By HENRI ȉLI
The Government feels triumphant following the latest report of Transparency International on the index of the fight against corruption, whilst the Opposition feels discomfort. Up to this point we’re within the framework of a normal political struggle. However, it is only fair that just as we have gone through those reports with a magnifying glass, or those statements by diplomats or international institutions, focused on problems in the progress of governing in the distant past and in the not so distant past, so it calls for the same impartiality to acknowledge several achievements of the current government when they are “certified” or “sanctioned,” by the same international players. Fairness also requires that what was good in 2004 should be refused the current Government in 2008. Four years down the track, no one will be able to offer as standards to society, what were acknowledged as standards for Albania in 2001 2003 or even 2005 for that matter. And they could never be a unit of measurement for the year 2008.
Nonetheless, as regards the reports of the Internationals, including the latest report of Transparency International, the issue lies elsewhere: The problem is how we understand and use these reports of the Internationals to the benefit of public interest, when referring to the media and other players of Albanian society for example, whose main aim is not the immediate political interest.
Firstly: Ultimately, after 18 years, it is well worth while looking at the reports of the Internationals, of the specialised organisms and institutions on given issues, with exactly the same yardstick as the local reports are viewed, because of the fact that our independent expertise, know-how and specialists do not at all fall behind that of our international colleagues, particularly of those who are sent to Albania. Without going as far as saying that, in the final account, these reports are nothing other than the work of local, Albanian parties sub-contracted to these organisms.
This means that the activities, the reports or research by many of the local, independent organisms, or the expertise of many of our own experts of high repute, should make politics and public opinion sit up in shock or pride to the same degree. Whilst we are astounded or proud because of criticism or appraisal made of us by a Peruvian, an Egyptian, or by someone from the Netherlands, there is no reason why we should not experience the same sentiments when we are told the same things by someone from Shkodra, Berat, Tirana or Kukes.
Secondly: It is advisable that these reports or approaches of the Internationals be put into context, deciphered, analyzed, beyond a mere horizontal reading, or at the most diagonal, just as political operators or media operators do, because it is there organic duty to do so.
An integral, in-context reading of these reports by those players who do not have “the immediate” as part of their working method, is the finest service that could be rendered the Albanian public, which, being in a free society, with messages coming at it from all sides, needs to have “the judge of all judges.” Finally, the University scholars, public policy researchers or those experts of organisms who deal with the appraisal and monitoring of the respective public issues, now have the opportunity to be useful to their society. For example, in relation to the latest World Bank Report on the improvement of the climate for business, it took the explanation of the former to state that it had “monitored legislation and not its enforcement,” regarding the climate for businesses.
Finally: The reports of the Internationals cannot have the same status that they had ten, fifteen or five years ago. Albanian society is far more organised and articulate today than it was, and throughout all its segments too. Interest groups, professional qualification, the corporations of free professions and many other players of non-political society, know the situation far better than in these reports. There is no need at all for a Report of Transparency International to reveal this or that. It is sufficient for businesses and companies to say that the arm across the road at Customs Points definitely goes up differently than it did before. Just as there is no longer any need for an international report to show us that the status of the public administration and employment in the public sector, instead of drawing closer is moving away from the concept of civil service competitiveness.
