Corrupted by billionaires or oligarchs ?!

To understand the social and political health of any society, it is enough to look at the state of informality of its formal institutions, which affect its economy and politics. In all the directions we look at and analyze after hearing enough political information, it seems that at the end of each day the most important institution is endemic corruption, which is the main threat to the country.
Political corruption (as worst habit of corruption), which is even more damaging, is evident in at least three directions:
First, there is a lot of dubious data regarding the exploitation of above and below ground assets.
The second is the distribution of large infrastructure projects at the personal discretion of a small group of political leaders.
Third, day by day there are reports of direct abuses from the state budget and large-scale corruption.

But what could be our comment on the difference between a normal billionaire and a billionaire called an oligarch?

We have to explain firstly, that Albanian economy, like all the economies of the former socialist camp, was built on socialist principles, all means of production, from oil, electricity, industry, land ownership and agriculture, were state-owned. Although the socialist system was replaced by a political system based on liberal democracy, a corrupt, sometimes violent, struggle to take ownership of the former socialist state continued in the country. Some of those who have competed to take control, took it by any means necessary throughout these years. Yet this corrupt clash still continues for parts and segments of the economy and property that remain pending.

As a result of their illegally acquired ownership and the entry and exit of questionable and uncontrolled / bypassed capital by institutions as required by law, these individuals have already amassed considerable wealth and possess the power necessary to manipulate government.

They are the oligarchs and constitute the model of the oligarchy, a system of government, mainly economic in which a small group of businesses is headed by exactly this group of individuals, who have put their wealth and built their businesses in this way. Their businesses also include the money of corruption, of politicians running the country.
Common features that characterize these oligarchs include the high level of media influence, the control of any monopoly-like company, the large influence on economic policy activity, and consequently a galloping net worth of capital gains.

Regardless of their type, our oligarchs have helped every Prime Minister and Party Chairman to stay in power (political or economic) while maintaining a seemingly political neutrality. But in everyday reality they are the economic backers of internal governance initiatives. In fact, it is these oligarchs who give assurances to the Prime Ministers and Leaders of the main parties about their ambitions and seek as compensation public resources and exclusive rights for large projects, in order to expand their economic power.
Some oligarchs seem to even initiate such geopolitically important transactions to establish closer relations with the economic and political elite not only within the country. While it is difficult to establish direct causal links between oligarchs ‘interference in government policies, strong evidence has been emerging for some time that oligarchs’ funding facilitates the strengthening of dominant positions in Albanian politics of the wing that has the closest ties to them. Moreover, to disguise the political neutrality of the oligarchs, seemingly non-political intermediaries are used, such as new or unprecedented private businesses in the past, turning it into a key strategy through which they can hide their parapolitical activity.

Meanwhile, normal billionaires (not to be exhaustive in summarizing their features) are those who grow step by step with the spirit of entrepreneurship and the dominance of running the business over their individual ideas and formation. Normal billionaires usually have a normal family life and are very fond of their co-workers and helping people in need. Naturally, they are also characterized by personal skills for giftedness outside of business, as well as have a desire to enjoy life in comfort, but mostly without creating media noise and clutter around them. Their profits and capital gains come more from the ability to take advantage of the weaknesses of the system, but without necessarily seeking to influence economic policies, although there may be cases that show the opposite.

But if we continue the analysis further, we will see increasingly vocal opposition from the oligarchs to the current political elite, at the moment when the political cleansing that is finally working will have begun to turn the wheel of the history of political transition. of the country. At the very least, their willingness to do the “dirty” work of the political elite by trying to manipulate public opinion at home and abroad seems unlikely to continue.

In the analysis of the relations that the Albanian oligarchs have with each other, it seems that they do not work well if they work together in the same economic environment. Albanian capitalism, where the weakest is annihilated is exactly the environment where these oligarchs will compete with their rivals to strengthen their businesses. Individual survival with the aim of capturing the subsequent political elite and not at all for the protection of the common interests of the development of the country has been and is the modus operandi of the oligarchs.
As long as the current political elite maintains control/influence over the current oligarchs and personalizes the apparent support of foreign partners, the economy and political system will remain hostage to this selfish political elite. It seems that she has no plans to change and draw lessons from her past, or even from recent events in Ukraine, where endemic corruption as a weakness of elite integrity was one more reason perceived by Russia for facilitating of the chances of aggression.

Given the lack of belief that the political elite has the courage and ability to self-purify, civil society and the people themselves must first become aware of having certain objectives of common interest.

So, if what we have defined in this analysis were to be accepted as the definition of an oligarch, then a legal package is needed to prevent the damage that comes to the country from their activity. As a first measure of clearing and cutting off sources of profit in the future would be to prohibit the oligarchs from holding government positions, as persons associated with them, as well as to prohibit them from participating in projects that require the commitment of public funds, and that go beyond the current legal framework for fair competition. They should also be required to disclose for public their personal and district assets, as is the case with senior public officials who declare assets.

But the deformation of our democracy and its corruption has happened not only by the oligarchs, but also by the political elite that we have left in good faith (We / You) to take care of. The leaders of the main parties have distorted democracy and instead created little by little the party state, for many years, simply by:

• changing the rules of operation of the government,
• shifting corruption money from one hand to another,
• putting on pressure on courts and prosecutors,
• elimination of unpleasant media and critical civil society,
• corruption (with very few exceptions) of the critical voices of the intellectual elite,
• creation of project-financing oligarchs, becoming a bloc of political and individual enemies,
• enabling to use state money to enrich the party, but why not the family as well.

This strategy is far more lucrative and far less stressful than committing resources to violent overthrow at human cost.
After all, this way of them is also called part of the political game in a democratic system.