EDITORIAL: Uprooting corruption will require societal shift

Albanians need to decide what country they want to live in: One where everything and everyone can be bought or a liberal democracy where rule of law reigns supreme
TIRANA TIMES EDITORIAL
Albania’s continued decline in the corruption perceptions index is disappointing but not surprising. The country is now Europe’s most corrupt corner, according the Transparency International annual survey. It’s “shameful,” as the prime minister has put it.
The TI representatives say that, in Albania, corruption finds “a favorable political environment, with characteristics like a new systems for money laundering, financing of political parties from illegal activities, the capture of the state through the control of procurement and privatization, human and narcotics trafficking and the impunity of high state officials before the justice system and the law.”
The new government conveniently has come out to blame everything on the previous government and is now promising to clean up the house. We wish it well, but we can’t help but be skeptical. The country requires action not words.
To prosecute corruption, the country needs a solid justice system. Just this week an investigative television program showed that system is a mess. The Albanian public has long suspected the justice system to be among the country’s most corrupt entities. The report by the Fiks Fare investigative show on Top Channel showed how someone can bribe the judge, the prosecutor and their staff to get a favorable ruling.
The efforts to fight corruption will only work if Albania can also break the cycle of people coming to power with promises of uprooting corruption, only to become corrupt themselves. One can’t help but be cynical due to the level and type of corruption that has now taken root at all aspects of Albanian society. From the doctor who demands a bribe to give you a checkup to the politician who will help dubious companies with privatization and concession deals.
But the political football with corruption must also stop. Both sides of the political spectrum likely have corrupt officials in their midst. If they want to show willingness to fight corruption, they should support charges for those who abuse their powers instead of simply blaming the other side. Otherwise, it’s the pot calling the kettle black.
The justice system has been post-communist Albania’s Achilles’ heel in the last two decades regardless of what party has been in power. It needs to be fixed first. Then, as experts have warned, unless higher-level politicians with clear corruption cases are successfully prosecuted, there will be little faith in the system. In Albania, the reality is that higher-level officials are never sent to jail, with authorities simply limiting themselves with low or mid level officials.
The government should also be careful. It needs to investigate clear cases of corruption, not go on witch-hunts to show off. It should be careful with pushing through new legislation simply to target opponents, particularly when there are objections by international experts. Justice and truth in a democracy require a scalpel not a hammer.
Albanian society needs to change as well. It is telling that Albania’s justice ministry is headed by a representative of the Socialist Movement for Integration. Under Albanian law, the party’s leader was declared innocent of his own bribery charges while participating in the previous government. Those charges involved hidden camera footage on Fiks Fare too. His personal public image was tarnished by the affair, however. When he was declared innocent by the courts, many Albanians still saw him as guilty. His party then went to gain four times as many seats as before in the latest election.
To some, that’s Albanian society accepting the status quo. So it is ordinary Albanians themselves who at the end of the day need to decide what country they want to live in: One where everything and everyone can be bought or a liberal democracy where rule of law reigns supreme.