By Plator Nesturi
It would be a paradox for every country when there’s a debate between the government and the Academy of Science. Both of them have an important role in the affairs of a state and national interests. Of course, their role differs in different countries, depending on specific conditions, tradition in culture and science and the relation that the politician, academic and the citizen have with each other. In France or Great Britain, a declaration of the head of the Academy where he would criticize the government on different aspects of its policy, would cause a political earthquake and would even cause ministers or the entire government to fall. This sort of earthquake could even be caused by the Director of the Philharmonic Orchestra or the Art Gallery. But the valence of an academic is always deeper and more alarming if he displays tendencies that do not serve to science, scientific community and society.
Let us return to our “garden” now. We have a government which has been elected to take care of the country’s affairs and we also have an Academy of Science, for which we remember that it exists when there are elections for its chairman. It’s not that there are not honorable names inside of this institution or that it hasn’t had a tradition of achievements in the past, but it has really become insensitive. And if it has made it to the headlines again, it’s because of the elections for its chairman and the debate that has been prompted on the reform inside of it and where Prime Minister Rama was involved. Everything started with a letter by Prof. Fuga addressed to the head of the government on the necessity of a deep transformation in the functioning of the Academy. The debate continued with a reaction by Prof. Paskal Milo on the way the elections were being held, blocking the changes that this institution needs so much.
While there was no debate on the stances expressed by the two prominent names of letters and academic world, the storm started on the day of the election for the head of the academy. The rotation, where Mr. Gudar Beqiraj, former vice chairman, becomes chairman of the academy and Mr. Korkuti, former chairman, is elected vice chairman, showed that nothing was changing. The involvement of PM Rama in the debate, declaring that he wanted this farce to end and that if this institution was not reformed, then the funds for science would be transferred to universities, did nothing else but create more tension. Former chairman Mr. Myzafer Korkuti said that the Prime Minister doesn’t have an in-depth knowledge of the situation and reminded that the Academy is an independent institution from the government. Then there were clarifications that there are several variants for the reformation of the Academy, with institutes or without institutes inside of it and that the decision to reform the institution is in the hands of the new team. However, this doesn’t calm the situation down, because “war” was declared. On one side there’s the government with its funds and on the other there’s the Academy, which claims that its dignity has been insulted.
In every other country, this would be considered an absurdity. No government would dare to openly use the funds as a threat to have an influence on the Academy. But no other country has an Academy, which, despite appeals for change and reformation, is insensitive and doesn’t reflect on increasing the efficiency of its true scientific values. A dual absurdity, because if the government would simply interfere in order to exert its influence in an effective academy and lowering the dignity of several wise men of this country, then everyone would support the academy and the cultural values of the nation. But when we have an insensitive academy, which has not taken a stance and has not raised problems in the best interest of society, when all we see is apathy, then the scale of dignity falls. The lack of transparency during all these years, whereby after the last debate that was held we learn that there are two or three variants for the reformation of this institution and where this has not become part of the constructive debates in the best interest of the institution, puts the academic values miles away, to an extent that these values cannot be compared to the weight of that French academic who could cause a political earthquake and where politicians would not even dare to interfere in the work of the institution. But we’re in Albania and absurdity is omnipresent. Even in the Academy of Science.
Note: The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Albanian Free Press’ editorial policy
