It seems as if the first steps in the implementation of the judicial reform are encountering doubts about the success of the radical restructuring that this reform brings to the Albanian political future. The acclamation of this reform as a deus ex machina solution, as a sword of Damocles that would come down on the head of anyone who has profited illegally during those last 27 years, runs the risk of creating the disappointment that naturally accompanies the failure to fulfill great expectations.
It’s more political maneuvering than genuine popular sensation. The beginnings of this reform, which became grounded in the Albanian media after the implementation of the decriminalization law, are unfortunately tightly interwoven with the ugly propaganda of the prime minister.
Interested in keeping the public opinion’s focus away from the large problems caused by his misgovernance, Rama used his media ties to inflate the judicial reform into a biblical event that would establish the justice the Albanians so much desired.
The public opinion, desperate to hang on to a thread of hope, started to create the image of the main political actors behind bars. Under the tent of the vetting you found all kinds of people. There were those who truly believed in the reform and the influence it would have on the lives of the citizens. There were ministers and deputies who shamelessly signed a petition that sooner or later would arrive on their own desk for approval.
This dirty game with the sensibilities of the Albanians couldn’t have had a different ending: the transformation of a bureaucratic revolution, of a barbaric need of Albanian society to see the figures that are usually anathematized by everyone as being close to the criminal world setting on the bench of the accused. Even the veterans from the Second World War joined the chorus, whose sensibilities were triggered by the popular mobilization so much that they arrived at the tents of the vetting with titles and decorations – as if they were early for the May 1 celebrations. Maybe this massive propaganda reminds you of something.
In the early 1950s, the Soviet Union was gripped by the great fever of the Appeal for Peace. The Appeal was a petition signed by the “free” people of the Communist block in which the common desire for a world in peace and prosperity for its inhabitants was expressed. The petition was signed by millions of people and even deigned to come to Albania where within a week everyone above 18 signed it. A true feat for a people where illiteracy was still widespread.
I had to remember this story when I saw grandfathers who could hardly move sign something of which they didn’t and for their entire life won’t know the contents. In essence, the reform is not populist. It’s not graspable for the masses. It spirit rumbles more of the guillotine than of articles and paragraphs without soul or emotion.
The reform needs to be done and the Albanian judicial institutions need to be fully restructered, not only to avoid corruption as much as possible , but also to confront and adapt to the different social specifics that give rise every day to diverse legal issues. Not to mention the great need of the judicial system for well prepared judges and prosecutors. But to turn a reform into the war banner of an electoral campaign makes it into a balloon that will explode in the face of anyone who thinks that he will hold on to power with empty promises.
