Tirana Times Editorial
TIRANA, Jan 20 – This newspaper has often pointed to the disillusionment many Albanians feel about their political class. The political deadlock that stalled Albania’s European integration for more than two years might be over, but key reasons of what led to the deadlock still exists. Conflictual politics, lack of civilized and constructive debate, attempts by the executive branch to dominate over its judiciary and legislative counterparts are still all there.
Albania’s political parties have caused great disillusionment not only in how the deal with each-other, but also how they function within. Democracy is something preached by all Albanian politicians, but is hardly practiced within the parties themselves in how select their leaders.
While politicians have come and gone from the Albanian political scene, most Albanian political parties today are led by the same men that founded them twenty years go. (There are exceptions to the rule, the late Sabri Godo of the Republican Party was one of them, but very few politicians leave the party leadership willingly.)
So when the Red and Black Alliance, a semi-nationalist movement, proposed term limits for party leaders, it struck a cord with us and many Albanians.
“We must have legal and constitutional changes. We can not have eternal mandates. We need term limits for party leaders and mayors,” Kreshnik Spahiu, the alliance leader, said at a rally this week. “We have political leaders that rule for two decades. It is time for an overhaul of this policy, as permanent seats at the top are nothing more than modern dictatorships.”
This newspaper doesn’t agree with the Red and Black Alliance on many issues, but they are right about term limits. Creating a mature democracy in Albania requires a political class that is refreshed more often.
Term limits need not be permanent. Even if the go in place for the next twenty years, so the Albanian democracy has some time to strengthen itself and join the European Union, they would be effective.
Opponents of this view might ask, what’s wrong with the current leaders? If they work hard, get the job done and get elected, why should they be pushed out by term limits.
We want to quote former U.S. Ambassador to Tirana John Withers, who gave an interview this week, to give a sense about the current state of the Albanian political class and why change is needed. “I think that leaders who simply do not have within them the democratic instinct, for whom democracy is something outside of them, democracy is something that is an inconvenience for them, it is something to be manipulated, for the outside world, but not really to be practiced, not really in the heart. I think that is the major problem,” Mr. Withers said.
Albanians have grown very cynical about their political leaders. They often complain of lack of alternatives. There is a general perception that politicians place personal interest above those of the nation, are not doing enough to address economic difficulties and high youth unemployment. Furthermore, perceptions of rampant corruption and a sense of impunity for the politicians and the powerful have lead to lost trust. Term limits might be way out, offering new alternatives at regular intervals and allowing for a civilized and productive debate a true democracy needs.
