Small tip, big shame and а bigger slant

Ilo Trajkovski

Life goes on. Better yet, the struggle for life in this country continues. No matter what happens! Whether the heads of state or government of the EU member states have given us a date or not, we will continue to act the way we have so far. Even if we are given a date under the conditions set by France, we will still be who we are. And what we are actually makes us different from the Europeans – such as, for instance, the Finns, Danes, Germans and others. The French are not that far off that profile, I would say closer to us than to them. But it is precisely the French that like us the least, accompanied by the Kosovars and the Albanians. Why that is, perhaps one day we will find out, or we will be told because it is highly unlikely we’ll find out the truth on our own.
According to my assumption, the countries in the territory of former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia join the EU either with the help of German or French sponsorship. The two sponsors have an agreement on equal division of the area of ​​influence in that territory and in the Balkans as a whole. But their internal resources for planned EU enlargements are different. The German economy is proving to be more eager for work force and new markets than the French. I don’t think that the strong push for Macedonia and Albania to join the EU is a step for Germany to take over the French map. I would rather say that it is a matter of mismatching the enlargement dynamics, especially after the stalled Euro-integration processes in Serbia-Montenegro. Developments in that regard with Serbia, the only Balkan country that has the status of a strategic partner of France, have in one way or another influenced Macedonia and Albania.
But let’s go back to our daily lives that continue to move on, with or without a date. As they have after the EU’s promise in June to keep returning to our issue. And this life of ours is just like a masquerade – shiny on the outside, rotten on the inside. You see the man graduated from medical school, made a shiny professional career for himself and, moreover, upgraded it with public reputation and function – he became deputy healthcare minister! And! It all went sour! For a 50 euro tip, the man embarrassed himself, embarrassed his family and his profession and, most importantly, his political party!
We found out about his personal ebarassment from him personally. During a press conference, he spoke about it and in the name of it, he resigned from his post. He also partially told of the shame he had inflicted on his family and on his profession.
But neither his family nor the profession are actors that would emerge to say how embarrassed they are by his act. That is why the party from whose ranks he was proposed when filling the post of deputy healthcare minister expressly showed up. DUI Secretary Artan Grubi spoke on the party’s behalf. He, in turn, on behalf of the party that co-opted the incriminated Deputy Healthcare Minister expressed absolute and uncompromising support for the fight against corruption and for non-selective justice. So far, it seems quite European.
But in his very next sentence, Grubi said who was who and what was what here in our country. He talked with the typical, as the French call le discours balkanique, Balkan vocabulary. According to Paul Garde, it is a coded speech that uses words that have a different meaning in the local context than in the wider context, outside Europe, for example. In that speech the sender of the message uses the words to construct a partial vision in which the disputed event or occurrence will have the least negative impact on one’s own party, nation, or the like. In that sense, answering a journalist’s question whether he believes the deputy healthcare minister was framed and not guilty, Grubi says: “With his resignation alone, that case has already been resolved for both us and the institutions…” What is “Balkan” in this speech?
The fact that he equates the private with the public, the party with the state interest and the vision of the case. And he has no right to do it, neither politically nor consciously. For him or his party, the resignation of Deputy Minister Asim Musa may be a sufficient condition for closing or resolving the case. It is their private matter to what extent they will maintain the threshold of tolerance and understanding of corruption. But it is not his or his party’s job to say that the case is closed to the institutions. And they do exactly that. They estimated it and said that the institutions should no longer investigate this case.
This statement certainly does not fall into the category of impact trading, but it has a clear purpose – to influence institutions not to engage further in resolving the case. And most likely the institutions will listen. Everything will end in personal shame. He will try to capitalize, with a slant, on the party (DUI) to present itself as an uncompromising fighter against corruption. The cost will be paid by public institutions. They will remain blocked.