Remarks by Prime Minister Edi Rama in Pristina to pay tribute to Arbën Xhaferri life and work:
Good evening everyone!
Thank you very much and I am overwhelmed we summoned to undertake this important obligation related to Arbën Xhaferri five volume work which is an extremely imposing testimony of a remarkable personality in approach as well as atypical in content. Perhaps I am not exaggerating if I say that he is the most atypical philosopher of Albanian contemporary world.
His work is undoubtedly, at least in my modest point of view, an ensemble of unique reflections, expanding from democracy issues and European prospective to the analysis of global geostrategic constellations; from the dissolution of former Yugoslavia to Kosovo war and the conflict in Macedonia while utterly about and in depth of the Albanian matter; from the day-to-day challenges, the Albanian cross-party nature to an as much elaborated fictional and creative as well as philosophical and solid of Albanian parties relation to the state and the nation.
I strongly believe that this is work is an irreplaceable value on each one’s library interested to a deeper insight and to overcome the surface of everyday Albanian life reflections. A persistent and unceasing attempt to redefine national political interests in the light of global, even regional transformations since the end of the Cold War stands behind Arbën Xhaferri’s intellectual commitments.
I also believe that Arbën Xhaferri is in a way the crossroad between the ultimate figure of Albanian Renaissance and the first moderate contemporary thinker, if we always refer to the context of modernity. Being undisputed, the most prominent scholar among politicians and the most distinguished politician among scholars among Albanians, Arbën Xhaferri has been a parable of an extraordinary intellectual and political endeavor since the early 1990s, to think and rethink national politics in the light of new global dynamics.
Having the opportunity of this voluminous work, he finds that he had begun the first scriptures in a double transformation period; The collapse of communism, on one hand, which, among other things, conveyed along with the enthusiasm of a post-national culture, also a post-historic politics. On the other hand, the violent disintegration of Yugoslavia, conveying a new ethno-nationalist momentum.
In this regard even when a considerable part of the Albanian society was still very confused on these relations, due to a world of deteriorating values and a historical reality under way, Arbën Xhaferri cultivated profound and clear thoughts on the interconnection between democracy, between national politics and the West.
In this endeavor, he is the only national contextualizer of global developments and global articulator of national interests. Within this historical and political context, I think the secret is exactly, why all the thematic cornerstone of this work lies precisely on democracy, on the nation and on Europe, the West.
Such work can always serve as a vibrant platform for discussions, reflections and reasonable conclusions, as in this context, Arbën Xhaferri offers both a very specific intellectual analysis and also readable political lessons. It is worth mentioning that since early years, after the collapse of communist regimes, he began to shape the not dissolvable unity between democracy and national interests in general. Perceiving better than anyone else the political developments, that Albanians democratic commitment will function as a political counterweight to other former Yugoslav countries that were still reserved towards Western projects. His emphasis is that the source of the Balkan crisis, especially in the former Yugoslavia region, was precisely the lack of institutional democracy and the political lack of national equality.
However, in the face of these problems, he, must be said, does not simply play the role of a critical commentator, an topic area where Arbën Xhaferri was an uncompetitive intellectual royal, but went beyond and assumed a difficult and controversial role in the nature of the engaged political actor. In the early ‘90s, firstly, he was distinguished on the significant role in the political reorientation of Albanians in Kosovo, in the drive towards democratic trends and Euro-Atlantic integration. Subsequently, in the mid-1990s, he became a sensible, irreplaceable guidance and a powerful supporter of national policies of Albanians in Macedonia.
What impresses, above all, in all this living among a refined intellectual and the involved actor within Albanians daily politics and a not very refined one, are his very innovative political ideas regarding the necessity of building a Macedonian state, according to the consensus principle of the Macedonian and Albanian nation. When did it happen? At a time when the ideas of state’s national rule and appropriation in the name of the democratic majority principle dominated undoubtedly, the entire post-Yugoslav context, including the context in Macedonia.
Likewise, Arbën Xhaferri set a new standard and I think unattainable, in the Albanian political sphere in the region, as a politician who was never reluctant to extend the co-operation hand to political opponents inside and outside the range of Albanians political life, in function of the national interest, often placing, intentionally and fearless, his partial political or party interests under the pressure of common national interest.
In this way, he was transitioned into one of the main global figures of democratic pluralism that arose after the collapse of Yugoslavia, in general and in particular, I believe in the most important public factor of Albanians’ interests.
What makes this figure closely linked to the idea of the nation complete and utterly atypical, as a role model, to not mistaken, by forgetting the other side of the medal, that Arbën Xhaferri was a great admirer of Europe, but not only that, an admirer endowed with an extraordinary recognition of Europe, what is hard to look for, and even harder to find it as such a full component in anyone in the Albanian world that shines on the first component.
Hundreds of pages over constitutionality, regionalization and the intensity of nationalist movements in Europe are indeed impressive!
He has written hundreds of comments on enlargement policies. No one else can say the same thing on anyone, about self-actualization opportunities, and the general relationship between Albanians and the European Union. Arbën Xhaferri serves as a benchmark and an example to not forget at any moment we are found in different dilemmas is his persistence that Albanians’ European path has no alternative, although he underlines that this comprises no compensation to internal social and political problems.
I am saying this because, at this point, we have ample need to remember constantly that, despite internal social and political problems, to us as a nation, the European path has no alternative.
There are so many things to be said and truly, I feel in difficulty, because I feel the burden of responsibility when talking about such a sophisticated author, such as Arbën Xhaferri, but I would to add another component modestly, Arbën Xhaferri has offered a profoundly reformist interpretation of culture and religion, considering them functional in terms of democracy and nationally compatible for almost two decades.
Under this perspective, although in the most advanced academic references of his time, Arbën Xhaferri’s work is a great undertaking of cultural rebirth and is a commitment to the prosperous mutual opportunities between the cross and the crescent- this is the definition of Arbën Xhaferri himself that I would had never have the courage to pronounce – in the light of a common national horizon.
Ultimately, there is another element worth mentioning, the fact that Arbën Xhaferri has not had it easy and brutal accusations and criticisms against him have not lacked. On the contrary, they have been pointless. It seems unthinkable today when he is no longer among us, but when he was, it was often subject to attacks, criticisms, and totally surreal accusations, referring from today’s point of view and if we look from the magnitude of his work, which conveys so much strength and stands in such a shadowy tone that all his accusers today seem like flies.
I would first like to gratefully thank Baton, who became a major impetus for this initiative, where I modestly contributed, together with Linda; Thanking Shkëlzen who among many other things has also a great contribution to me personally, as the person who introduced me to Arbën Xhaferri and it is a luck; Thanking the President who is here, by my side, and that obviously he has valuable things to say, as he has known him closely and have made a rather joint journey with Arbën Xhaferri, I just want to apologize to Arbën Xhaferri, if in everything I said I hurt his intellectual finesse and approached more than necessary because from all the meetings with him, what I always remember, was a phrase he told me when I was at a difficult moment of my life, in the midst of our everyday mud-sling vortex, – as it is stated in the sacred books “Our Father in heaven give us our daily bread” while in Albanian politics it is said ” Our Father in heaven forgive our daily mud” – after, as we talked about the concrete topic and he said in the end: “Solve it as you like, just never forget to keep a hygienic distance from them.” That of the hygienic distance is unforgettable but not always a feasible message, unfortunately. Hence if the President is willing to continue here at the hygiene distance, he may take the floor.
Thank you!
