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OP-ED

Meta-Salianji, the attempt to undo the right to rhetoric of the political opponent

Politiko 2024-10-23 13:53:23

Meta-Salianji, the attempt to undo the right to rhetoric of the political

Alfred Lela

As never before, critics and opponents of the opposition in the media agreed that the arrest of former President Meta was a violent and tasteless overreach, not only of police and legal powers. It is essential to emphasize that this behavior is not a matter of style or measure but explains how power comes over the state and order over the law.

Although the bandit's unprofessionalism of the masked policemen shows that, in Albania, payback is more critical than the process, we must stop here because behind this lies a great danger.

As in the case when the policemen were avenging themselves (Meta insulted them), as when they were avenging their bosses in the ministry, or even if they were doing it for Duman and Rama, with whom the president of PL is stuck in rhetorical battles (abuse), the violation remains.

The risk that this brutality brings, firstly if it is not identified and accepted, and secondly if it is not opposed, is alarming for every operator of the public space in Albania, from politicians to analysts or civil society actors.

If the protagonists of the justice system cannot delve into the 'intellectual crimes' of power, they must clarify what a political actor is. By definition, a protagonist of politics is an actor of rhetoric, that is, he has discourse, speech, narrative as the first instrument of appearance and confrontation with and in the public space. I use this instrument within an extensive framework called freedom of expression. Rhetoric within the freedom of expression comes and meets with a third dimension, which is the style of the one who carries or makes the rhetoric, which differs from one individual to another according to the formation, background, ideology, mission, etc.

After securing this notion, it strikes him that Ilir Meta has been arrested in that form for his rhetorical style, within the freedom of expression, as a political actor. So it is an absurd and thuggish arrest. It's like arresting, in violation of any police and legal protocol, Donald Trump, who a few days ago said publicly that, for the first time, he realized that men could also have periods when he saw Tim Walz (the Democratic candidate for vice/ President). Or for thousands of his jokes and statements that even these SPAK, GjKKO, and Police must have seen (if not read) through memes (also translated into Albanian).

Where is the danger for politicians and any other actors of the public space after the 'Meta precedent,' set in a bandit way by the Police with orders from elsewhere? It creates an apparatus of censorship and self-censorship among them since they have subliminally recorded what happened to Meta. In this way, not only has the main instrument of public communication - rhetoric - been undone, but it has also gone against the precedent. The same precedent can be used tomorrow against Rama when he is not in power. There will always be policemen who, in the zeal of the idiot, are fired after every whistle of the next boss, not knowing how to separate the order from the law. Professional extortionists will always be unable to split power from the state.

Such was proved, for example, by the Minister of the Interior when, for the second time, he took the side of police violence and (what is gallant) did so using political rhetoric. So, the same instrument for which he punishes and hits Meta, he recognizes the right to use without limit. Automatically, here we fall into the definition of an authoritarian or dictatorial state: You do not allow your opponent the same means of freedom. There is no other definition of dictatorship for all those who open their eyes when you tell them that the country is slipping into its pit.

Even the PD deputy, Salianji, is a martyr of political rhetoric. He has spoken and suffered. He has taken proven facts or data he conceived as facts and made them public through rhetoric. That's why he's in jail.

Those political and media actors on the side of power are within their right not to accept this definition, but they must be ready because the seed of the precedent is like weeds. It perseveres and sprouts wildly, often even when you think you have uprooted it.