Or, truthfully, are we only lying to ourselves and others, while essentially we are suffocating in hatred garnished with extreme chauvinism and radicalism? Suffocating in extreme intolerance towards each other, which we manage to hide temporarily, only to be unmasked in the end. Precisely that happened day before yesterday to Fatmir Asani, representative of the Democratic Party of Albanians (DPSh). He is also a member of the Parliamentary committee for the protection of rights and freedoms of citizens. He has been given legitimacy by the people to protect and implement the above listed principles. Unfortunately, instead of fighting for civic rights and trying to help people who lost their homes and human rights [during the armed conflict in 2001], Asani openly expresses unprecedented chauvinism. And does that at a meeting of the committee in charge of assisting the process of return of the Internally Displaced persons (IDPs). Astonishingly, he took upon himself the right to expel people from Macedonia. He entered a fierce verbal exchange with displaced citizens from the Kumanovo region and told them that they do not belong in Macedonia!
Representative Asani addressed Miroslav Mladenovic from Matejce with the following words: "Get lost, get out of Macedonia! You are a Serb and you do not belong here. Serbia is your country, so go to Belgrade!"
Shameful and inappropriate. Offensive. The fact that Asani was elected makes everything even worse. He demonstrated and proved that he does not deserve the trust of ethnic Albanians in Macedonia; that he is against their and interests of all the citizens. Is that a way to represent Albanian interests in Macedonia? Is intolerance a way to build coexistence? Is that a way to develop democracy, which is necessary if we are to finally become a true state, where inter-ethnic relations are not a priority, but stable economy is? Or should someone now tell Mr Asani that he should leave Macedonia and go to Albania? For example to Tirana? Or, why not, to Dures? No! Because Macedonia is a multi-ethnic and democratic state. Advocacy of democracy should finally become sincere, and democratic behavior should become practice. Two ethnic Albanians and two ethnic Macedonians will soon compete for the post of the president of Macedonia. On equal terms. And Asani and those like him should understand that, unfortunately for them, Macedonia will be the country of all of its citizens.