By Frrok Çupi
Why this title? Well, first of all because the Democratic Party candidate for Shkoder, Gurakuqi, quoted Qemal Stafa instead of Migjeni and then instead of quoting Friedrich Schiller, quoted Migjeni.
Tomorrow, Migjeni may be mixed up with Lekë Plepi.
Lekë Plepi is a young man from Upper Shkodra, known for his talent in “unscrupulous art”, if you like. He’s known to be a famous blogger because he writes anything: vulgar, non-vulgar, true, untrue.... anything. People, especially low classes, follow him and his “fans” make him “famous”. But Leka is also used by TV Klan anchorman, Arian Çani to mock the world, like he says.
But who is Jeronim De Rada?
This is the question: why is De Rada known by fewer people than Lekë Pepa? As time goes by, De Rada will become less known or less known than Leka, Noisy, Jessica, Big Mama and other “stars” of the Albanian stage. All of them have many similarities with Leka, but they are “famous” today. Their fame comes as a result of the fact that they are “worshiped” by two extremes of our society: By common people and politicians.
How can De Rada be known by a 20 year old school girl who is a candidate for Parliament of the Democratic Party and who was nominated just because she stopped at the Tent every day. She doesn’t even know the leader of the DP and this is why she has declared that she will call him “uncle”. SMI and SP also have candidates of this age. But it is not only the biological age, it’s also the age of knowledge which had to serve as a “passport” for public people, such as MPs.
What was the mix up in Shkoder? Candidate for Parliament, Romeo Gurakuqi was known by everyone as an “academic”. At least, Mr. Gurakuqi comes this time in Parliament as an “academic”, while the others cannot even pretend such thing. But even the “culmination” of knowledge in Parliament mistakes Schiller’s 18 century ideas with the communist Qemal Stafa. Then he mistakes Migjeni’s “rebel” ideas with the communist ideas of Qemal Stafa. In today’s speech in Shkoder he declared: “The prophecy of a great poet from Shkodra, Millosh Gjergj Nikolla, Migjeni, has been proven right better than ever before. The old one is collapsing, times are changing, a new life is thriving above the ruins of the informal republic”, Gurakuqi said in front of the people.
The philosophy quotes as Migjen’s has been extracted in an essay by the scholar Qemal Stafa in 1935 and he had obtained these ideas by the German poet Schiller who lived in the 18th century.
So how can the little girl MPs not mistake, for instance, De Rada with Mumajesi? Not only the young ones, but even the grownups who come to Parliament and who used to work as taxi drivers, bouncers, hairdressers, police officers, “problem solvers” have no reason to know about Fishta, Kadare, Pjeter Bogdani, Cabej or Petro Zheji.
What is happening is not worthy of an analysis, it’s just outrageous. If two or three years ago, politicians, media and the “honest” ones were denouncing crime in Parliament, this time, crime is coming more powerful than before. There’s no bigger crime for a nation than to have in power that part of society which has the most “shortage” in intellectual capacities. The mind and knowledge are not just for appearance, but they also serve as a guarantee that there will not be crime, an assurance that governance will be controlled by genius minds. An ignorant naturally opts for crime, while a knowledgeable person keeps away from murder, violence, theft, brutality and arrogance.
Although it is being said that “the old is collapsing and times are changing” (according to Qemal Stafa and not Migjeni), the future Parliament doesn’t change much from the previous “criminalized” Parliament.
What happened in the previous government?
The number of philosophers and sociologists was equal to the number of MPs who have worked as bouncers before.
In previous and current parliamentary publications, the CVs of the Members of Parliament continue to be considered as a “state secret” and an element of political marketing. Why isn’t the CV revealed. Because there’s a contradiction: The leader of the party may accept you as an ignorant and abusive person, but the public cannot.
The absolute majority of MPs (79) had completed their basic education or even advanced education in Tirana’s state universities. Tirana university was followed by the university of Shkodra and then “Kristal” private university. 10 MPs have studied in the university of Kamza and the rest in some local universities, mainly in Korca, Elbasan, etc. Six MPs who have studied in private universities, have in fact completed educational programs which have not yet been officially accredited. 10 MPs started university after they were elected MPs and they continue their studies. And when they say that Parliament is filled with lawyers, the truth is that these lawyers have studied part time or in the evening. These account for one fifth of the Members of Parliament.
Parliament also has a large number of MPs who have completed their military or police formation.
Those who claim that they have studied abroad, have, in fact, studied in Tetovo, Turkey and Romania.
If we compare the 1991 MPs with the ones of the current parliament, then we have made steps backwards. In 1991, we had 52 MPs with scientific titles, while 2014 has another category of politicians; businessmen, builders or processors of narcotic substances. We are going backwards. Don’t think for a moment that we are moving forward. Pjeter Bogdani will be nothing in front of Lekë Plepi. Believe me on this. Now, you can vote!
The republication of this article is strictly forbidden without a written permission from the Albanian Free Press newsroom
Note: The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Albanian Free Press’ editorial policy.
