The Quest for a Place to Dream
Still from the film: Those who tried to put the rainbow back in the sky, 2012. Driant Zeneli
By Dosti Banushi
There is no bigger threat to human dignity than corrupt policymaking. The United States promised one year ago that it will tackle this social evil through its Strategy on Countering Corruption (SCC). It committed to increasing foreign assistance, boosting anti-money laundering apparatuses, and holding corrupt actors accountable in “promoting prosperity and security for people around the world.”[1] But its promise seems to have fallen inside the same abyss where the people it wants to save stand. The questions through which they mourn echo in vain: Why is my life worth less? Why can I not create a better future? Why is it so hard to chase my dreams?
I woke up to find the answer. On the morning of November 11, 2005, my father’s future was muted by a corrupt decision. Albania’s new right-wing government, with Sali Berisha at the helm as Prime Minister and the Democratic Party (DP) in-charge, had deployed a so-called “Administrative Reform” against the Republican Guard, a special military corps that safeguards state personalities. As Guri and Xhavara confirm, both affected by the policy, the “Administrative Reform” was considered by the many people it fired as a deliberate maneuver to employ the right-wing government’s cronies in key positions.[2]
Empty years followed. No sufficient meals at home. No going out to amusement parks. No ice cream during the summer. No heat during the winter. No dreams. Our aspirations were detained behind bars of helplessness. We suffered there because officials abused their power. Outside, sinners roamed freely. Their bellies full of satisfied ambitions proved that our society’s resources were being devoured. Tomorrow could not belong to us.
It almost seemed that it would not belong to Berisha either. He was recently declared persona non-grata by the U.S. Secretary of State, “due to involvement in significant corruption.”[3] But the first leader of the DP that overthrew communism in Albania, its preeminent winner, an omnipresent former Prime Minister and President, and an eternal member of the Albanian Parliament, Sali Berisha, did not kneel.
In October 2021, he filed a defamation lawsuit against the U.S. Secretary of State.[4] In the March by-elections, the poked bear won one of the biggest municipalities of the north.[5] In May 2022 he retook control of Albania’s biggest opposition party, the Democratic Party (DP).[6] Next year, he will be leading the opposition in local elections. This devastating fact shows that the U.S. move to declare him persona non-grata has proved self-defeating. Instead of helping justice, it has invigorated anti-democratic forces.
A loss in Albania poses a threat to the United States’ role as a promoter of democracy through the SCC. First, besides designating Berisha as a persona non-grata, the United States has not undertaken any other action under the strategy. At this pace it risks being futile, projecting a lack of capability to fight heavy anti-democratic alliances, such as that of Putin and Lukashenko, or Erdogan and Orban.[7]
Second, the U.S. will be forced to freeze its relationship with the DP.[8] If it is not in contact with Western allies, the biggest opposition party in Albania may look elsewhere. The DP is already being accused of receiving Russian funds.[9] Iran has launched a full-scale cyber-attack on Albania’s institutions, threatening the security architecture of the Balkans.[10] With the war in Ukraine, Russia and its friends are eager to cause chaos. The United States cannot afford to lose political allies in a strategic region.
Third, a failed strategy against corruption would further deepen Albania’s crisis. We are ranked 110th out of 180 countries on the Corruption Perception Index and remain one of the poorest countries in Europe, with the average salary being 436 Euros per month, according to Open Data Albania.[11] That cannot be changed by arbitrary policymaking. The last elections proved that we are entrapped. Albanians can either elect a Socialist Party whose representatives are being imprisoned or linked with organized crime, or a Democratic Party run by a designated man.[12] 70% of the electorate chose not to vote at all.[13] Even in the previous parliamentary elections, the turnout was only 46%.[14] Our aspirations remain thus unrepresented in the political system.
The antidote to corruption is to fill the body politic with a diversity of interests that compete with the corrupt establishment. Thus, to ameliorate the fight against corruption, the U.S. must help Albania build structures that systematically foster openness, interconnectedness, and accountability—strong unions that would finance a trial, CSOs that would organize pressure against the authorities, an independent media that would uncover more dirt, and a policy environment that fights arbitrariness. This is what my father would need to find justice. This is what would answer our quest for a home that allows prosperity. As the systems theorist Richard Buckminster once stated: “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”[15]
The United States has invested millions in juridical reform in Albania that appears to be finally coming to fruition.[16] The imprisonment of the former Ministers of Interior and Environment based on abuse of power, is an unprecedented accomplishment signaling that our justice system may start holding arbitrary actions accountable.[17] Time will prove if this is fact or wishful thinking.
But these efforts will not be enough. As insights from the German Marshall Fund suggest, Western countries’ funding for civil society in Albania is often lost in corruption.[18] Intensive efforts to nurture investigative journalism are missing. Sometimes donors encourage a “change things from the inside” type of activism, thus forcing activists to cooperate with corrupt politicians.
Politics organizes the space between us. This area of possibility can be rightfully regulated only when different parts of society are represented in the process. Therefore, the quest of building a new operational model of Albanian politics should be guided by three principles: openness, newness, and competitiveness.
Foreign embassies and organizations collaborate with local governments to push different agendas and regulatory frameworks. This becomes especially true for Albania as a country starting the accession process to the European Union. Foreign actors, propelled by the U.S. SCC, should leverage their existing network to pressure the authorities to include in the decision-making process actors that do not necessarily come from the two main political parties. This would pave the way for a multiplicity of interests to be incorporated into the public arena.
Secondly, international actors—including the U.S. embassy—should allocate money to support local activists in their communal projects. Through the SCC, the United States can pump more money into projects that specifically focus on tackling the abuse of power. This can lead to the implementation of new ideas, new ways of organizing, and new ways of thinking. Newness is followed by uncommonness and unpredictability, qualities that threaten the established. The United States needs to encompass these qualities in its Strategy on Countering Corruption.
