A response to Mrs Vilheme Vranari regarding the article,

“Democracy is not built on forgetting”

By Pilo Zyba

Referring to an article published recently and its resonance.

“The great fortune of the Albanian nation” recently at the headquarters of Mr Bamir Topi,

the exhibition of the crimes of Communism was made public. And the president, since he also bears the surname of a cannon, raises the muzzle of propaganda to the sky and fires off volleys of decorations. Mrs Vranari expresses her pleasure and enthusiasm for this great and notable day, and expresses her pleasure for the “SLOGAN” seen and savoured. Without knowing at all the meaning of the word Slogan, which means propaganda and a deceptive catchphrase, she continues below that this slogan placed at the headquarters of the president, Topi, is also visited by other national and international figures. And the lady writes to me in capital letters in her article: “The President of the Republic, Prof. Dr. Bamir Topi… etc. etc.” She expresses these words with such grandeur, with such pomposity, as if my nation itself had emerged into the dreamed-of paradise. As if the president’s titles themselves were what this people lacked to stand alongside European peoples, as if the very titles he holds, which to his shame he hands out by the kilo and the oka to others too. And during this ceremony, representatives of various parties and diplomatic missions also blow their own horns. Just as Mrs Vranari herself puts it, this is indeed a slogan. A slogan made on purpose to draw attention away from today’s Albanian politics, to throw smoke in the eyes of national public opinion. As if the biggest issue of the day today is the handing out of decorations that others once denied them. And further on, the lady in question says that (Democracy is not built on forgetting).

Twenty years of democracy have passed and we have not given up the path of Enver Hoxha, who used to hand out certificates of praise to distinguished workers. The president of the republic does the same today; he hands out a few certificates of praise for the persecuted to wear on their chests, or on those of their grandsons. They want them to boast, or, in their name, to demand from the past the payment for the future, the jobs, the schools, the seats of power.

We are fed up, ladies and gentlemen, with these Professors and Doctors; we are not short of titles and ranks, we are short of capable, honest leaders who love their homeland more than their own pockets. We know well by now that all the presidents, prime ministers and so on have their chests covered in titles and merits, but we do not know if the chest of their people, thanks to their merits, is covered in these titles of well-being, peace, health and way of life. Dear lady, please ask how many ranks and titles Gaddafi and Mubarak have, how many ranks and titles Enver, Stalin, and Slobodan had, and then distinguish between their ranks, their titles, and their work towards the well-being of the people. Dear lady, with the arrival of democracy, thousands of Albanian intellectuals with titles and ranks were thrown out onto the street, and were replaced by “capable” people whom democracy prepared with six-month courses, like Enver did with the illiteracy courses. Enver used to say, we got our diploma in the mountains; Sali says, democracy gave you your diploma. All of these were replaced, and the replaced were then replaced again in Fatos’s time. So the game of politics and its interests was played, and not that of national interests. And this policy will be followed in the future too, I have no doubt. You, and others with you, or after you, play the violin for the opening of the files. Of those files where you are accused and sentenced, and of those who unjustly sentenced you. There are two paths: they open, and who receives the deserved punishment? Because under the law and constitution by which they were sentenced, they were within the law, and secondly, whose punishment will their opening bring about? Twenty years of democracy have passed, and another 30 of sentences make 50; those who handed down the sentences have died, taking their guilt with them. But in this specific case, it seems to me that it is not innocence being sought, but the acquisition of merits and titles in the present day. However, I agree with this point too, but according to values, and not according to the sentence handed down in the past. Today, time has brought other figures and personalities before the nation; it prepared them and raised them to the podium of governance, regardless of the paths followed and the methods used to seize the head of power... These are all well known nowadays.

I who write to you am untouched by the past, by the present, and, I believe, by the future. In those difficult times of the birth of Democracy, I was among its organizers; I sought freedom, to fly, and I flew far away. I had dreams, strength, and great desires. Enver executed thousands of intellectuals for political purposes; did democracy not do the same when it threw them out onto the street? Did it not exile them to the streets of Europe to beg for a piece of bread, because rare were those who put their diplomas to use?

I agree with you, madam, that we should respect the past, but what do you say: should we deal with the past and leave the future, or should we deal with the past to cover the present with the ash of darkness so as not to see it?

