While Albania’s experience with democracy in the past two decades has not been a walk in the park, it has had an enduring feature of people wanting to be involved in the process. Despite the love-hate relationship with their politicians, Albanians have assumed the people representing them in public office had the proper intellectual background to inspire change and lead the country to a better future.
While Albanians have no illusions as to the ethical and moral campuses of their politicians, they are becoming worried about the growing trend of members of parliament and other elected leaders coming from a group of people who have become rich or gained other forms of influence not through their leadership abilities and civic service but through dubious pasts, including ties to the world of crime.
There is no way to sugar coat this: Albania has a thug-in-politics problem, and unless something is done urgently to address it through legislative and enforcement changes, Albania risks more than simply losing respect among the international community, it risks doing irreparable damage to its democracy by eradicating whatever trust the voters have left in the system.
There is plenty of blame to go around about how people with criminal convictions and others who face allegations of having criminal ties ended up in political office.
There are three are the main reasons of how we got here:
Consensual legislative changes done in 2008 made the party leaders all-powerful in selecting the candidates eliminating many of the safeguards that existed in the past.
The need for campaign funds and lack of transparency about where they come from has left the parties vulnerable to hijacking by people with dubious backgrounds.
In some areas – often rural and/or poor – a thug with money is more effective than a man with reason and drive in getting votes. The last item also speaks to the uphill road Albanian society faces in its modernization.
At least four Socialist legislators have had problems with the law so far, and as such the prime minister clearly holds responsibility for selecting these people to run for office.
The fact that one of them – the only one with a clear criminal conviction, for facilitating prostitution – resigned from parliament this week, is an indication the prime minister and the MPs themselves are bowing to the pressure as problems keep arising. It was no coincidence the resignation came the same week as another MP was involved in a shootout with a rival clan that had been stripped of its decade-long fishing rights so the MPs family could get the rights itself.
The prime minister has said there will be zero tolerance for such conduct and has not tried to help these MPs escape the consequences for their actions. He has expelled them and opened their way to prosecution.
It is a good start, but it is not enough. The prime minister should apologize directly to the people of Albania for allowing these men to become members of parliament, not simply try to shift blame or claim ignorance of their characters.
To win elections with the help of these problematic candidates and give them seats in parliament crossed a thin red line that will continue to haunt Prime Minister Edi Rama throughout his political career.
As the standard for being a politician is so low in Albania, Mr. Rama’s recent fear of being chided and ridiculed by the internationals is the last of his concerns.
He should worry more about the fact that his legacy in Albania could be the complete loss of trust among Albanians in the democratic process.
To be fair, this is not a Socialist problem, it is an Albanian one. It is more visible among the Socialists simply because of the sheer size of their recent electoral victories. Democrats and others are also vulnerable to the thugs-in-politics phenomenon.
As such, legal checks and balances need to be put in place so this trend is stopped once and for all.
The first step is easy and likely to be implemented soon: Prohibit anyone with a criminal record from running for elected office. It is amazing that such provision is not in the books already.
The other steps are harder and more general. They involve modernizing Albanian society and improving democracy in Albania by putting new checks and balances in place in the political system – including reversing some of the legislative changes of 2008 that have deeply eroded representative democracy in Albania.
