One Ram, two states, no seriousness

Alfred Lela

"We build the state" was one of Edi Rama and the SP's slogans during their governing mandates. Eleven years of their sheer power, if we were to go into sarcasm, it can be said that Rama made Albania so strong, functional, and attractive that he multiplied it, creating the Sovereign state of the Bektashis.

Critics will not agree with the idea that he perfected the state, and the opposition will say the opposite: that he destroyed the state!

That is not the purpose of this piece.

Of course, Rama did not have statesmanship in mind when coming up with the idea. Quite the opposite, he uses the state as a pr-tool. Thus, this publicity stunt of Rama goes against the idea of ​​the state. A secular state that is separate from religion and operates outside of it. Of the state that respects and protects the separation of powers.

Here, we are emphasizing one religious community over another. Unfortunately, and for the first time, Rama is making people talk about a non-topic—that is, about a relationship in the heart of the Muslim religion in Albania that was not talked about before—the Shiite and Sunni.  

By avoiding erecting an intra-Muslim rapport, Albania has benefited greatly. Now, this contrast will shine with its presence and probably become dominant. No one can talk about the consequences on the way for the Albanian nation, but we can already foresee the discomfort. As far as I am concerned, even though I am nominally and practically a Christian, tolerance in a country like ours has not come due to the presence of minorities but of the majority. It is the Albanian Muslims who have enabled tolerance, being the majority, and not the other way around.

This awareness should serve us today and in the future.

Thus, creating a Bektashi enclave, a kind of sovereign state on the capital's outskirts, opens the topic of discomfort, regardless of the desire or inclination for tolerance. A class/caste system within religions. It gives exclusive rights to a few. It promotes a brand of Islam, hiding that it is more of a brand of Albanianness.

In this piece, we will avoid discussing theses that play with the current political situation and the lack of trust in Rama's government and focus on the fear that such a country's (Bektashi Sovereign State) bank, passports, etc., can be used for extra-religious and extra-state purposes. Albanians and internationals have seen these highlights in the idea of ​​fiscal amnesty, suspicious money in the construction sector, cannabisation of the territory, etc.

But we must return to Rama and his connections with the propaganda system (PR). The risk that a small state, like that of the Bektashis, will turn into a satellite of Rama is great. He will use the state, which occupies part of his capital, as an opportunity to curate his national and international public image.

The word 'sovereign' in a ministate inside Albania is a mask that does not fit every face, a declaration that no one believes. The Prime Minister has proven that the separation of powers is not a theory or practice of democracy, which he exercises. In this sense, the sovereignty of the "Bektashi Vatican" is a fairy tale.

As is the attempt to clothe the new state with the symbols of religious tolerance. If you want to know Rama's tolerance, remember that he has embraced a crude version of Islam that Turkish President Erdogan represents. In the service of this connection, he has closed schools, deported individuals, and persecuted ideas related to a milder variant of Islam, which comes from Turkey, Gülenism. The same prime minister forcibly threw several hundred Albanian children onto the streets, students of the Mehmet Akif school network, as a defender not of tolerance but of state and religious arrogance.

So, both those who conceive it and those who support it must beware of this new Rama mask. It doesn't take a new country to recognize the behaviors of the same man.