The Macedonian government is in a current crisis as alleged phone tapping was revealed by the opposition. The recordings show clear corruption with electoral fraud, abuse of power and the cover-up of murder. However, there have been mass public protests calling for the resignation of the government which shows how governments can be held accountable by the masses for corruption. This ties into the current Regime Classification Exercise and more information can be found at this link about the protests and current situation.
Thanks for the link, Annaliese!
ReplyDeleteI don't think it's a new saga, I certainly could see (being from Serbia, another former Yugoslavian country) how such allegations could prove validated. The way I see it is that Albanians in Macedonia want to further their political strength, there have even talks about making some Macedonian towns 'Ablanian only' - Macedonians fear this as they fear that what happened to Kosovo (contentious issue, that can be summed up with Albanians outnumbering the ethnic population, effectively driving them out) will happen in Macedonia. The political party in power tried to stir tensions between Macedonian and Albanians, that is probably because it is a right ring party. You would expect that when elected, they would pursue right wing ideology. I personally don't think this was about corruption at all, as what I gathered this article was just about 'race related' issues and the protests were 5/6 Albanian and Turkish. It's also interesting because there are hard-line radical Albanian groups in Macedonia committing attrocities, in fact there was a terrorist group the KLA - which hunted and killed ethnic Serbs and burned churches which has an off-shoot called the NLA which strictly operates in Macedonia with around 7000 members. Macedonia is in deep need a strong government, something which they haven't had since Tito died.
ReplyDeleteI should have given you Serbia, Lazar!
DeleteHAHA! To be honest when I saw that you gave me Albania, I thought it was all part of the dictators plan or intense sarcasm.... Either of the two.
DeleteIt was random, honest!
Delete