Why political parties lack principles and why people don`t believe the science
Author: Xhelal Neziri
A student enters in a bookstore and starts looking for the book he had decided to read for the summer holidays. The librarian approaches and with a kind smile asks if he can help.
– Do you have the book “POLITICAL PRINCIPLES” by Robert A. Taft?, asks the student because he failed to find the corner of scientific books. – Yes, we have it – the librarian answers – but in Albanian, you can find that work in the part of fairy tale books.
This anecdote is a kind of definition for policymakers in North Macedonia, who often use low blows to defeat the opponent. With the opening of the debate on setting a date for the elections, the “bomb” campaign began, as the wiretapped materials are called.
From 2015 until today, instead of a state governed by the rule of law, the citizen gained an Orwellian state, where Big Brother continues to eavesdrop and listen. At the same time, “bombs” become a kind of reality show, a spectacle, and a tool to satisfy human curiosity about conversations between public figures, especially if they are for trivial matters. This dangerous trend shows the dysfunction of state institutions, the partisanship of security services and the lack of political morality. No country in the region resembles to us, where anyone who owns a cell phone is a potential eavesdropper and where political actors are traders of compromising materials. This espionage misery for political purposes must be stopped, political factors must learn that there is ethics in politics and instead of “bombs” the public debate must rely on platforms, ideas and visions for a better tomorrow for the citizens.
Principles, values and interest are the three main components of politics. In any functioning democracy there are 5 basic principles in politics: the first is the principle of reasonableness, which means that the activity must have a purpose; the second is the principle of collective activity, which requires cooperation to achieve a common goal; the third is the institutional principle, which stipulates that the activity is in accordance with the laws; the fourth is the programmatic principle, which is the link between personal ambitions, common purpose and respect for institutional procedures; and the fifth – the historical principle, which states that if history has shaped the identity of a political party, then it is unprincipled to move beyond that trajectory.
The values of the parties in countries with Western democracies are almost the same as the Euro-Atlantic structures they have created. They are dignity, freedom, equality, solidarity, individual and group rights as well as justice. In addition, the last feature is interests. Not less important than values and principles, but they are still the impetus for political action. However, a party that has only interests, without values and principles, is not much different from private business. In business, pure interest prevails, and principles and values are materials invented for good PR.
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The second tale is about a patient who had gone into serious condition to seek medical help.
A few days in a row, a young man felt pain in his joints and head, but he thought that without the help of a doctor he could heal himself. He entered the Google search engine and wrote his symptoms “pain in joints and headache”, where as a medicine Goggle recommended him “honey that cures everything” to painkillers.
He tried them all, but his condition got worse. Moreover, one day, when he saw that he could not stand the pain, he decided to go to the doctor. When he was asked why he did not come earlier because the pain was caused by a throat infection, he told the doctor that so far he has done what Google has recommended him to do. Annoyed, the doctor replied -Now, go to Yahoo and maybe you will find a cure there.
Perhaps this will be the response of infectious disease doctors to all those who trust the fake news they found on the Internet that the virus does not exist, that it was invented by Bill Gates, that they want to inject us with micro-chips and other children’s tales. Since the onset of COVID-19 pandemic, a large proportion of people do not trust experts, doctors or scientific institutes. “It’s a lie,” say all those who move without masks or social distances. This mistrust is the biggest obstacle to reducing active cases with COVID-19 and declaring victory over this virus. On April 19, there were 977 active cases, and by May 6 this number had dropped to 394. However, from May 6 to May 15, we had a lockdown, in which case the number of infected remains 392. This prolongation of the crisis with coronavirus causes great impatience to all those who respect the measures and count losses in their work.
This mistrust has led the Tetovo region, in the past ten days, to record a gradual increase in the number of patients with COVID-19, unlike other cities where the number continues to fall.