Opinion

Immortal and forgotten

Në 96-vjetorin e lindjes së Zef Pllumit një pyetje pa përgjigje: përse në Fjalorin Enciklopedik Shqiptar të botuar nga Akademia e Tiranës mungon emri i njërës prej viktimave më prominente të regjimit komunist dhe publicistit më të shquar të postkomunizmit shqiptar?

Immortal and forgotten

By Enver Robelli / Today is Father Zef Pllumi's birthday. Although in 2007 he left this world, his work remains a roaring echo in the conscience of every Albanian. With his masterpiece, with his masterpiece "Rrno just to show me" Zef Pllumi made an incomparable contribution to telling the true, painful, brutal history of Albania under communist rule.

Zef Pllumi was born on August 28, 1924 in Mali e Rencit (Lezha). In the years 1943-1944 he collaborated with the magazine "Hylli i Dritës" and was elected personal secretary of Father Anton Harapi, at that time Provincial of the Franciscans in Albania. As a dignitary of the Catholic Church, Zef Pllumi spent almost three decades in the hellish prisons of Albanian communism. Survived the prisons of Shkodra, Spaç, Ballsh and Zejmen, etc. He was 22 years old when, on December 14, 1946, he was arrested and sentenced to three years in prison. In 1967 he was arrested again and served 23 years in prison. As soon as he was released from prison in 1989, he devoted himself to his work as a priest and publicist, writing about the never-ending past and the pains of Albania in transition, where the oligarch-led thug rulers take turns.

Zef Pllumi did not hesitate to criticize the bad phenomena of the Albanian "dysfunctional democracy". He was neither right nor left - he was right. And as such the edge of his criticism was directed both against irresponsible Democrats and against the Socialists who even today find excuses for communist crimes and in their ranks also hold officials of the repressive apparatus of the dictatorship.

Zef Pllumi and his work still do not enjoy the proper gratitude and care from the state, cultural, scientific institutions and the media. The name of Zef Pllumi is missing in the Albanian Encyclopedic Dictionary of 1985. And this is not a surprise, because at that time he was declared "enemy of the nation". But the scandals have not stopped: even in the new Albanian Encyclopedic Dictionary published by the Academy of Sciences of Albania since 2008, the name of Zef Pllumi is not found anywhere. But there is no lack of a note in the Encyclopedic Dictionary for the anti-fascist activist Olga Plumin, who in 1945 was elected deputy speaker of parliament and was ranked immediately after Enver Hoxha in terms of the number of votes. Of course, it is not a bad thing that Olga Plumi is also mentioned in the Encyclopedic Dictionary, but why is Zef Pllumi not mentioned? Omission? Error? Deliberate bypass? This dictionary does not lack notes about the "plow" and the Shishtavec Plateau, but there is no place for Zef Pllumi.

It is likely written that hairdressing is done only with the help of strangers. Thus, according to an announcement on Facebook, in Tirana, with the support of the Swiss government, it was published by the Orbis Center as an audio book of the work "Rrno just to show me", read by actor Jurgen Marku. Other notes are hard to find, there is no additional announcement, presentation or critique of this audio book, nor is it clear where this audio book can be ordered. This part of the work had to be done by Albanians.

While there is no excuse for ignoring Zef Pllumi, it is best to end this text with two long quotes from the author's works. The first talks about the "Trobojnica" of Yugoslavia in Shkodra, the second about the virus of division among Albanians.

(1) “Words immediately began to spread: they had killed X or Y; or for others who had disappeared without a mark, without a mole. Who was the head of this government? The name of Enver Hoxha began to be mentioned, until then completely unknown to the people of Northern Albania. During the month of December, the new government of Albania was established, which was not well understood whether it was military or civilian: everyone was large and no one had anything in hand, except the partisan commanders, of various kinds, who had decided who in one house, who in another. (...) Shkodra was filled with partisan brigades and we were surprised that so many soldiers came to us that there were no foreign armies! The partisans said they had come to follow the German to Berlin, but were barefoot. They were generally people who could not be talked to, with bad manners: they ate the bread and overturned the cup. Shkodra had many foreign armies, but never like this. Immediately after that day on November 29, 1944, the traffic on the Shkodër-Podgorica road began as never before, at a time when communication with Tirana was extremely difficult due to the demolition of bridges, between which floating tracks and partisan guards began to be placed. . Thus Montenegrins and Albanians circulated between the countries without borders. Who was the real ruler of Albania? The answer was given by 'trobojnica'. Numerous Yugoslav tricolor flags fluttered in every street, in every state building, and in every home. Where were found so quickly and so many those flags that the people looked at with anger, because they marked a new slavery of the Albanian nation! As soon as the schools were opened, among all, without exception, They came to teach me to sing the Hymn of that flag, to foreigners: 'Ei slovenski joshte zhivi', 'ço bajrak ne vije', 'zhivi zhivi jugoslovenski' and 'Ide druzhe Tito preko Albanie ... preko Albanie ...' (I do not know either their meaning or how they are written, but that is how they have been in my ear since then with all their melodies). "Our flag anthems were no longer heard."

(2) “It is said that many fish are caught in turbid water. When the Albanian won his freedom, the foreigner released the hook of division to make the Albanian fairy.

Where was the Albanian? Among the four vilayets. Turku knew very well that the only way to dominate Albania was division. He noticed this from the first day that the fate of history met with this people where two men stood out: Gjergj Kastrioti Skanderbeg, a rebel seeking help in the West, and the great strategist Ballaban Pasha who fell chess under the walls of Kruja . His body was taken to Petrela in Tirana. There they built a large tomb where the Albanians began to pray and to light the rents.

Meanwhile, among the hillsides, the lahuta began to sing to Gjergj Elez.

- Gjergj Aleksit, the soldier who killed Ballabani. The fox Turk saw that the Albanian, even if we split him in two, was a danger, so he divided him into four.

In four vilayets of the Turks the unit of the Albanians. And so, over the centuries, some people were killed for the Bushatllins of Shkodra or for the Begollajs of Peja; who for Ali Pasha of Ioannina or for the Monasteries, while the Turk was watching with his spahis ”.