By Edlira Majko
The Albanian Institute for International Studies and its partners organized in the end of October the international conference “Twenty Years After: Rethinking Democracy and State in Albania” where you were one of the keynote speakers. What are your impressions on the conference and the topics covered in it?
The idea for the conference was a good one in order to focus attention on the achievements and failures of the past twenty years. The conference was very well organized and the participants were amongst the best informed people in the world on the subjects of Albanian history, politics and social issues.
How would you assess these two decades of Albania’s transformation? How has Albania changed in these 20 years?
I first came to Albania in 1989 and the changes I have witnessed have been incredible. I can’t think of any other country in the world that changed more dramatically during the period 1991-2000. Perhaps the biggest single change has been the phenomenal growth of Tirana. I photographed the very first houses to be built in Kamza and other areas which were completely empty farmland and are now densely inhabited suburbs. One sad fact is that the population of Albania has got much fatter since the early 1990s when I remember walking down Rruga Myslym Shyri in Tirana and starving people were snatching bread from an aid truck and everyone was so very thin. The other great change has been the tremendous development of Albania’s infrastructure. Back then there were very few tarmac roads and it took several hours just to reach Shkoder from Tirana. The airport was so small and everything was made of wood. I feel so privileged to have seen Albania before any modernization took place – it was like England would have been in the 1840s – so it really was like visiting a living museum.
What is your opinion of Albania’s current situation of democracy?
Although technically Albania is a democratic state, in practice neither the Albanian people nor their political leaders fully understand the concept of democracy. There is no constructive co-operation between the majority and the opposition in parliament, yet this is essential for a modern democracy to work. The general atmosphere is confrontational with no respect shown for the losers in an election. Somehow defeat is seen as a weakness in this male dominated society. I think the Albanian people expect too much from “democracy”, which is in no sense the perfect political model – it is just the best model we have devised at present to ensure the maximum representation of the views of a given population. The people have to realise that democracy works not only from the top down, but also from the ground up. That is to say grass roots civil society must also play its part in bringing democracy into the neighborhoods and homes of ordinary people. The people themselves must play their part in ensuring democracy takes root in Albania by not relying totally on the political class to change things or get things done. They must themselves get involved in their local issues and causes and effect progress and change from the streets not just the ballot box.
Can we say for sure that the Albanian transition, meaning the replacement of the totalitarian state regime with a democratic state and the transformation of a centralized economy to a market economy, has already ended?
We can safely say that the totalitarian state regime has ended and Albania is run as a market economy. But as I have just said in the previous question, Albania is technically classified as a democratic state but in practice the concept is still in its infancy, so the transition to a complete democratic state is still evolving.
Can you draw a balance sheet of Albania’s main achievements and failures in these past 20 years?
The country’s main achievements are: Restoring law and order since the anarchy and violence of the late 1990s – in fact, Albania is now one of the safest countries to travel around in Europe; Membership of NATO and having met European visa liberalisation criteria; Income levels and general living standards have dramatically risen; A notable achievement is that Albania managed not to be drawn into the violent ethnic conflicts during the 1990s in Yugoslavia. I will never forget the immense humanity and patriotism of the Albanian people who welcomed tens of thousands of Kosovar refugees into their communities and into their homes during those difficult times – especially if we remember that when the Kosovo war began, Albanians themselves had only just emerged from a brutal civil conflict which cost over 2,000 lives and left the population traumatised.
There have been other notable achievements. Albania has consistently lobbied for recognition of Kosovo’s independence at the UN and on the international circuit in general, and yet has resolutely managed to refrain from being drawn into extreme nationalist politics, or into supporting the notion of a Greater Albania, and the threat of border changes which that implies. Albania has also gone to great efforts to maintain good diplomatic relations with all her neighbours. This is no mean feat in this ethnically volatile region, if we consider the sizable ethnic Albanian populations living in all the neighbouring countries.
As with achievements there have been many failures. Whilst democratic structures have long been in place, they remain weak and to a large extent cosmetic. Although pluralist elections have been peacefully held, they are invariably vigorously contested by the losing party and then become a source of ongoing political crisis – as we see at present. Successive governments have turned a blind eye to the most serious problems affecting the country, such as rampant corruption and the lack of an independent judiciary. On a social level, whilst Albania has made great strides towards ensuring ethnic, religious and sexual equality, there is still failure to attract more women into the country’s state institutions, and to promote tolerance towards Albania’s gay community. And the gap between the development of the Tirana-Durres corridor and the rest of the country continues to widen.
A major failure is the neglect and abuse of the environment. Twenty years ago, Albania was one of the most unpolluted countries in the world. There was no waste. Kosovo Albanians used to joke that Albania had no rubbish because the Albanians had nothing to throw away. Today environmental degradation is everywhere. The country is drowning in a sea of discarded waste. Uncontrolled development has scarred the once beautiful coastal town of Saranda where every conceivable inch of space has been developed with cheaply constructed high-rise apartment blocks, erected cheek by jowl blocking out most of the light and views of all but the foremost buildings. Such high density, unregulated development has virtually destroyed Saranda, which only a decade ago was a quiet, pretty little town surrounded by tree-covered hills and beautiful Bougainvillea. Today it is an ugly, noisy, sprawling building site and sometimes the smell of raw sewage from the sea is so bad that walking along the promenade is very unpleasant. This is totally unacceptable for a country that is trying to encourage tourism. The general disregard amongst the population for environmental issues, can to some extent be understood, given that the average Albanian has more pressing needs such as finding employment or decent living accommodation. But the government has no such excuses. Unless the matter of environmental damage and pollution is addressed soon, it is going to start to impact the lives of all Albanians and seriously damage the tourism industry.
As I mentioned previously, Albania has striven to maintain good relations with all her neighbours. However, in doing so, she has failed to address several important bilateral issues between Albania and Greece such as the status of the Greek minority in Albania, and what actually constitutes a minority zone – the mysterious State of War Law that appears still not have been ratified by the Greek parliament – the growing question concerning the independence of the Albanian Orthodox Church – the status of Albanian immigrants in Greece, and of course the important Cham issue. These issues are all inextricably linked because essentially they are all connected to historical claims between these two countries. Failure to address them means that relations between Albania and Greece will always be prey to exploitation by ultra nationalist groups, who seek to undermine any progress in relations between these otherwise friendly neighbours – as we regularly witness in Himara.
In 20 years successive governments – be they Democrat or Socialist – have failed to give the Albanian people a democracy they can believe is working in their interests – in response the people turn their back on politics and either emigrate or struggle on with their daily lives relying on the time-honoured support network of family and neighbours instead of squabbling politicians. So, perhaps Albania’s biggest failure to date is that the country is still as politically divided today as it was back at that first Democratic Party victory in March 1992.
Miranda Vickers is an independent specialist on Albanian affairs, based in London. She is author of several books on Albanian history and politics including: The Albanians – A Modern History and (with James Pettifer) The Albanian Question – Reshaping the Balkans.
