When there is no law, don’t count on morality

Goran Adamovski

Transfer Anita Angelovska-Bezhoska, Governor of the National Bank of the Republic of North Macedonia, to the Government and appoint her as Finance Minister, and appoint Fatmir Besimi as NB Governor instead.
This, according to the media in Albanian, is the latest condition that Ali Ahmeti’s Democrats have imposed on Prime Minister Zoran Zaev so that the cooperation between the two parties can continue. And it doesn’t even have to be true, it does not change the overall picture of the way in which DUI perceives politics when it is in power. And that is always.
They put their own interests first, and the saddest thing is that they are not at all embarrassed by it, or trying to prove the opposite. Just take a look at the example in Ohrid. Advisor Nebi Usaini has opened the pizza place for which the court decided that it was illegal, and in the protected city area. And he does it just days after UNESCO granted our country one last chance to demolish over 400 illegal buildings by February in order not to be stripped of Ohrid’s special status as a protected area.
What makes the impertinence even worse is inviting his party colleague Ramis Merko, the mayor of Struga, to cut the red ribbon at the grand opening of the restaurant. Merko is a person who has already been accused of cutting deals with the urban mafia in his city. The Audi A6 car, worth 70,000 euros that Merko bought with the money from the municipalities, with “regret” that he only bought a semi-luxury vehicle, seems to be the most transparent business in the pearls of Ohrid Lake.
The shamelessness in the messages sent by that move and the laughing in the public’s face is unbelievable, while the citizens are justifiably screaming at the injustices. And this has nothing to do with their ethnicity, as Merko wanted to falsely impose in his video address he published himself. Even his words that he went to Useini as an old friend sound pathetic. But, yes, he is right when he asks where the public’s anger was until now.
Local sheriffs are not a patented DUI product; on the contrary, every major political party has its own “local powermen”, who do the party’s dirty jobs, and in return, they become untouchables. The promises made by the Prime Minister that their era has ended are in vain. It is neither finished, nor will it end any time soon, under any other power.
The problem is much bigger and deeper than “a little pizza place” even in the center of a tourist city like Ohrid. The years and decades wasted in provincialism cannot be changed with any kind of invitation in elite European and world clubs. Especially when the heads of local power play by small-town rules. Under the veil of great politics, they set up harsh foul plays, while thinking they are petty.
There is another major thing about the DUI officials: the indispensability that they give to themselves. And probably rightfully so, it is not their fault that no government can be formed without them. The comfort they receive by such a role gives them power that has grown steadily and is still growing, giving out the impression that it is impossible to control it. It depends on their voice who will stay, and who will sit on the opposite side of the government building on Ilinden Street. And, therefore, SDSM and VMRO-DPMNE will compete with each other to win the affection of their friends in Mala Recica. One party has to stay silent and tolerate in order to complete its mandate, and the other should not be disregarded because it hopes that they will soon become old-new partners.
Unfortunately, this only happens in a country where laws do not work. And when there is lack of justice, morality is a weak link in the chain of responsibility.