Justice for Ali
Goran Adamovski
Next week will be exactly nine months since the Special Public Prosecutor’s Office, for the first and last time, has mentioned DUI leader Ali Ahmeti in its cases. As a partner of Nikola Gruevski, they worked together to prevent the census in 2011 from happening. The investigation against him never seems to be finished. Perhaps because the “Special prosecutors” have no opportunity to file charges on that subject because they haven’t got the authority. Well, it turns out that Ahmeti was mentioned pro forma just to please the anger of the furious public that no DUI official was held accountable for anything, as if they were sparring for VMRO-DPMNE in training while they were together in government, not an equal partner on the table and under the table.
However, the then opposition was careful with the wiretapped conversations that it shared in the public, so that none of the future coalition partners comes up on the recordings, although, of course, there were a few errors, so we heard about some bargaining arrangement, petty bidding or gentle whispers.
That’s why we are surprised that Ahmeti nowadays clearly states that it is somewhat insulting if someone asks him whether he is afraid of investigations and the disclosure of truth. He, as a prominent fighter for justice, insists that the one who has violated the trust of the voters must be held accountable before the justice authorities, for all cases from 2002 onwards, but on condition that there is no selective justice, justice should not be put into effect for one particular group or for goals that cannot be solved. He points out that people must not stand in front of a wall with unconfirmed allegations in a regular trial.
If people from outside listened to him, they would think that the man is an idealist and leader of the democratic elite in the country, and not a person who has been the leader of the Ilinden Street company for ten years now. He only changes partners. He changes the ministers he appoints, because they do not set themselves to manage effectively, but only to fill the agreed number of DUI ministers. To make things more ironic, DUI led by the Ministry of Justice since 2011, and had a great opportunity to reform the judiciary, which is now mentioned by Ahmeti.
Unfortunately, the names of the ministers are only remembered by the Internet. With Blerim Bexheti, for instance, the media are more interested in him that after being appointed as a mayor of Saraj, he made the decision to release NLA veterans from paying communal expenses. Bilen Saliu, on the other hand, was persistent to park on the sidewalk in front of the ministry building with the official Mercedes. Thanks to that, there are now poles placed before the Ministry of Justice. Adnan Jashari and Valdet Xhaferi at least tried not to do greater damage, since they are of no help. It’s not their fault that they are ministers.
Ahmeti knows that in politics nothing last forever except personal interest, so he is cautious so as not to have another case against him with the skeletons from the closets like the “Patient’ case against Bujar Osmani. It’s not as if he is afraid while this is a constellation of forces in Macedonian politics and society. For the time being, he duly fulfills what is required of him. He’s just being careful.
And nonchalant to comment that it was certainly not easy for Gruevski to make a decision to leave the country, waiting and giving him the opportunity to explain in greater detail the reasons for such a move. He let us make the decision for ourselves whether he was appealing for “everyone should be held accountable for what they did, but not to have selective justice, and to be put in effect for a particular group or goals”.
Ahmeti’s tactics is great: he is constantly part of the government, and he constantly behaves as if he is part of the opposition. As if he is not consulted about anything, so he cannot change the processes and conditions. Except, those who are in the coalition do not realize that he will eventually change them too.