At the panel on the topic Census: Between statistics and policies, Xhabir Deralla from CIVIL reflects on the politicization of the census, which political structures this suits, as well as why has the public so far had the opinion that the population census is politicized.
-For quite a long time, I would say for over a decade, we have been having a fierce, destructive policy, a policy that contaminates the public and political discourse, in a direction that not a single issue can go by without being politicized. The census is a very important strategic point, in creating the atmosphere in society, in the public, from ultranationalist, and at the same time, also anti-Western structures in politics. The census can very easily be turned into a weapon, in that struggle in which the political opponent who has a progressive pro-European or pro-European-Atlantic concept or attitude in politics is discredited. And we have an excellent tool in the hands of these structures that would want through the census to display a rather different situation, or a situation on the ground that is based on a selected, formed image, based on expert, professional, totally non-political processes, in order to display it as a tool and as deployment of forces that correspond to their nationalist concepts. That is one of the main points of a great part of politicians belonging to this rightist nationalist group in the country, and it doesn’t have just one ethnic background, I am talking about the two biggest communities and only one part of their political representatives, says Deralla.
And here we have a situation when nationalism, that is, interethnic relations, become a main topic, literally in all areas. Even in a statistical operation such as the census, or as in the preparations for a conversation Director Simovski says that it does have something to do with politics, though with development politics. It has something to do with a totally different area of action and functioning of society. However, the political fellowship is taking the census as an argument, to show or to “prove” that the other side is actually lenient. Mainly, it concerns the percentage of the ethnic communities in the country, and moreover by the calculations of some politicians, some political parties, political structures in the country are trying to insert themselves in the traffic and to cause additional turbulences in the country. It is simply about calculations of these structures that ultimately may not achieve their goal. However, it will be enough for them to instil doubt, and in this operation, to instil doubt in this institution, which is obviously working in step with top methodologies, and obviously technologies. However, that creating of an atmosphere in which citizens have increasingly less trust in the institutions, regardless of whether they deserve this or not, simply creating an atmosphere of a conspiracy theory, is a good enough result for them, because it will fit into the mosaic of the entire political strategy, which shakes the low trust among citizens in the institutions, and in which only few in those political structures profit.
-You have a situation, for example in 2011, it was so obvious that it was a matter of a classic campaign that had an explicit nationalist character, using, that is, abusing such a normal, regular situation as is the conducting of a census in the country. And it is still lingering on, from 2011, from time to time you see mini campaigns, and even bigger campaigns, and as time is nearing to the census they will be getting more and more louder and bigger, in which nine years you have a situation in which few of them agree to talk about the responsibility, about the professionalism and political responsibility of those who started, spent several millions, 14 were anticipated, and then fell to eight, and in the PPO three million euros were proved… And you have a situation in which a campaign is being led for nine years that the census was cancelled because Ali Ahmeti, or some other Albanian politician in Macedonia, had demanded for it to be cancelled so that the real percentage of Albanians in the country is not shown. If those people who were in power at that time had any benefit, it would have been not to show that a huge number of people had left the country, if we are already talking about that, and which could be an indicator of the bad policies and practices of such government. Regardless of the fact that there is a trend of young people from the Western Balkan countries and broader leaving their countries. So you have a situation in which for nine years there is a quiet, or less quiet campaign, in which the census is associated only with the ethnic issue, or, interethnic relations. And when you have a campaign that is masked with the image – we are talking about the economy, about other issues, which seemingly have nothing to do with interethnic relations, certain political structures in the country, whether on one or the other side, they, being nationalist structures, are simply again bringing it in relation to the interethnic relations, again in relation to the nationalism in their communities. So that they can have as much as possible more political profit. So that they can remain in power, that is, to remain leaders in certain communities. And of course, when they are in power, to cause as much as possible turbulences. The cheapest tool is precisely nationalism, and the biggest profit from them. That’s why there is politicizing, this operation that is so needed in society for a development policy. It has nothing to do with any other topic they are imposing.
I don’t see why an institution that by its nature is professional, scientific, mathematical, would not want to collect all possible data. Let be even on ethnic affiliation and data on households, because based on that, later development policies are made, how many schools there should and in which language so on… There is no reason why such an institution should be afraid to put in a graph that will stir commotion in society. There is no reason for them to worry about this, in my opinion, politicians, the media, the public, civil society organization should care about removing this policy from this professional operation. hat is our responsibility, not theirs. Their responsibility is for them to make the professional preparation and to carry it out in the best possible way and as professional as they can, as apparently they can. It is our responsibility to defend them from such contaminations in the process, and that is why I think that there should be literally all information, and why shouldn’t they have this information as well. The political dimension for that is already a totally different type of activity in the public.
The fact that the census is being associated with the Voters Register is yet another aspect of the politicization, which unfortunately has encountered suitable grounds among part of civil society that is more from ignorance I believe and is unintentional, and with the best intentions to help, has placed the two things in the same place, same table, and then resonates as an echo. I think that finally, as Mr. Gerasimovski said that two years ago, and now practically Mr. Simovski has said it the same way, a line should be drawn because they simply have nothing to do with each other. But I feel called upon to respond as a member of CIVIL, an organization that has been monitoring election processes since 2008, that we as an organization have never demanded a census, in order to put in correlation with the Voters Register. In relation to the politicizing, I still am an optimist, on the contrary, I would say that the not so bright perspectives I told when I was speaking about the politicization of the census, and about other topics in society, I am still an optimist, because no matter how much a certain structure is trying to instil distrust in the institutions, in this case the State Statistical Office that will be conducting the census, at the end, everyone will be eagerly waiting to hear what it is and ultimately, it will not be the first and basic task to see who is what in the country. This normally will be done by the PR kitchens, here and there, and all communities have businessmen and will know how many products to import, in quantity, so that they can sell them in the country, and how many not to and, any other things, because ultimately nationalism will fall, the nationalism that is trying to gain political profit from such an operation. Because profits are made in a totally different way and are used for something totally different.
Diana Tahiri
Camera: Atanas Petrovski
Editing: Arian Mehmeti
Translation: N. Cvetkovska
