Back again in the ‘dangerous’ list

TIRANA, Feb. 2 – The International Crisis Group again included Albania in the countries where the situation has deteriorated. It had been some time that the tiny Balkan country was excluded from that list. This week it was included again.
Moreover it was alongside such countries mainly in northern Africa, the Arab countries that have been covered from unrest during the last month like Tunisia ousting President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, Egypt still with millions of people in the streets asking for ousting President Hosni Mubarak. Events in Tunisia and Egypt have fuelled anti-regime protests elsewhere, including in Yemen, Jordan, Algeria and Sudan.
In Albania, it writes, three people were shot dead and over a hundred injured during clashes between police and opposition supporters during anti-government protests.
At the section of the ‘Deteriorated Situations’ Albania leads the list followed by Egypt, North Caucasus (Russia), Sudan (Northern).
True that is only a list made by an organization and one can hardly say that the situation in Albania resembles that of the other countries in that list, the Arab countries which are all trying to change the regime, much different from that of Albania.
Still the timing, the way the opposition started and the deteriorated situation after the Jan. 21 unrest collects them in one group.
Albania is a NATO country and not really one where people would get it to the brink of anarchy like in those countries, or like in 1997 in this country.
But still the crisis in this European country shows that it has to mature a lot to reach the level, standards of the western European countries it aims at joining one day in the future as part of the European Union.
It shows that the political class in this country should really consider changing its tactics and working more for the people they are chosen from than for themselves. They come to power to improve, to better the people’s life. They lead political parties to offer people an alternative to the opponent in power. In all these efforts violence is not something that the EU member countries would really prefer, at a time when this country still needs to increase its administrative capacities and democratic steps. If protests would be held in western European countries, the state would keep on working. Not in Albania. After the unrest one may say the country is almost frozen. The parliament is not functioning, the government hardly can exist without being able to base its work on many laws requiring the opposition’s votes too. And the judiciary, always accused of corruption, is continuously suffering from political interference.
And last but not least, the media whenever it tries to be a step ahead the political class it finds a strong wall, very aggressive and hard to cope with.