We have now entered a decade since American involvement ended Serbia’s rule over Kosova. This means that a decade has gone by with Kosova having been under UNMIK (United Nations Mission in Kosovo), with its core purpose of “nation-building.” The truth of the matter is, when looking back, we find that the country’s path to statehood can only be understood in plurals. There is not one factor, and there is not one specific date that can be praised or blamed for. It is a combination of many, a result of internal struggles and external interests. It is an outcome of power shifts, national renaissance, oppression and disintegration. If all these conditions have paved the path to our present, policies of this past decade too are a product of such factors; but not necessarily of the same ones. The important part of this reality, which needs to be changed, is that the Kosovar Albanian interest has not played an active role in the past ten years. This is mostly a failure of ours to show determination towards what truly concerns us. 

 

During a decade under the United Nations regime, Kosova has not seen progress where it should have. For the sake of specificity, need mention that the power plant remains in the same desperate condition as it was right after the war; all this while billions of dollars worth of coal lie underground. Is this bad management, lack of vision, or simply lack of will to make changes? In this context the answer does not matter, the results do. The results call for change in our consciousness and actions. Not the UN, not the European team, not anyone will solve our problems, unless we show that we are determined to. Let us not even mention the education, infrastructure and health sectors. How can there ever be progress in any respect, including our fight for sovereignty, if there is no investment in the most essential structures of society. If a decade has been too short of a time for changes, then another decade will also be too short of a time; meaning, excuses will always be present and plentiful.

Going back to leadership:

In order to greater understand the situation, we have to consider the other threats that we have failed to act upon, or if not act, to at least show that we are unyielding to what dents our goal of sovereignty. The pictogram of such threats is the Ahtisaari Package. The first reason why our leaders defend it so passionately is because they argue that this was provided to us by our liberators who also have true power. Well noted! However, our leadership fails to specify who the “liberator” is. Who is imposing the rules? What are their interests? We can oversimplify the situation and say—it is the most powerful nation on earth, the factual intervener, the United States. The answer will be NOT. True the U.S. has pushed for and led the intervention, but also true that many others are now involved; which comes to mean that others’ interests will also, more or less, have to be considered in this bargaining process. Just as Kosova’s past path to its present was a result of many factors, as mentioned, so is the platform of Ahtisaari and Kosova’s supervised independence, and so will be our future imposed deals. This can advice us, that the least we can do is try to increase our own role as we move forward in the dimension of time. 

Let’s reflect on just one of the failures. To clarify the present we need to refer to one of Ahtisaari’s points. It is the overly used call to “respect” minority rights, a politically motivated policy, that is beyond measure shaping the whole concept of our nationhood and creating potential for further instability. As the leader of VETEVENDOSJA, Albin Kurti put it, “The rights of minorities are forced in our part but not in northern Kosova where Serbs live.” Democratically speaking, how democratic is this? Where is our leadership when it is truly needed—to tackle the problem? (Here speaking of the entire political elite!) This is not just any problem; it has de facto, and some would rightly argue de jure, divided our country. The future does not seem bright.

While this is just one of the rudiments of the Ahtisaari Plan, it gives us an insight of how multifaceted the issue is, and it reminds us of the urgency to act.

Excuses that we have no power to demand anything are turning out to be a self-fulfilling prophecy. We are closing every option that might be present without even trying it. Unless an attempt is made to find methods to reach sovereignty, we will always be left out of every policy making process. Newer and newer realities will continue to be imposed upon us, as they have been throughout every world order changes that can be recorded. So, we will continuously lose and furthermore suffer from losses. If we keep on accepting what is given to us without showing firmness in protecting our own interests, deals will be formed by taking us less and less into consideration. Just think, when a policy is made, it is the influential interests that are component to it and that give it structure. An interest too weak to present itself will thus not be taken into account. If we start struggling and not compromising, chances of winning are not too high, taking into account our limitations, but are mathematically higher than if we do not try. Our leadership has shown no signs of trying. 

Even more importantly, if history can teach us anything concerning the issue, it is that determination does pay off!