Remarks by U.S. Ambassador Alexander A. Arvizu at the Albanian Council on Foreign Relations (April 13, 2011)

Ambassador Nesho, Minister Imami, Members of Parliament, friends and colleagues from the diplomatic corps.  I would like to thank all of you for coming on this wonderful day and for the opportunity to speak with you today.  I have to caution in advance, this is not a short speech. I think it won’t be as long as the Top Story interview, but it will be a long speech.
Let me begin by saying something on the Albanian Council on Foreign Relations. The Council plays an important role here in Albania by providing a neutral setting for policy makers as well as those interested in better policy to discuss important issues. Albania's foreign policy has been remarkably constructive and consistent over the years, resulting in Albania's role as one of the real stabilizing forces in what has been historically an unstable region.  I'd like to think that the Council on Foreign Relations, together with other organizations such as the Albanian Institute for International Studies, has played a constructive role in helping to inform Albania’s foreign policy.
As a career diplomat, I obviously have a great fondness for the subject of foreign policy and foreign relations.  But today I would like to focus more on domestic issues affecting all Albanians, but also certainly influencing Albania's relationship with the United States and especially the European Union.  I'll start first with the upcoming local elections, but I certainly want to spend the bulk of my time looking beyond these elections towards Albania's Euro-Atlantic future.
Over the past several weeks I've taken a number of trips around Albania, to the cities of Elbasan, Kukës, Vlora, Lushnje, Berat, Shkodër and Fier, and others. I really wanted to travel as much as possible around Albania, not just because I'm relatively new to the country, but also to get a better feel for the issues people are facing outside of Tirana and to better understand how the local elections are being viewed around the country.
Local elections often get less attention than national elections.  This is certainly the case in the United States, where voter turnout and press attention for local elections tends to lag far behind that for congressional or presidential elections.  But in terms of representing the true spirit of democracy, or what we think of as rule by the people, it certainly seems to me that local elections, where the candidates and elected officials live literally side by side with their constituents and see them every day – those are a closer reflection of the idealized democracy, more so than national elections. 
That is the main reason why I find local politics such a refreshing change from politics at the national level.  Simply put, at the local level, you can't hide from the voters.  As a mayor or member of the local city council for a small city or town, you either produce results or get pushed aside by the voters.  This became immediately obvious when I met with mayors and other elected officials around the country. These elected officials want to talk about things such as roads, electricity, water, education, health care, and creating jobs.  Not surprisingly, these are the same kinds of issues that are on the minds of voters when I meet with Albanians around the country.  Too often, what I hear from both the local officials and the voters themselves, is that the overly-partisan atmosphere around the country, but especially here in the capital of Tirana – what we often call the “political impasse” – is hindering their ability to provide services at the local level.  Certainly there is partisanship and political intrigue at the local level, too, but what I find encouraging, time and again, is that local officials can never stray too far from the issues that are most on the minds of the voters.
Now, this isn't to say that the local elections are strictly a local affair.  The United States, the European Union, OSCE/ODIHR, as well as others, are watching these elections closely. How the elections are conducted will have major implications for Albania's path towards the E.U.  ODIHR has recognized the importance of these elections by agreeing to send a full-scale observer mission. This is going to include potentially up to 300 short- term election observers. This is out of the plain recognition that even though these are local elections, they are of real national, and I would argue, even regional and international importance.  The U.S. is spending over $350,000 in support of these elections, mostly by funding and training domestic election observers.  When planning our assistance for the local elections, we made a conscious choice to support a major domestic monitoring effort. This effort involves thousands of Albanians from civil society, because we believe strongly that elections in Albania will never fully meet OSCE standards until Albanians themselves demand that they do so.  The U.S. Government has also provided a technical expert to the Central Election Commission.   
And this brings me to an important point.  As much as the international community is focused on these elections, as much assistance as we provide to civil society and the Central Election Commission, and as many international observers as we bring to observe the local elections, we can never forget that these are Albanian elections, managed by and for the sake of Albanians.  It is Albanians alone who can ensure the success of these elections.  That is a key concept for any democracy – that the fate of the country lies within the hands of the people.  Stated very frankly, the Americans and the so-called Internationals cannot want this to happen more than you do.  Last year President Obama told a class of graduating university students, “We, the people, hold in our hands the power to choose our leaders and change our laws, and shape our own destiny.”  Translated into terms for May 8, what I’m really saying here is that it is important for all Albanians to get out, to listen to the various candidates, and hopefully to vote accordingly!
