country...
What the media around the world are reporting about the clash between the Donald Trump-Elon Musk duo and the staff of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) resembles the most shameful scenes of the change of power in Albania, in '92 or '97. The envoys of the billionaire owner of "Tesla" and "X", demand immediate resignations, throw people out of offices, go to physical clashes and take control of employees' emails. In this wave of witch hunt, which was happening in Albania, there were among us who said that this could not happen in any way in civilized democratic countries, Musk himself is carrying the flag. He has declared that USAID is a criminal organization that must be closed, labeling it as a "den of Marxist snakes who do not love America".
The newly elected US president has also come out in support of him, who, in his emblematic style, touted the anecdote of 50 million USD being spent on condoms in Gaza, but which were actually used to produce bombs.
Donald Trump has suspended for three months the $42.8 billion fund that the US Congress was distributing for aid and support around the world.
This decision has also affected Albania, which since 1992 has been assisted by USAID for the development of education, economy, free market, media, civil society and marginalized groups. According to data from the US embassy in Tirana, in three decades, the figure given to Albania is around 500 million USD.
The question that arises is: what consequences will this new American policy have - which could range from a significant reduction in funds to their disappearance - for our country?
First, the effect of reducing the spaces of freedom - in the absence of money that was supposed to be given for the development of democracy - will not be very noticeable. The fact that a number of civil society organizations will reduce, freeze or interrupt their work is not expected to have any impact whatsoever. For years, Albanian NGOs have become appendages of a klepto-autocratic regime and no longer act as opponents of the government. Unlike the first two decades of the transition, when USAID support served to create spaces of freedom, both by supporting the media and the voices of independent intellectuals, in the last decade it has adapted to the policies of the US administration to build a stabilocratic model in the country.
Let's take a concrete example. USAID has supported the justice reform with funds, expertise and real presence. Its contribution has been in the vetting process, in the establishment of the KLP and the KLGJ, in that of the SPAK and the Special Court. Even if the entire process was done in good faith, the Albanian reform constituted such a radical and experimental experiment that it was inevitable that inevitable mistakes would be made along the way (even if there was no political capture). More than anything, it needed debate, dialogue, opposing views and strong criticism. So what did the American donors who financed the reform do? They invested to extinguish these voices. NGOs pumped with dollars even managed to organize demonstrations against critics and opponents of the reform. A media outlet like BIRN, perhaps one of the most professional and independent in the Albanian landscape, was funded to follow the Vetting process that USAID supported. It is perhaps the only field where BIRN has never been critical. So, a program that essentially aimed for more plurality degraded into monocratic concentration, an attempt that preached more freedom and democratic progress often turned into their own killer.
Of course, pointing out these sins does not mean having the same charlatanistic vision as Musk and Trump about the role of American aid in Albania in recent years. In this case, pointing them out is only worth saying that the current administration's decision to freeze or remove funding should not be treated as a national disaster.
With the same relativizing coldness, the paradox of the radical turn that until yesterday presented American aid as essential for democracy, while today it describes it as the poison of a criminal nest of snakes, must be explained. In Albania, as in the whole world, many are wondering: which America should we trust? Could it be “Soros’s America”, which claimed to be an exporter of democratic values, fanatical in the protection of minorities and which swore for an independent justice that keeps under control
the power that comes from elections? Or, on the contrary, "that of Musk", which says that all this was nonsense, that the freedoms killed over time had remained an illusion, that prosecutors and judges were being used to stop the verdict of the vote?
The effects of the radical shift in policy towards USAID and international aid, which also tangentially affect us, speak of two Americas, utterly incompatible with each other.
Just like any bad thing that comes after a good thing, this paradox can also serve us well in the future. It is useful for us to understand how ridiculous, idiotic and short-sighted those characters in our regions are who have made it a habit to declare in public that "I think differently, I trust America", that "I am not convinced by the decision of "X" of the judiciary, but I support it because they are behind it", that "I do not agree with the accusations against "Y" politician, but I join them because they think so across the Atlantic", that "I do not agree with the establishment of the Association, but it must be done because Washington demands it".
Along with the chaos, collapse, and stagnation that Trump's arrival has caused everywhere, it has also served to kill the superstition towards a static, eternal, and infallible USA. From today on, we are clear that there is no single America that creates the ease of believing blindly. This illusion has already died. And with it, the cycle of empty-headed noisemakers who repeated this slogan over and over again has ended. ©Lapsi.al
Lini një Përgjigje