Former Minister of Interior Affairs Saimir Tahiri , who recently declared publicly that he would no longer be using the protection afforded to him during the last six months by the Prime Minister and the Socialist Party, also used this appearance to declare two main battles.
The first was the unmasking of the politicians who have been running the country for the past quarter century (Edi Rama included) and lacked the moral superiority to judge him.
The second was the start of a protracted battle, as a citizen, now lacking the protective shell of being an MP, to prove his truth.
We must begin by saying that the first battle will be very easy for Saimir Tahiri.
Edi Rama cannot dream of calling him a “maggot unworthy of being part of the human race,” as everything that took place during the term of the most successful Rilindja minister happened with Rama’s blessing. Tahiri’s accomplishments – Filling the parliament with thugs, wanted criminals usurping municipalities, favoring certain criminal gangs, planes loaded with drugs and denying the existence of cannabis – all carry Rama’s signature as well. This is why today Rama lacks both the moral superiority and a political alibi to distance himself from his former right hand.
Saimir Tahiri is correct in claiming that this superiority is also lacking in both opposition leader Lulzim Basha and former
Democratic Prime Minister Sali Berisha, who allowed the infamous weed village of Lazarat to flourish, who escaped indictment for the crimes of Gërdec explosion and the four killed protesters on January 21, as well as the flagrant abuses with Rruga e Kombit funding. Any non-militant citizen, as they saw Tahiri speak in tears, could have easily thought: “None of them can be the first to cast a stone.”
The same can be said for the couple heading LSI. Those who, for the sake of power, accepted the lie that airplanes filled with drugs were mere “mosquitoes,” those who remembered to talk about drugs only at the end of their term today, cannot blame everything on one single man. Ilir Meta and Monika Kryemadhi were both part of the coalition that filled Albania with marijuana.
So in this respect Saimir Tahiri is neither the only black sheep, nor the only head worth cutting off, within the parliament he is now leaving.
With the facts he brought forth, the comparisons he made, the emotional state he displayed, he surely has managed to convince many of this.
Yet, here is precisely where his trick lies, because what is being asked of Saimir Tahiri is not who he is similar to, but what he did.
At this time, the public is not interested in how trustworthy the “devils“ who accuse the former minister are, but in how true those accusations are. What truth is there in the allegations connecting Tahiri to drug traffickers? Is it true that he favored them, making the entire Vlora police precinct available to the Habilaj brothers? What is the story behind the mysterious Audi that was used by both sides?
And here, Saimir Tahiri is at a loss.
Here, truth and justice will never be on his side again. Even if the prosecutors are unable to gather enough facts, even if the court cannot convict him based on evidence, Tahiri will always be the the Minister of the Interior that “cannabized” the entire country.
For all citizens, he now is the police commander who kept the existence of planes transporting drugs hidden to the very end, who, instead of listening to whistleblower Dritan Zagani’s accusations, imprisoned him and protected the traffickers, who kept his relations with the cousins from Vlora even after the opposition decried this occult relationship, who dismissed the truth from local critics by blowing the horns of the “front of evil” that filled the ranks of the police with corrupt persons, half of whom have been dismissed by his successor, while the other half is fleeing the prosecution’s arrest warrants.
Finally, it seems that, rather than doing his job of the “policeman” who tracks and neutralizes evil, Tahiri served as the latter’s advocate. Instead of fighting crime, he was the one providing criminals with alibis.
And, in this respect, he has lost the battle, with both truth and history. That is why he avoided confronting them, using his magic trick as a politician to distract the attention instead to the “devils” who are unworthy of anathemizing him.