You state that democracy is not built on forgetting. While I ask you: “Should we deal with the past and leave the present?”

For a whole history this is what we have done: Enver fought Zog, Sali fought Enver, Edi fought Sali, and so on. Lately, a war of the wind has also begun; its aim is to extinguish the nation and its history. We deny Skanderbeg, Ali Pasha, we lower Naim to raise Fishta, we put Sali and Fatos on the scales. In the history of the nation, everyone has their place for the values they hold, and the field of the nation is so large that there is room for everyone to “graze,” both those who have titles and those who do not.

Further down, your article reminds me of the slogans of Communism: down with the traitors, long live the Communist Party. Every dash accompanied by a phrase is a slogan.

Here is your slogan:

“The sons and grandsons walk in the footsteps of the fathers, who ruled yesterday, while they rule today.”

It is abundantly clear that the direction of power is not based on the values of the individual, but on political goals. But you must know, madam, that in the civilized world, the child does not hold his father’s convictions, but his own, and he does his own work, makes his own name, in complete independence from his father’s political convictions. But this is the goal, I told you above: in the name of the victims, rewards are demanded. Democracy in Albania is not a judge to put the past on trial, but to build a safe and better future. If this good is a reality, then everyone sees it, weighs the past against the future, and knows how to make evaluations and give merit to whom it is due. The pains of my nation, tired and sick from the past and the present, are not healed by the President’s decorations, but by his work to justify those decorations he has. In the region where I was born there is a proverb: “He left the firewood and went for twigs.” Enough with the past; it belongs to history, it is not a hook to fish the present and to secure the future. Every generation has its time, its path, its values, and its evaluation in the great book of history.

Further down, dear lady, you deal with politics, but your politics is dry, without facts, unconvincing. You throw a few firecrackers to make smoke, a familiar tactic by now. “The loss of the autochthonous national identity is in the interest of Slav-Serb chauvinists and Greek chauvinism. That is why the appetite grows for Janullatos (the Trojan Horse in Albania), the consul of Korçë, the Greek lobby in the USA headed by Gage.”

Dear lady, is the loss of your national identity, or mine, in the interest of those you mention above? Wake up, and do not rate yourself so highly, neither you, nor I who live abroad, nor the others. America is a commonwealth of states, and Europe is heading down this path too. Please separate things, do not make a tangled mess of them.

Neither you nor I are the nation, but an indistinguishable drop in its ocean. The chauvinists have other aims of which you have not the slightest idea, neither of what is happening nor of what you see. The world has moved forward, dear lady; to trade in politics requires wisdom, art, and to be a capable merchant in this bazaar that has conquered the world today is a skill. But the bad thing is that we are selling ourselves for no reward, and here we are talking about national values, and not simply human values of the day or of your ego or mine. Many of our national figures worked, lived, and died abroad, but the nation holds them in its pantheon of culture, politics, and history. Make your work last, and then you will see that no one denies it to you. Leave the titles and the seats of power, fight for yourself, and the work of anyone that has value is attached to the values of the nation.

I am a sworn enemy of the totalitarian system which, just like to you, threw thorns in my path through life, but I have no time to cry over my past; time does not wait, I must walk to get where I set out to go. Likewise, democracy has its goal. Let no one think that by cursing the past we give merit to the present; rest assured that, whatever results we achieve, the future will scold us for the mistakes we make. Insecurity, poverty, and misery are not justified by the past. Even if only 1,000 people protest in Skanderbeg Square, the president, the prime minister, and the ministers should not be able to sleep. When a minister is corrupt, the state is rotten, that political pyramid is ruined; its days are numbered, for it has no longevity. To say of your own people that the demonstrators were drug addicts, thieves, criminals, you must either be drunk or you must be crazy. You might be a heart doctor, but you do not have a human heart when a dog is killed in front of your office, let alone a human being. It is one thing to be a Professor, a doctor, and another to be Prime Minister and President. The title of Professor is given by an institution, while that of Prime Minister and President is given by the people they serve. Before them, every minister and president is an obedient child, polite, of few words and much work. Let everyone keep their titles to themselves; the nation seeks the values of the contribution for which it gave its vote. Otherwise, the son is a disgrace who does not know how to respect his family and the place they have entrusted to him.