As most of you who follow should be aware, this time of the year most of the media have been devoting a lot of attention to the initiation of the process whereby all Albanian citizens will be equipped with new identity cards with will ensure more transparent results in the upcoming general elections as well as fulfill a part of the requirements for joining the Europan Union.
My good old friend Gjergj Erebara, posted recently about this same issue, which made me reconsider the need to post about it here.
He says:
“In these last days Albanian politics has made it clear that even the most elementary rights of people, like the right to travel, the right to receive you own money or other such rights which stem from a labor contract, are completely useless, if the citizens of this country don’t give a *** about getting their own identity card, which at this juncture is not very useful to most of them, however very much so to the government and the opposition.”
He then goes on to detail the reasons why such a forced push, with restrictive implications for the right of people to travel or simply get paid, is reminiscent of the times of communism where people were forced to do what those in power wanted.
Now, let me make some things clear as to my personal position. I do not oppose the need for all Albanian citizens to be equipped with their own identity cards, since there are clearly many benefits to be had. However, it is completely preposterous to “force” people to do it by means which clearly violate their citizen rights.
