Between the political convenience and equal opportunities Project name: EU is NOT a member of your party Donated by: FRESTA Partners: Educational Center - Krusevac Youth Cultural Center - Bitola Albanian Youth Council - Tirana Association for Democratic Initiatives - Gostivar Publisher: Association for Democratic Initiatives Chief editor: Lulzim Haziri Editor: Bekim Abdullai Coordinators: SEE-YN: Igor Milošovic - ADP ZID, Montenegro Sanita Jashari - ADI, Kosova Gerti Shella - AYC, Albania Aleksandar Ivanovic - EDC Krusevac, Serbia Zlatko Talevski - YCC, Macedonia BHRN: Bekim Abdullai - ADI, Macedonia Proofreader: Njomza Selimi Design & Pre-press: Valbon Elmazi Copies: 700 Printed: “Sofija” - Bogdanci South East European Youth Network Balkan Human Rights Network Between the Political Convenience and Equal Opportunities Project with financial support of Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs (FRESTA) Gostivar, 2006 CONTENT Chapter I - Introduction and ID of the Project I.1. Introduction I.2. Identity card of the project Chapter II - The research II.1. The range of multiplication of the number of political parties and political pluralism.· II.1.1. Albania II.1.2. Macedonia II.1.3. Serbia II.1.4. Montenegro II.2. The public about the equal opportunity chance II.3. The media picture of the political party suitability Chapter III - European standards and practice III.1. The analyses of the EU standards III.2. Parallel experiences Chapter IV - Conclusions and references Chapter V - Annexes V.1. Cross cutting initiative V.2. FRESTA program and network of the project participants V.3. Identity card of the partners in the project V.4. Questionnaire Chapter - I - Introduction Between the political convenience and equal opportunity PhD Pande LAZAREVSKI Introduction Being member of some political party is a benefit inherited from democracy, and parties themselves are political organizations aiming at getting the power in order to realize their own programs for leading the society and draw off their own ideas in the reality. However, it is exactly the power arising the aim that makes inter-partial fights even harder from what a polite debate is meant Introduction to be regarding different ideological conceptions and differences regarding only few things. Politicians lead by personal interests to get and keep power (status, material, control etc.), change inter-partial fight into a fight between biggest enemies. This misuse of one of the biggest benefits of a democratic society – competitiveness of different political elites and pluralism of opinions, is mostly reflected in so-called transitional societies (characterized for the low level of economic development, subjected and undeveloped political culture and low level of human rights protection). There is a significant politisation in all spheres in transitional systems. This is where the bearers of power have very big political power compared to states with stabile democracy. The concept political totalitarian in transitional systems is clearly visible and it presents its bases for preservation of power by all costs. In such environment, political opponent is seen as someone to jeopardize someone’s status, and acting in opposition is seen as an activity that mines an established ruling structure. In lack of political toleration and un-protection of pluralism, discrimination based on political parties membership has tendencies to be widely developed. Discrimination is to not make possible or to hinder someone from enjoying certain human or civil rights on the basis of particular affiliation or convictions. In transitional systems, political discrimination is done not only towards those who belong to some opposing party, but also to those who seem not to be their partisans and those who have publicly presented their opinion that differs from the one of the ruling parties. Therefore, speaking about political discrimination in these countries might be a better terminology than using political party discrimination. As the state administration is not independent, it is being used from ruling parties in order to discriminate. It can be seen in different spheres with different victims and it can be perceived in different ways. While acquiring certain documents from state institutions, while using some health service, while studying, while being employed or fired from work, when being promoted – actually in every contact with the state the one that won’t share the same opinion with the ruling party will be “punished” as he/she dared to think differently and believe in other political alternatives and therefore have different political opinions. In conditions of undeveloped economy and lack of transparency in recruiting staff in the public administration, the ruling party blackmails those who support it and promises them employment (or that it will not fire them from work if they support it) and those who don’t support the ruling party are threatened that will never be employed. Those who bow down to ruling elites get promoted in their careers and those who don’t share same opinions as theirs are degraded because they don’t respect criteria to be promoted in the administration. In lack of rule of law tenders and concessions are being given to firms close to the government. In all this labyrinth of political games, the problem of preferentiality or situation where the opponent is not directly damaged but benefits are given to the one that support the ruling elite as some kind of a passive discrimination (I am not punishing you, but I am also not awarding you). In such case we are talking about violation of equitability and unequal treatment. In this kind we are talking about benefits that are gained by supporting particular ruling party, but the principle of ineluctability is violated no matter the fact that direct violation of someone’s rights is not included. 11 Identity card of the project Between the political convenience and equal opportunity Identity Card of the Project Identity Card of the Project In order to prove starting assumption that political discrimination in our societies is a common practice and to find out what the roots of this practice are, we have carried out a research that has given us answers to these questions, relevant information and good basis for further activities. Moreover, research results are a powerful tool in any lobby or advocacy initiatives for further work in this field. The research has three parts. Firstly, the research has investigated the opinion of wider public using the questionnaire as a tool and it has been implemented in all countries/territories included in the project. Methodology of the research and questionnaire is the same for everyone. Certainly, representative sample is different and based on size and population of the particular country/territory. Secondly, the research has included eight eminent experts and consultants who have worked on comparative analysis of the findings and legal issues related to this topic in our countries. They have compared those findings with EU standards and legislation. Thus, the idea is not merely to present current situation in our countries than also to present the standards and legislation existing in EU related to this issue and then to see what needs to be done and what the steps are in order to harmonize our legislation with EU. Thirdly, the attitudes of the politicians and experts relating this issue have been presented in the final document of the research through interviews. At the end, all research results including analysis, interviews with politicians and experts and recommendations are published in this book. This book will be distributed to the relevant stakeholders. The draft version of questionnaire was prepared by expert team of ADI. During the preparatory meeting in Krusevac all aspects of the questionnaire were clarified. After the meeting some additional comments were taken into consideration and the final version was produced. The questionnaire was made on door to door method. In addition, according to the relevant statistical data was foreseen and implemented adequate and proportional dissemination of the questionnaire through cities and villages. In order to have a clear overview, during the dissemination of the questionnaires, in particular gender balance and profession, in conformity with statistical data was taken into consideration. Also particular attention was paid to the inclusion of unemployed people, with particular focus on youth. After words, the questionnaires was processed in a particular software for processing statistical data SPSS, that would enable experts to easily process data and to get the outcome. 15 Chapter - II- The Range of Multiplication of the Number of Political Parties and Political Pluralism Between the political convenience and equal opportunity The Range of Multiplication the Number Albania Political Parties and Pluralism by Altin Goxhaj Public Administration in the Republic of Albania (employment in public administration) A brief history of the period of transition The transformation of Albanian society, from a totalitarian society in a democratic society, was accompanied with a long process of the public administration transformation. In the totalitarian communist society, the main criterion of employment in public administration was the political criteria. The political difference was evident in all the involvement stages in the work in administration and it was the main criteria of job assessment and stability in administration. The detachment from communist