FLASH
Shkruar nga Prof. Mimoza Manxhari
Amidst the celebration of power and the voice of protest, Albania still faces the unresolved questions of its transition.
A few days ago, the party that governs the country celebrated its 35th anniversary. It was a familiar scene for modern democracies: speeches, memories, balance sheets, messages of optimism and certainty for the future.
But outside the festive atmosphere, another reality was unfolding.
While the continuation of a political project was celebrated in the hall, a protest was growing in the public space, expressing dissatisfaction, distrust, and disappointment.
Two views of the same Albania coexisted in parallel, but seemed not to communicate with each other.
Perhaps this contrast sums up better than any statistic the state of our country after 36 years of transition.
Today, looking back in time, it seems impossible not to wonder what we have done with these thirty-six years.
In a man's life, 36 years is full maturity.
In the life of a society, they should have been enough to build stable institutions, consolidate the rule of law, and create a political culture where power is controlled as much as exercised.
However, our journey remains an unfinished transformation.
We changed the political system, but not the logic of how power works!
We built new institutions, but many of them continue to remain vulnerable to vested interests.
We protested in 1990 for democracy, but citizens continue to feel a distance and distance between public promises and their daily experience.
This is perhaps the deepest wound of the Albanian transition: we changed the structures, but not necessarily the culture that fills them with content.
In this sense, the current protest should not be seen simply as fragments of political episodes or momentary reactions.
It is a symptom.
It shows signs of that huge gap between citizens' expectations and the way the system works.
It is proof that the transition is not over, despite the years that have passed.
This is why the contrast between celebration and protest deserves attention.
Not because one side is necessarily right and the other wrong, but because democracy loses something essential when these two realities cease to communicate with each other.
When institutional celebration takes place as if discontent does not exist and when social discontent grows without finding reliable channels to be heard, a deficit of public reflection is created, an indicator that reveals the state of democracy more than the rhetoric of stability itself.
A society does not heal just by changing the names of institutions, building new buildings, or organizing political anniversaries.
She is cured:
__ When you can face yourself.
__ When you can accept not only successes, but also failures.
__ When you get to hear not only the applause, but also the critical voices.
__ When you come to understand that criticism is not a threat to democracy, but a condition for its survival.
There is also a very personal dimension to this reflection for me.
In 1990, I gave birth to my beloved daughter.
Today she would be the same age as Albania in transition: 36 years old.
Her life would have been a full one. She would have grown up with the hopes of the early 1990s, with the belief that a society could learn from the past and build a more just future.
But her life stopped too early!
It happens to me, sometimes, that our journey as a society seems to be stuck somewhere in the middle: between the hope of the beginning and the maturity that we have not yet fully reached.
Perhaps this is why I continue to believe that the most important question for Albania is not related to the next elections, the parties, or the leaders of the moment.
The question is deeper:
- Do we still have the courage to face our truths and complete the transformation we started 36 years ago?
I ask, since the past tense is no longer an argument.
So after 36 years:
- The question is not whether we have had enough time to change.
- The question is whether we had enough will.
Lini një Përgjigje