"In the Academy of Sciences?"/ Artan Fuga: This is why I did not run, but voted against!

2023-10-21 08:33:00, Opinione Artan Fuga

"In the Academy of Sciences?"/ Artan Fuga: This is why I did not run,

Academician Artan Fuga

Dear representatives of the media,

By means of this communication, through you, I inform the intellectual, scientific opinion, all interested public opinion, regarding my positions regarding the process of electing the president of the Academy of Sciences in the Republic of Albania, carried out yesterday on October 20, 2023.

I had decided not to talk about an event that had already happened since I did not want to play the role of commentator in a process where for years I have participated as an active actor, presenting to the public, to the assembly of the academy of sciences, to the media, in my research scientific and pedagogical activity inside and outside the country, with sincerity, energy and commitment all open thoughts and suggestions. All this to turn the academy of sciences into an institution in its useful and irreplaceable role, beyond a so-called reform, which in my judgment not only has not brought any improvement from four years ago, but also it increasingly puts it into an institutional senility that serves neither the society nor the nation.

But, since I had publicly expressed for months the desire to see the possibility of running for the position of the president of the academy of sciences, in any case without entering this process, and not entering and withdrawing from it, (as some particular journalist misinformed the public ),

- for reasons of media interest,

- out of respect for the public and public figures who have asked me about this issue,

- as well as in response to a particular person who, even yesterday after the vote, did not let the opportunity slip to mark me publicly in a derogatory way, I announce the following:

My publicly expressed desire to run was not inspired by any fevered, over-extended, unmitigated instinct or will for power or for the abuse of power. It simply remained an inspiration to turn the academy of sciences, according to my judgments, into democratic, functional, socially useful models such as the academy of sciences of the Western European model.

Within this mission, without being interested in the result of the vote, I would have placed before the assembly my candidacy, modestly, never pretending that I, and only I, the only one, always I, no one else, could lead the academy of sciences.

However, the circumstances did not allow my registration as a candidate in the strangest election process in the world that I have ever seen.

The first reason was that in the last months before the voting process, as the public opinion and the media know, there was a large-scale intervention, very aggressive, frontal, cynical, with unprecedented persistence, taking every norm by foot and law, on the part of the ruling policy to determine the electoral processes in the academy of sciences.

It became a law for a man!

In this process, certain individual deputies were actively involved first, where socialist deputies Petro Koçi and Ismet Beqiraj stand out, and then the group of deputies of the parliamentary majority, with the approval, silence, and actions behind the wings of the public even of very strongly within governing and ruling political structures.

The latter, as I see with regret, have finally abandoned all the inspirations expressed years ago for a reform of the academy of sciences, the university world and the scientific research system in the country.

Everywhere the operative slogan as well as the corresponding actions are already for a return to the model of a science academy of the time of the dictatorship! This is expressed openly, clearly, bluntly, frighteningly!

With an intervention that a member of parliament rightly called an "institutional coup", "tearing up" the regulation of the functioning of the Parliament of Albania, dragging down every legislative norm, at five o'clock in the morning in the summer heat of July, in the minutes of at the end of the last parliamentary session, all of a sudden, the socialist parliamentary majority passed a law that blew up any real possibility that in the election campaign in the academy of sciences there would be even the slightest possibility that alternatives other than those imposed politically and to work to make them winners.

This could only be done if the law in force remained intact in those points where it was profaned, i.e. the previous electoral contract remained in force, which removed the possibility for the incumbent president and vice president to re-candidate twice for the same elections. command post. Otherwise, I predicted, we would have not only the recycling of the same people, which I care very little about, but also the recycling of the same old methods and mindsets. Never a real reform of the scientific research system in the country.

What I say is so true, that to prove it easily, I refer to the statements of the President of the Republic, Mr. Bajram Begaj, given to the Voice of America, who admits in front of the whole planet what happened in the alcoves of the Presidency in Albania, so that by his inaction he conscientiously allowed a legal change to take effect, however infected by various legal violations.

What sadness covers everyone when you hear such a statement from the mouth of the President, the head of the state, no matter how much you want to salute its astonishing sincerity! Where is there a Constitutional Court that can accept as legitimate a legal change like this, where at the end of the process, in its announcement, the head of state affirms that he has not performed his constitutional duty, in respect of his high position, to prevent that which is not in accordance with the laws!