Competitiveness is the third crucial element that ensures a healthy public sphere. One of the ways this can be achieved is by allowing as many players as possible in the political game. Guided by self-interest, they will guard each other’s actions, increasing the possibility of fair competition. In concrete terms, the SCC can facilitate the birth of new grassroots structures. These can come in the form of informal groups, NGOs, CSOs, new media organizations, or unions. These grassroots structures can equip the political environment with a certain sharpness with which the remnants of the established system can be removed.
Abuse of power crumbles life into an irrelevant effort of existence. Self-realization becomes impossible in a state apparatus where no polycentric structures control corruption. We Albanians stand thus stuck inside the chasm between what we are and what we want to be. It is our own task to make that leap. Given a choice between freedom or submission, Albanians would choose freedom.
But the U.S. SCC has promised to help, and it can only do so through structural measures, not sporadic ones. Guided by the principles of openness, newness, and competitiveness, the SCC can facilitate local actors in creating a long-term alternative to the established system. In doing so, the United States will prove the robustness of its strategy in tackling far harsher anti-democratic alliances. It will also achieve its ambition as a protector of democracy, equipping people with the tools needed to fight for a prosperous future. Until the vague time becomes obvious. And we wake up in a place where we can dream.
About the Author
Dosti Banushi is an Albanian political activist, a “Journalist of the Year” awardee, a columnist, and a community organizer; currently studying Politics & Communication at the University of Amsterdam on an Erasmus Mundus Scholarship. He can be contacted via email at: dostibanushi2@gmail.com
Endnotes:
"Strategy On Countering Corruption". whitehouse.gov, 2021, p. 5. https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/United-States-Strategy-on-Countering-Corruption.pdf.
Fatmir Guri and Rrako Xhavara, Conversation with author.
"Public Designation Of Albanian Sali Berisha Due To Involvement In Significant Corruption - United States Department Of State". United States Department Of State, 2021. https://www.state.gov/public-designation-of-albanian-sali-berisha-due-to-involvement-in-significant-corruption/.
Tylor, Guy, and Joseph Clark. "Paris Court To Hear Defamation Lawsuit Against Blinken". The Washington Times, 2021. https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2021/oct/28/sali-berisha-gets-antony-blinken-defamation-lawsui/.
"House Of Freedom Coalition Wins Shkodra - Exit - Explaining Albania". Exit - Explaining Albania, 2022. https://exit.al/en/2022/03/07/house-of-freeedom-coalition-wins-shkodra/.
"Berisha's 3rd Return To The Helm Of The Democratic Party, Support Was Not "Broken" In The Face Of Pressure". Politiko.al, 2022. https://politiko.al/english/ditari-i-opozites/rikthimi-i-3-te-i-berishes-ne-krye-te-pd-se-mbeshtetja-nuk-u-t-i460361.
Repucci, Sarah, and Amy Slipowitz. "The Global Expansion Of Authoritarian Rule". Freedom House, 2022. https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2022/global-expansion-authoritarian-rule.
Sinoruka, Fjori, “US Warns Berisha Not to Retake Albanian Democratic Party.” 2021. Balkan Insight. November 11, 2021. https://balkaninsight.com/2021/11/11/us-warns-berisha-not-to-retake-albanian-democratic-party/.
Taylor, Alice. "Albanian Political Parties Spar Over Russian Funding Allegations". www.euractiv.com, 2022. https://www.euractiv.com/section/politics/short_news/albanian-political-parties-spar-over-russian-funding-allegations/
Gritten, David. "Albania Severs Diplomatic Ties With Iran Over Cyber-Attack". BBC News, 2022. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-62821757.
"Paga Mesatare Në Shqipëri, Rajon Dhe Europë". Open Data Albania, 2021. https://ndiqparate.al/?p=13335.
Sinoruka; Erebara, Gjergj, “Gangster’s Leaked Revelations Deepen Albania Govt’s Woes”. Balkan Insight. June 5, 2019. https://balkaninsight.com/2019/06/05/gangsters-leaked-revelations-deepen-albania-govts-woes/.
"Komisioni Qendror I Zgjedhjeve". n.d. Kqz.gov.al, 2022. https://kqz.gov.al/results/preliminary2022/results2022.htm.
“Komisioni Qendror I Zgjedhjeve.” n.d. Kqz.gov.al, 2021. https://kqz.gov.al/results/results2021/results2021.htm.
Bau, Stephen. "“You Never Change Things By Fighting The Existing Reality.". Medium, 2019. https://bauhouse.medium.com/you-never-change-things-by-fighting-the-existing-reality-3e34a55ab653.
Erebara, Gjergj. “Albanian ‘Backroom Deal’ on Justice Reform Alarms US, EU”. Balkan Insight, May 22, 2020. https://balkaninsight.com/2020/05/22/us-eu-cry-foul-over-new-political-agreement-for-justice-reform-in-albania/.
Semini, Llazar. “Albanian Ex-Minister Jailed for Assisting Drug Trafficking.” AP NEWS, Associated Press, Feb 4, 2022, https://apnews.com/article/europe-crime-albania-drug-trafficking-71442e5309585148769ab4d26fab2444.
Erebara, Gjergj. "What's Next For U.S. Democracy Support In Central And Eastern Europe?". GMFUS, 2021. https://www.gmfus.org/news/what-next-us-democracy-support-central-and-eastern-europe?fbclid=IwAR3Yl5K70hBgu1ljo3JSuObBx7gcT8II4QGPrYu1Q6E6ViCaggAAQxaWUMY.