FLASH
Shkruar nga Thoma Gëllçi
If we look for the moment when the slide towards the abyss began, we must go back to the parliamentary elections of May 26, 1996...
Many people associate the Albanian catastrophe of 1997 solely with the collapse of pyramid schemes. But the pyramid scheme crisis was not the only or even the most important cause of the collapse of the state. It was simply the spark that fell on a political edifice that was already damaged to its foundations.
If we look for the moment when the slide towards the abyss began, we must go back to the parliamentary elections of May 26, 1996.
As an active participant in those so-called elections, I say with full conviction that they constitute one of the darkest episodes in Albanian political history after the fall of communism. In a climate of fear, pressure, violence and open manipulation, the Democratic Party declared an almost absolute victory, taking 131 mandates out of a possible 140. The stories related to those days before May 26, but also after May 26, with the violence that accompanied the peaceful opposition protest on May 28, are bordering on the unbelievable. For example, in my electoral area, in the middle of Tirana, in Bllok, there were voting centers that we did not know existed. The boxes were filled with ballots in them, because there were really no voters. Or a story that a DP representative told me years later about several villages in Lushnja: “I had a wedding on the Sunday of the elections,” he said, “I didn’t have time to deal with the votes that day. So I filled the ballot boxes with ballots on Friday, I also made the minutes and forced the SP members to sign them, and I handed over my ballot boxes on Friday. People went to vote on Sunday in vain. They were casting votes in ballot boxes that weren’t going anywhere.”
International observers denounced the irregularities. The opposition opposed the process, abandoned it, and did not recognize its results. The citizens' faith that something could change with a vote in Albania took a severe blow. Instead of the elections serving as a mechanism to resolve political conflicts, as a release valve for the coming pyramid crisis, they themselves became a source of even greater conflict.
On May 26, the real crisis began.
The state is not held together by the police, the army, or laws written on paper alone. It is held together by an unwritten agreement between citizens and institutions: the belief that power is won by votes and lost by votes. When this belief collapses, the state continues to exist only in appearance.
Pas zgjedhjeve të vitit 1996, një pjesë e madhe e shoqërisë shqiptare nuk besonte më se institucionet përfaqësonin vullnetin e qytetarëve. Parlamenti humbi legjitimitetin e tij moral. Administrata u perceptua gjithnjë e më shumë si instrument politik. Drejtësia e plepave nuk gëzonte asnjë lloj besimi. Në një klimë të tillë, çdo krizë ekonomike ose sociale ishte e destinuar të merrte përmasa shumë më të rënda. Policia dhe SHIK-u ishin thjesht instrumente politike kundër kundërshtarëve të regjimit.
Kur firmat piramidale u shembën në fillim të vitit 1997, qytetarët, përveç parave, kishin humbur më parë besimin te shteti. Dhe kur njerëzit nuk besojnë më se institucionet janë të vërteta dhe legjitime, nuk kanë arsye t’u binden atyre.
Kjo shpjegon pse revolta e vitit 1997 mori përmasa të tilla. Nuk u rrëzuan vetëm firmat piramidale. U rrëzuan komisariatet, depot ushtarake, administrata dhe autoriteti i shtetit. Brenda pak javësh Shqipëria u gjend pranë shpërbërjes së plotë institucionale. Armët dolën në rrugë, rendi publik u zhduk në shumë zona dhe shteti humbi kontrollin mbi pjesë të mëdha të territorit.
Historia e shumë vendeve e tregon qartë: kur institucionet ndërtohen mbi zgjedhje të lira dhe të ndershme, ato mund të përballojnë edhe kriza shumë më të mëdha. Shtetet perëndimore kanë kaluar depresione ekonomike, skandale politike, trazira sociale dhe madje luftëra. Por institucionet kanë mbetur në këmbë, sepse qytetarët vazhdojnë të besojnë se pushteti buron nga vota dhe se rregullat vlejnë për të gjithë.
Kjo është arsyeja pse zgjedhjet nuk janë thjesht një procedurë teknike që zhvillohet një herë në katër vjet. Ato janë themeli mbi të cilin ndërtohet i gjithë sistemi shtetëror. Nëse themeli është i deformuar, herët ose vonë çahen muret, bien kolonat dhe shembet e gjithë godina.
Shqipëria e vitit 1997 është ndoshta shembulli më dramatik i këtij mësimi. Kriza e piramidave ndezi zjarrin, por lënda djegëse ishte grumbulluar më parë, sidomos më 26 maj. Ajo ishte krijuar nga mungesa e besimit, nga dobësimi i institucioneve dhe nga bindja se pushteti nuk po buronte më nga vullneti i qytetarëve.
Prandaj, kur kujtojmë ngjarjet tragjike të vitit 1997, nuk duhet të flasim vetëm për piramidat. Duhet të kujtojmë edhe 26 majin 1996. Sepse shtetet rrallë shemben brenda një dite. Ato fillojnë të bien në momentin kur qytetarëve u merret besimi se vota e tyre ka vlerë.
Ngjarjet e viteve 1996–1997 duhet të kishin shërbyer si një mësim i madh për klasën politike shqiptare: se legjitimiteti i pushtetit është më i rëndësishëm se vetë pushteti. Një fitore e arritur përmes manipulimit, presionit apo deformimit të vullnetit të zgjedhësve mund të sjellë përfitime afatshkurtra politike, por në afatgjatë dëmton besimin e qytetarëve dhe dobëson vetë themelet e shtetit. Fatkeqësisht, duket se ky mësim ende nuk është përvetësuar plotësisht.
Even today, three decades after the elections of May 26, 1996, Albania continues to suffer from the same fundamental problem: the lack of consensus on the integrity of the electoral process. Almost every election is accompanied by accusations of vote buying, pressure on the administration, use of state resources, manipulation of lists, influence of economic interests or other forms of distortion of the competition. Standards have improved compared to the first years of transition, but Albanian elections continue to be the subject of ongoing debate and contestation.
The lack of trust in institutions is the greatest damage that has been done to Albania. We are all clear today that with the changes to the Electoral Code of 2008, with the Rama-Berisha agreement, the people have now been deprived of the right to have their representatives in the Assembly. Elections are held once every four years, but votes are cast for closed lists of party militants, who come out at the last minute from the pockets of the party leaders. No one in Albania today has any doubt about the miserable state of the Albanian Parliament in its composition. There is not much difference from the story of that village in Lushnje that filled the ballot boxes on Friday, because there was a wedding on Sunday.
But that's not all. The people who caused the 1996 election massacre and the destruction of the state in 1997 are still key participants in the country's political game, without learning any lessons or regretting the past.
Therefore, the most important lesson of 1996 still remains relevant: the state is not held afloat by the strength of the government, but by the citizens' trust in the rules of the game. And until Albania reaches the day when elections are accepted as free and fair by winners and losers alike, the democratic transition will remain, in a way, still unfinished.
This is the lesson that Albania paid a terrible price in 1997. A lesson that speaks not only to the past, but also to the future. Democracy dies when citizens lose faith in the vote. And when faith in the vote is lost, the state itself begins to falter. Today we are in a situation where people are thinking that nothing changes in Albania from the vote. Is there anything worse than that?
Lini një Përgjigje