As for the role of the international community, and specifically the role of the United States in these elections, I want to be very clear.  We are not the referee and we are not the judge here.  We have no formal role in these elections. That role is reserved to the local electoral commissions, the Central Election Commission, and the Electoral College.  ODIHR and the international community have a deep and abiding interest in these elections. And ODIHR and others will observe and assess them, and will occasionally step in to try to assist here and there where we can. But we are not the arbiter or the referee.
The Electoral Code clearly and intentionally puts the burden for shepherding good elections on the political parties themselves.  It is incumbent on all of the the major parties to do their utmost to participate constructively in this election process.  In 2008, the DP and SP reached a broad and deep consensus on the current electoral code.  We are now only a few weeks away from the May 8 elections. It is up to the two major parties in particular to make it work in support of good elections.  Both of these parties created an electoral system that puts them at the very center of the electoral process.  And so, it is only through their constructive participation at all levels of this process that the elections will be successful.  ODIHR’s final report on the 2009 general elections put it best in the first recommendation. Now, I’m sure most of you memorized it, but it is in the speech, so I am going to read it. It says, “Parties should demonstrate the political will for the conduct of democratic elections commensurate with the broad privileges they enjoy under the law in regard to the conduct of elections. They should discharge their electoral duties in a responsible manner for the general interest of Albania.”
We, as the international community, and I, as the personal representative of President Obama, together with Deputy Secretary Steinberg and Deputy Assistant Secretary Countryman, have made our expectations for these elections very clear.  It goes without saying that we want – and I know that all Albanians join us in this wish – to see an election that is free from violence.  We want to see an electoral process that is transparent and carried out according to the law.  We hope very much to see an election that is judged by ODIHR as an improvement over previous elections.  And once the ODHIR assessment for these elections is made – and after the elections are certified by the Central Election Commission and Electoral College, in accordance with Albanian laws – we expect all parties will honor and accept the results of the elections, win or lose.   
On November 5, in 2008, the night of the U.S. presidential election, after it became clear that he would not win the election, Senator John McCain stood before thousands of his supporters and conceded defeat.  It was an incredibly difficult moment for Senator McCain and his supporters, following a hard-fought and very contentious campaign.  Nevertheless, Senator McCain told the crowd that had gathered; he said, "I urge all Americans who supported me to join me in not just congratulating Senator Obama, but offering our next president our goodwill and earnest effort to find ways to come together to find the necessary compromises to bridge our differences. . .  It's natural, tonight, to feel some disappointment. But tomorrow, we must move beyond it and work together to get our country moving again."            
But just as elections are only one part of any democracy, the May 8 elections are only one small step in Albania's transition towards the European Union and eventually full integration into the Euro-Atlantic community.  For the rest of my time this afternoon, I want to look beyond the local elections to the challenges that will face Albania after the local elections.
Elections, of course, are extremely exciting to watch.  For political enthusiasts, such as me, it is easy to get caught up in the drama of the campaign, to focus on the daily and even hourly shifts of momentum.  Particularly in a tight race, such as we now see in Tirana, between experienced, motivated candidates, it becomes easy to focus so much on the race that we forget the end goal.
As I said yesterday in Elbasan, we should never forget that politics and political campaigns are simply a means to an end, with that end being good governance that serves the broader interest of the society.  Disagreements over policies are a good and necessary thing – civilized debate being a valuable part of any democracy and something that can help build better policies with broader support.  But taken to extremes, this partisanship can lead to gridlock and paralysis.  Uncontrolled partisanship can literally tear a country apart by making it nearly impossible for people who have legitimate but bridgeable differences to sit down together and reach some form of compromise.  To label an opponent as a murderer, as a thief – and worse sometimes – robs the country of intelligent and serious debate. And it is intelligent and serious debate that is sorely needed now to address the very real and very big challenges facing the country.  I want to quote my President again, on the subject of uncontrolled rhetoric: “It coarsens our culture, and at its worst, it can send signals to the most extreme elements of our society that perhaps violence is a justifiable response.”
 
Over two hundred years ago, our fourth President James Madison wrote the Federalist Paper Number 10 and this became one of the most influential tracts in American history.  In this paper, President Madison wrote at length about the perceived damaging effects of partisanship and how to control it.  Indeed, President Madison and many of his contemporaries believed that political parties and other interest groups were little more than a necessary evil, whose interests were "adverse to the rights of other citizens, or to the permanent and aggregate interests of the community."  Even today, one of the most common complaints voiced by American voters is the hyper-partisan atmosphere they see in Washington.        
