Why the release of Abi Malltez does not free him; much less Albania

Alfred Lela

Abi Malltezi regained physical freedom today. He can drink coffee in the neighborhood, go for a walk, meet friends, and go to the beach with his family. In this sense, he will see freedom as liberation and retribution. But, 20 months of Malltezi under a demonstrative handcuff, under a 'prison arrest' to inspire fear, followed by 1.5 years of home isolation, cannot be spent with the joy of him/her being returned to normality.

The entire scene where Malltez and his family were forcibly taken away has been and remains abnormal and undemocratic. Abnormal in itself and abnormal in contrast to other events/phenomena. This abnormality was not rebalanced today with his release. On the contrary, the release makes us aware that whoever does not accept the abnormality, whoever stands up against it, physically or symbolically, suffers it.

In short, Malltezi's story can be summarized in a few lines: a descendant of a local family with properties in Tirana, he takes the land of his blood - after two decades of wandering - and develops a part of it. There is no doubt that the land belonged to Tirana families, two of which Malltezi is the heir. Without any conflict, in agreement with the parties, he decides to develop the inherited property. The other owners are contracted and the occupiers are compensated; a part of the land is even left as a waqf (charity) to develop a school for the community.

The story that the land of the 'Partizani' club was taken is publicity, not reality. Sports clubs are today private business enterprises, and as such must operate according to the laws of the market. The introduction of the name "Partizani" is done only to give a pseudo-public appearance to a land that does not belong to the state, and even less to 'Partizani', as a former state entity. As you say, it is better for Olsi, since he is the President of the team and the brother of the PM, to take the land of 'Partizani', than for Abi, or anyone else, on his property.

The 'mathematics' of public property are so simple, but what confuses this is Abi as a 'political' and symbolic asset in the opponent's court. Malltezi as a target targeted for so long - to ensure the publicity of 'we are building a state' and the anti-publicity of 'it's Saliu and his men's fault', and from whom the edge of the attack should not be moved. The heir who must be persecuted, to tell other heirs, 'Don't raise your heads for the lands that were taken from you in Tirana or Breg by the partners of X and Y!'.

Abi Malltezi was persecuted, arrested, and isolated as a test of strength, political revenge, and a preview of what was to come in the construction market. It should not be Malltezi on trial, but those segments of the state and justice that use the system selectively, to amplify messages addressed to society, critics, or political opponents.

Malltezi is not a convict and a persecuted person, but an illustration of the installation of the real estate regime.

Political Albania is no more, it has become a real estate homeland. The Architecture Festival, where all the last shares were distributed, was the final act of establishing Albania as a history-geography of real estate, an interweaving of public and private properties that go to big builders in favor of power, to then produce a laissez-faire tourism where the caste of developers and builders is kept in power through local rent and the diversification of these profits into the regional and global market.

Abi Malltezi was the last of the Mohicans of owners and developers who operate within the constraints of logic, law, community, and homeland. Those who are coming, the Janissary-Masons with Chief Architect Ed at the top, are not liberators of the country's potential, but local invaders. They are not modernizing Albania, but are Albanianizing its modernity.

Remember that the last 'Albanianization' of a foreign ism was the Stalinist Marxism of Enver Hoxha and his gang.

The residential complex of Abi Malltezi and his partners on the outskirts of Tirana is the last brick of a Tirana and Albania that is being built as a community, not as Babel.

This Babel is nothing to him, and Rama's phrase "you haven't seen anything yet" is nothing.