Macedonia’s ethnic Albanian politicians and their antics

The silly season, also known as the election campaign for president and parliament in Macedonia, is underway. There are seven presidential candidates with the first round of elections on Wednesday, April 24, and the second round on Wednesday, May 8, timed to coincide with the parliamentary elections.

For now, I want to focus not just on the presidential elections, but on the ethnic Albanian parties and their two candidates because what they have recently said they want is….well, par for the course. Hint: never enough and not serious.

So, what do Macedonia’s ethnic Albanian hacks — politicians — want for their constituency? Do they want to campaign on things like decent jobs, a better education for their children, good health care, better infrastructure, or even something more difficult to understand, like a proper energy policy whose goal is to make Macedonia energy independent (to the extent possible) while working to preserve the environment?

Apparently not. They want — wait for it — an ethnic Albanian to be guaranteed a top spot in the government of Macedonia. They want what is an essentially immutable characteristic — in this case, ethnicity — to be the sole qualifier for holding a top office in Macedonia. Not experience. Not character. Not a vision for the country and the people that puts the interests of all citizens first. None of these things. It all depends on ethnicity to them.

Is this just election gimmicks? Are they serious? I think we must take them at their word.

Arben Taravari — candidate for president from the so-called “Albanian opposition” said “Now we have the opportunity to strengthen consensual democracy constitutionally together, now we can secure one of the three main state posts to automatically belong to Albanians as the second majority nation in….Macedonia.” (Taravari’s quote about “second majority nation” in Macedonia: I know Taravari is a doctor and not a mathematician, but there can be no “second majority.” There is a majority and then there are minorities. These are not opinions, these are facts, inconvenient as they may be to some people.)

Ali Ahmeti — who needs no introduction — said, while speaking about their candidate for president, that there should be a new position of vice-president for Macedonia, and that both the vice-president and president of Macedonia should not be elected through the popular vote of the citizens, but by and in the parliament. Said Ahmeti: “With Bujar [Osmani], we are starting the most important referendum of the time and the next battle to gain your trust to elect the president in the Assembly with a two-thirds majority and with Badinter, to realize our vision for a consensual president.” For this part, Taravari and his coalition also hold that the president should be elected by parliament and not by the people.

These are not serious people. They are, however, professional victim-mongers, always asserting that ethnic Albanians never have enough representation in public office, and always insisting that they are oppressed. They will never have enough, and they will never be satisfied. The old story about American businessman and oilman J. Paul Getty comes to mind. When he became the first dollar billionaire, a reporter asked him, “Mr. Getty, how much is enough?” To which Getty replied, “Just one dollar more.” Never satisfied. Never enough. Theirs is the politics of resentment, envy, and anger. And that’s not healthy for them, for their constituents, or for Macedonia.

The facts are that Macedonia’s ethnic Albanians already enjoy full rights in Macedonia, along with all of Macedonia’s ethnic minorities, groups that Macedonia’s ethnic Albanian politicians seem to willfully ignore. In fact, it’s worth repeating that Macedonia’s ethnic minority Albanians have always been represented in parliament and in government. Perhaps, in the 1990’s, their representatives felt they didn’t have enough power. Okay. But perhaps they were actually lousy legislators, not working very hard, or hardly working, to try to advance the interests of their constituents. Governing actually does take hard work and, looking at what they say and do, I must believe that they are not hard workers or very good at what they do.

Going back to what the ethnic Albanian hacks said they wanted and would campaign on: both VMRO and SDSM immediately said “no” in so many words. For all their many faults, I will at least credit SDSM with doing the right thing by saying no.

Macedonia — all of Macedonia’s citizens regardless of ethnicity, class, or any other identifier and marker — need elected leaders, first, not elected showmen. Macedonians need serious individuals who occupy elected office who will focus on policy issues that address the real needs of the people, like jobs and the economy, healthcare, education, infrastructure and more. Anyone campaigning on anything else should be heckled and laughed out of the public square.