Of course, this is not to say that political parties and interest groups are all bad – in fact in many ways developed parties and interest groups, including civil society, form the basis of any democratic society.  Political scientists believe that real democratic development is almost impossible without reasonably developed political parties.  For this reason, the United States Government, working through NGOs such as the National Democratic Institute – many know it as NDI – and the International Republican Institute – or the IRI – focuses its democracy promotion efforts in many countries on party-building efforts.  In countries such as Albania, political parties have proven to be extremely effective in providing a voice to individuals who have come together with a common purpose.  Working separately, these voices probably would not be heard, but in concert with thousands or even millions of other like-minded people, they can create an unstoppable force.  In modern history, political parties have proven to be the single most effective means of aggregating and articulating the political aspirations of the people.   But again, we must remember that parties and partisanship do little if they do not eventually lead to policies that benefit the society as a whole.    
Two weeks ago at the opening campaign rally for the Socialist Party, Mayor Rama said during his speech that, "Politics should become the driving force of ideas and projects, so that we can be the inspiration of civic coexistence."  I agree with him completely. Political debate, elections and partisanship are not ends or goals in and of themselves.  Instead, they are a means to an end, a way for our political leaders to come up with and agree upon ideas and policies that benefit the society as a whole, and that strengthen our countries and our societies.  In Albania, it is this kind of governance for the benefit of the people, by successive Democratic and Socialist governments, that has pulled Albania up from being among the poorest, most isolated countries in the world to becoming a democratic member of NATO with recently the highest economic growth rates in the continent.    
Unfortunately, over the past two years, this progress has slowed dramatically.  As reflected in the November 2010 European Commission Opinion on Albania, not enough has been done since 2009 to move Albania forward on its path to European integration.  Judicial, electoral and other reforms have been blocked.
It is time for Albania’s political leaders to put their differences aside to once again focus their efforts on Albania’s future.   
Understandably, our focus for the next six weeks will be on the preparations for and certification of the local elections.  However, once the elections are behind us, I call on all Albanian parties and political leaders, on the media and civil society, to focus anew on Albania's European future. I call on everyone to commit to do the necessary hard work and make the difficult decisions and compromises needed to move the country forward. And as I said, only Albanians and their elected leaders can decide on the country's priorities moving forward. But I would like to humbly offer the following few suggestions as possible starting points, and all of these were highlighted in our Human Rights Report publicized last Friday:
The first issue concerns immunity. Albania has made impressive progress over the past ten years in combating corruption.  Successful implementation of the MCC Threshold Program has done much to reduce opportunities for corruption, particularly at the mid-levels of government. But, more progress is necessary.  The key to moving Albania to the next level in the fight against corruption is the removal of broad immunity provisions for Members of Parliament, judges, and high government officials.  Although immunity from prosecution and investigation may have played a useful and necessary role at one time in Albania's history, it no longer does so. Instead, it has become a shield behind which corrupt officials too often hide.  No one is immune from the law; everyone should stand equal before it.  I therefore urge the Parliament to amend the constitution to remove immunity protections.  Doing so will give all Albanians more confidence in their judicial sector and elected officials, and will allow the country to move ahead in the fight against corruption.
The second issue concerns TVSH. State television rightly belongs to all the people of Albania, and not to just one political party or the other.  Albania's media reflects many different points of view, but the fact is that too many media outlets in Albania – both print and electronic – are not truly independent. Too often, they are under the direct influence of political parties or business interests.  I therefore urge the government and opposition to work together to find a way to make state television a truly independent station, one that is free from outside political influence and that serves the needs and interests of all Albanians.  Albania desperately needs independent and credible sources of information – and a first good step would be to put TVSH under the direction of an independent board of directors, with an independent budget. 
The third issue concerns land reform. In the four months since I arrived in Albania, one of the few things on which everyone seems to agree is the need for land reform, for more clear titling and ownership of land.  The World Bank, USAID, and other international organizations and donors have also identified this as one of Albania's most pressing needs.  North and south, from large cities to tiny villages, and from major businesses to the smallest households, the lack of clear property rights and the inability to easily secure clear titles to land is currently the single largest impediment to greater foreign investment in Albania.  Along with corruption, the difficulty of buying and obtaining clear and unchallenged ownership of property unnecessarily scares away too many foreign and Albanian investors.  I realize this is an extremely difficult issue to solve.  Many pieces of property are claimed by multiple people, and finding win-win solutions will be extremely difficult.  But if Albania is to compete successfully with its neighbors for foreign investment, and if Albania is to do justice to the hundreds of thousands of Albanians unable to secure clear property rights, the government and parliament must find a way to tackle this issue.