This "institutional coup", this massive, aggressive intervention, never seen on this scale, by the ruling politics in the process of electing the president of the academy of sciences in order to maintain the status quo within it, was accompanied, as I have informed the public opinion, with an election process in many directions unsupported by law, illegal, therefore illegal.

This is the second reason for my not running.

For all the legal deviations in this process, I presented publicly, openly, honestly, before the assembly of the Academy of Sciences, a report, a public position, a statement where I have apparently established all departures from the legal framework in force. Among other things, I have decided that the internal Statute of the Academy of Sciences, with the appendices and appendices added according to the principle pour water and pour flour, is in many aspects contrary to the law, therefore illegal.

I invite all instances and authorities that have a functional duty to take care of legality in the country, all without exception starting from the President of the Republic, the Prime Minister, the Speaker of the Assembly, as well as all other agencies that the constitution assigns with duties in this field, to receive my document officially filed there with the Academy of Sciences, which contains all that I have denounced as legal violations.

I made this denunciation openly before the assembly of the academy of sciences, not before the general public, precisely to respect the institution and my academic ethics before the election process.

Based on these two major reasons that every Albanian understands, I could not register as a candidate in an election process that I considered alienated and manipulated, unconstitutional, undertaken by powerful, overbearing, anti-democratic segments, with old monistic tendencies, of ruling politics. I alone could not stop their momentum and aggressiveness. However actively supported by particular MPs, to whom I express thanks and gratitude, this would not be enough.

I could not agree to be involved in an election process, which I had denounced as full of humiliating illegality.

I could not play the dirty role of a candidate who, with his candidacy, does nothing but legitimize the electoral process that he considered manipulated by politics and as a wild interference of politics in science.

The only space left for me was to participate in the vote, fulfilling my obligation as an academic, and voting against monistic candidacies, that is, without competitors. This vote "against" was not directed against any person as a human individual, which does not attract any interest from my side, but much more than that, it is an expression of remaining loyal to my positions, I considered it my obligation to the scientific community of the country , but also as a responsibility before the law and public opinion that has supported me so much.

Even alone, no voting result, even at the rate of 97 percent, which reminds me of the times when we were woken up with a drum to vote, cannot pull me from my path.

Unanimity in science is deadly to this pearl of human reason! Where there is unanimity, science is no longer!

I will remain faithful to my convictions to the end! For an academy of sciences where its assembly is active, alive, in its role as the leader of the institution, not turned into a recorder of decisions handed down from above; I will fight for a science at the service of the country, not for projects that remain in the drawer, without international opposition and that do not bring any positive impact on the country; I am for a science academy in its special major role and not as a failed duplicator of departments, institutes, university chairs; I am for a science that not only spends budgets that come from heavy taxes on citizens and businesses, but also generates material and financial benefits for the country that is currently not even discussed; I will try tirelessly for the development of Albanian sciences, and not for their destruction or for taking scientific researchers under their feet; for a renewed Albanianology and not a victim of the ideological dogmas of the time of the election drums that were actually anti-Albanian; we will not continue to work for a science academy model according to European-Western models and not remain in the time of drums; I will always be in action for national science to be true, useful, emancipating and not abused as a "blanket" to cover small personal, collective interests, regardless of whose they are and how they are hidden they are justified.

I will try to avoid the dire consequences of a debilitated scientific research system that has threatened the country. I do not wish to prove my bad predictions to happen, as they are happening with waves frightening for the very existence of the nation. Even the scientific researchers do not understand them when the consequences fall personally on their shoulders, as is happening with the Albanologists. However, I cannot remain silent in the face of the catastrophe that the national culture, the scientific emancipation of the country, our very national identity is paying for.

In this way, I remain faithful to my promise to represent an alternative to the 97 percent model, even if alone, even if I continue to be attacked or even persecuted for years by powerful individuals. inside and outside the academy of sciences, even if all sources of propaganda denigrate me with official statements, or with anathemas of vagabonds or deafness too "lâche" of anyone. This is not a matter of votes.

This is part of the burden of the intellectual! For thousands of years!