FLASH
Shkruar nga Kastriot Kotoni "Communism as an ideology was a utopia, but as a political system, it was a regression for humanity..."
History, first and foremost, deals with specific events. This has been the function assigned to the historian since the time of Aristotle. In dictatorial or autocratic systems, history glorifies power and its retention. Therefore, the figure of Zef Mala, a communist who studied philosophy in Vienna, after graduating from the “Saverian College of the Jesuit Order in Shkodra, with excellent grades, must be highlighted.
Inspired by the humanitarian principles of the brotherhood of peoples and the ideas of the European left, he became active in anti-government rallies of the Austrian people and was consequently arrested by the police. Due to this participation, his scholarship was cut, according to reports made by the Albanian consulate to the relevant authorities.
Well-educated, with broad culture and deep philosophical convictions, he enjoyed respect and influence among people from various progressive strata of society and became the leader of the "Shkodra Communist Group" in 1937. A year later he published the "Green Bulletin".
The intense activity of this group, which extended to all Albanian territories, caught the attention of the services of the "Zog" regime and in 1938, Zef Mala was arrested, among dozens of others. Zef was sentenced to six years in prison in Breshtan (Berat). He escaped from prison with other friends to join the resistance groups against the fascist occupation. In the files of the Italian occupiers, he appeared as a dangerous communist and for this reason he was exiled to Ventotene (Italy), where the main leaders of the Italian communist and socialist parties were exiled.
Their appreciation for Zefi was extremely high and this climate influenced his general emancipation. Meanwhile, Enver Hoxha had spread intrigue, as if Zefi had betrayed his comrades. But the communists of the “Shkodra Group” did not fall prey to this fiction.
Vasil Shanto, Tuk Jakova and Qemal Stafa had full confidence in Zefi and denied Hoxha's base slanders and asked him for different opinions on the group's problems even in exile. Zef Mala's view was that they should link up with the Italian Communist Party, as more advanced and far from Slavic chauvinism. His absence in the attempt to merge the communist groups in the establishment of the Party was a big minus and Tito's envoys benefited.
When the Allied Third Army landed in Italy, it released the Italian political prisoners and with them the various nationalities, including the Albanians, who gathered them in the city of Bari. Zef Mala was brought in handcuffs to be tried again in Albania. With the help of the “Guerrilla Unit of Tirana” he was able to escape and joined the Peza group. Enver Hoxha and Miladin Popovici were in Peza and had a discussion with Zefi about the resolution. Zefi not only opposed them to the mistakes attributed to the “Communist Group of Shkodra” and to him personally (taking advantage of his absence and the low position of Kristo Themelko), but also made other remarks about the Party line in general.
When Miladin asked what he thought about the Kosovo issue, he replied: "The Kosovo issue must be resolved by referendum without question." This opposing stance of Zefi's ultimately led to his behind-the-scenes liquidation. But thanks to Myslym Peza's intelligence and information, this ominous plan failed. After this attempt, Enver Hoxha proposed that Zefi be treated like all members of the "General Staff", but he agreed to be treated like all ordinary partisans and loyal to Myslym Peza. Sick with eyes, and since he needed treatment as soon as possible, he was illegally brought to Tirana. At the beginning of 1945, he had to undergo surgery on his eyes, because his condition was very serious, and he was sent to Italy, where he was hospitalized for six months. Many anti-fascist friends from Ventotena often visited him in the hospital, such as Luigi Longo, Pietro Neni and Sandro Pertini, the President of Italy in the 1980s, and many others, who suggested that he join a party in Italy where great prospects would open up for him and with his eye problem he would be better off.
Zef Mala returns to his homeland and is appointed director of the Libraries. But the intensification of the class struggle and especially the struggle against the intellectual elite finds him in the prison of Tirana in 1947-1949. The pro-Slavic clique of Koçi Xoxe took all the blame and sins and Zef Malaj left prison as persecuted by this clique and was "rehabilitated". With a deep feeling of serving the homeland and the people, he dedicated himself to work as director of the State Archives. He was charged with collecting historical materials from the period 1912-1924, but was imprisoned again in 1956 and was unable to complete this work. He was sentenced to 5 years in Zvërnec in Vlorë where the climate was extremely bad for his health and his eyesight deteriorated to the point of losing 80% of his sight. They did not recognize his right to return, neither to the city of Shkodra nor to the district of Tirana after the end of his imprisonment. And Zefi, full of mocking humor, said: “All I have to do is build a hut in the forest, where perhaps I will get along better with the wild animals”. Found without family, without shelter, without a disability pension, he was recognized as having the right to reside in Tirana, a “Circulation within the peripheral borders”, a blunt internment in Tirana. After a year, he was summoned by Prime Minister Mehmet Shehu who addressed him: “Perhaps your life has been spent in abnormal conditions, you go in and out of prisons and internments…, but I have this proposal:
1) If you don't tease us, we won't tease you.
2) I am willing to meet your vital needs.
Zefi says: “Implement the second point. In accordance with the law, I request that my right to full disability be recognized. That I be provided with an apartment”. These requests were fulfilled by order of Mehmet Shehu. But Zef Malaj’s ordeal of suffering did not end and one day the dictator saw him on the street accompanied by Lec Mala and after three days he communicated his exile to Labovo for five years. He wrote a memorandum to Prime Minister Mehmet Shehu in 1978. In the elections for deputies of the “People’s Assembly”, Zef Mala refused to vote… They held a trial for him in Tirana and added years to his exile… A year later, he closed his eyes on the day of the change of years (1979-80), in the prison hospital of Tirana
Zef, according to his friends, Henrik Gjoka and Skënder Haxhihasani, left behind many memoirs and philosophical essays, over 8 volumes, whose whereabouts are unknown. Zef Mala was among the first supporters of communist ideas, but he came to the conclusion that "communism as an ideology was a utopia, while as a political system, it was a regression for humanity..."
Standing on the side of justice and humanism, he would declare: "We who contributed to the arrival of this cholera, which sowed tears, blood and poison in the hearts of the people and which exploited the solemn image of the homeland, it is up to us to ask for forgiveness on our knees and with our hands on our hearts".../ Pamphlet
Lini një Përgjigje