The fourth issue – there are only five, so we are almost there. The fourth issue is judicial reform and, perhaps I should have covered this topic first, because without an effective, independent judiciary, no country can tackle corruption or sort out property rights.  But for two years, Albania's judicial sector has been hurt by the Parliament's inability to pass critically needed reforms, such as the Law on the Judicial Conference and the Law on Administrative Courts.  A new Criminal Procedure Code is also being drafted – a code that will dramatically strengthen and modernize the ability of the judicial sector to effectively enforce the law.  Although drafting such a code will take time, my government is committed to working with Albanian authorities to help make this new Code a reality.  In addition, I urge the political parties, the Parliament, and the President of the Republic to re-commit to the principle of an independent judiciary and prosecution, one that is free from outside political influence.  Removing immunity for judges and other officials along with a re-commitment to the principle of an independent judiciary and prosecution could do more than perhaps any other steps in terms of combating corruption and putting Albania back solidly on the path towards the E.U. 
And the fifth and final area that I offer for your consideration is a less partisan electoral system. After all this, we circle back and it is all back to the elections and Albania's electoral system.  The current Electoral Code puts the burden of carrying out good elections on the political parties themselves.  I understand why such a system was put in place – who better to watch over one party and keep it honest than the opposing political party?  But in the long run, this kind of electoral system does little more than create an entire electoral process that is built on mistrust and mutual suspicion.  The system itself gives each party the incentive to block and obstruct because each party has the power to obstruct the entire electoral process.  Going back to James Madison and the Federalist Papers, Madison wrote in 1787, "Complaints are everywhere heard from our most considerate and virtuous citizens, . . . that the public good is disregarded in the conflicts of rival parties.  No man is allowed to be a judge in his own cause; because his interest would certainly bias his judgment, and, not improbably, corrupt his integrity. With equal, nay with greater reason, a body of men are unfit to be both judges and parties at the same time."  Yet this is exactly what the current electoral code does – it makes the political parties the plaintiff, the defendant, the judge and the jury all for the same trial.  In its final assessment of the 2009 general elections, ODIHR rightly cited the lack of political will on the part of the political parties as the major obstacle to elections that are fully up to Albania’s OSCE commitments.  And here I would like to quote from the report itself: “. . . substantial improvements were overshadowed by the politicization of technical aspects of the process, including during the vote count and tabulation, which temporarily blocked the counting process in some areas, as well as by violations observed during the election campaign. These actions of political parties undermined public confidence in the election process.” Therefore I urge the political parties to find ways to shift Albania's political system away from a process administered by the parties toward one more dependent upon neutral civil servants or volunteers, without ties to any of the parties. 
This is a lot to think about. Obviously, this is not easy or else it probably would have been done by now. But I believe that with the right will, these are achievable and I believe they enjoy broad support.  Albania has made so much progress in the past 20 years.  When I began my career in the Foreign Service in 1981, to think of Albania as a NATO member, to think about Albanians having the right to travel freely around Europe, or to have the Albanian government invite OSCE to observe democratic elections – this was simply inconceivable.  It is easy to take these things for granted and yet there is still much more for Albania to achieve.  This is what I hear when I travel around the country and listen to what Albanians have to say.  Albanians tell me, yes, we have achieved a great deal and we are very proud of that fact.  But we want to do that and much, much more.  I want to close this address with another quote by an American president, this one from Abraham Lincoln. This was an address by President Lincoln to the Congress shortly after the start of the Civil War. He urged his listeners to think in new and different ways about the challenges facing the country.  Old styles of thinking, he warned, could no longer help the country deal with its new reality.  "The dogmas of the quiet past", he said, "are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise -- with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew." 
Today, Albania too faces a similar moment.  Although certainly the situation in Albania today is not as dire as that faced by the United States during the Civil War, it is nonetheless a critical time for Albania. It is a critical time because the unbridled political warfare and partisan hardball of the past now only serve to hold Albania back and prevent the country from realizing its full democratic potential.  Despite these recent setbacks, I have absolute confidence in the ability of the Albanian people and their leaders to face and overcome these difficult challenges.  But the Albanian people need to demand, of their politicians, that they demonstrate the political will and the political courage to do this.  Twenty years ago Albanians overthrew the most vicious communist dictatorship in Europe and they opened the gateway to a Euro-Atlantic future.  The challenge ahead – it is so clear, but it is also so elusive - is to put aside, find a way to put aside partisan differences just for long enough to commit once again to Albania's future, for the sake of all Albanians. 
This is a lot for me to get through standing up here. I am sure it was a lot for you to get through sitting there. I thank you for your patience and for your attention.