Armand Shkullaku writes: The repeated mistake that risks social conflict

The outbreak of civil revolt in Tirana and several cities in Albania has highlighted a handful of people who are experiencing the end of Edi Rama's regime as their own end. As a result, instead of getting to the root of all this, they continue to pathetically deal with broken windows and torn street signs, as evidence of a violence that is threatening our homeland.

The same behavior of the mechanisms of power, every time the country has experienced similar crises, is a case worth stopping at. Stories with foreign agents, with the external enemy collaborating with internal infidels, with opposition media and opposing politicians aiming to overthrow the government "born of the people's vote", have been numerous, but they have had peaks such as the year 1997, for example.

At that time, the Berisha regime and its cronies never accepted to see the autocracy, the violence against the opposition, the theft of elections, the arrests of political opponents and critical journalists, as the main cause of the asphyxiation of democracy that, sooner or later, would produce the most terrible consequences in our post-communist history. The collapse of the pyramid schemes, which simply accelerated the crisis of a country that was ruled with an iron fist, was taken out of context to present itself as the sole cause of the violence that followed. The regime's tools accused the newspaper Koha Jonë of being paid by the Serbian or Greek secret service, the opposition leaders as secret agents of George Tenet or "Marinsa" Linos. Anyone who sought the fall of Berisha was treated, just like today, as an enemy of Albania, a servant of black hands, a member of a conspiracy against the homeland. The story of such behavior, where the cause is avoided to diabolically deal only with the consequences, is known to have ended.

The events today are like a reproduction of the same situation and, surprisingly, it turns out that no lessons have been learned. Not from those who are paid to give mouth-to-mouth breathing to the dying power, but also from a layer that the development of the country, their intellectual and economic growth, should have made them more cautious in their behavior towards the rebellion that has engulfed the country.

So, if the regime's handful of dice prefers to emphasize broken windows, global conspiracy theories against our global leader, it is completely incomprehensible how those who have decided to raise their families here, who have businesses built with hard work, who value the stability of society, do not worry about the real causes of this crisis. The cause is the authoritarian leadership of the country by Edi Rama and a criminal gang - social peace is his unconditional removal. The fate of a single man cannot take hostage the future and prosperity of a country. Even if none of the accusations against him were true, a European leader withdraws in the name of social reconciliation. This should be demanded today not only by the citizens who are on the streets, but also by those who have invested in this country. They can no longer link their future to the miserable fate of a man who risks taking everyone with him. 

The most short-sighted thing in this story is to talk about violence in the hope that Edi Rama will survive. He will not survive and, the longer he prolongs the agony, the more threatened social peace will be. That part of society that understands this must start the movement as soon as possible so that the end does not last. It is enough for them to sit down for a single moment and reflect on why all this is happening.

This cannot be done by the regime's cronies who deal with the windows and foreign agents. They did not speak out either when Albania was covered in drugs or now when drug money has asphyxiated the economy of the future. They did not speak out either when crime rose to power and then, with the Renaissance government, stole elections, subjugated citizens, plundered public assets, stole billions, destroyed the police and the national intelligence service, enriched a group of political and ordinary bandits and plunged hundreds of thousands of others into misery. 

In a regime like this, where robbery was legitimized, when the opposition was imprisoned and suffocated, when scandals increase and mandates multiply, that is where the cause of what is happening must be seen. If Rama has a lot to lose if he leaves power, those who are on the streets lose nothing. But those who have invested in this country and have linked their fate to Edi Rama to this day will lose much more. Therefore, do not cry about the fires of the kiosks, but seek to avoid the cause that could set the country on fire. A bold step today avoids repeating the history of 30 years ago. Rama's departure is not the end of the world or of Albania. On the contrary, it is the only way to rebuild Albania.