02 October, 2014
Now that it seems that we have peacefully gotten over the swords unsheathed and daggers drawn in the highest echelons of the Georgian government, the desire to look deeper
into our current state of affairs has matured and is ready to yield into a constructive scrutiny that might serve well to make certain number of rationalized steps forward in the process of governing the country. The first Georgian democracy was short-lived – it only lasted three years in the early twenties of the bygone century. The second democratically organized republic of Georgia is a quarter of a century of age, and it is still around – pleasingly amazing! Well, who would not agree that surviving does not necessarily means being effective? Democracy is not an easy thing to put up with and live by forever. It takes a lot of hard and honest work to do along with perseverant education of masses and painful self-disciplining. Are we doing all that? I doubt it! Then, what are we doing instead? We are waiting! We are waiting for something good and unusual to happen to us right out of the blue. We are waiting for those who are richer and stronger to do some good job on us and for us. We are waiting for the skies to open and shower manna on us. We are waiting for God to give us back that proverbial legendary status He had once bestowed on us as the nation who did not want to stand in line when the Creator was distributing lands among the peoples of the world, and finally gave to Georgians the piece of land He had preserved for His own self. We are waiting for NATO to open its door ajar for us to make a triumphant ride in on a white horseback. We are waiting for the European Union to embrace us like its prodigal son with a jumbo bread-and-butter in its helping hand to offer. We are waiting for our lost territories to be magically restored to us. We are waiting for the standard of living to go through the roof some day by a wave of the same magic wand even without having done a stroke of meaningful hard work. We are waiting for our kids to grow into the citizens who can make survival without proper timely instructions and contemporary education, readily translatable into wellbeing. We are waiting for the revolutions to happen and give us the governments that are better than previous ones. We are waiting for our administrations to finally organize the country into a social, political and economic unit which will let our people think and feel that life is worth living. That’s what we are waiting for, and much more! Meanwhile, things are abominably trivial and frustrating in the country where certain mild disagreements and deadly contradictions are being nursed and perennially present in our reality. I am inclined to consider the now digested difference between the heads of state and government of Georgia as a mild disagreement, which was finally blamed on the wronged and mauled text of our poor Constitution. I will not surprise anybody by saying that Georgia’s new president was handpicked and conveniently ensconced by the powers that be in expectation of his presumably tractable political behavior, and in complete unison with actual decision makers. But behold, the guy developed a serious leadership appetite all of a sudden, stealing the government’s thunder as if nothing unexpected was happening. Who would forgive him that! It did not take long to put his act together, and the embarrassing clatter of governmental cogs and gears was gone as a result. Thank God! I ascribe the occasional friction between media and our overt and covert leadership to the same category of mild disagreements. This kind of scuffle takes place anywhere in the world, and it always ends up in the victory of the ladies and gentlemen of the press. Beware of vicious dogs! – is a typical rationale here. Georgia being a functioning democracy, most probably has ample mind for doing its business skillfully and pragmatically enough for easily killing a problem, occurring every now and again between governing forces and the means of mass communication. Inconsistence between overall qualification of our governing cadres and the actual governmental business that needs to be done might also be taken as sample of mild disagreement. Applying the live-and-learn pattern here might save the day if the day is salvageable at all. Most bothering part of our governmental cookery is the series of contradictions that are deadly and organic. Look at what’s happening in the battlefield, where the current Georgian administration and its furious opposition go head to head in their habitual irrational debates. This is the part of our political life which smells real bad, and the stench is so strong that it reeks all over the country. Normally, the verbal confrontation between the opposed sides has to be reasonable and constructive, working to the benefit of Georgia. Instead their fight is destructive, and full of personal odium, clearly working to the detriment of our nation. This is why I tend to call it a sample of deadly contradiction. Another example of this type of contradiction is the laudatory attitude of the government towards it owns deeds and the actual standard of living, which is stagnated in the best case scenario, or nose-diving in the worst one. I have a third example of deadly contradiction. The current government’s most talked-about and opulent electoral pledge was the reinstatement of justice in the country which was trampled by the previous administration. To the most painful frustration of our society, the time of revival of fairness and justice is dragging its feet. Meanwhile, the new Georgian government is steadily losing the political charm which had propelled it to power a couple of years ago. Well, losing charm might not be a very big deal, but history knows the cases of loss of leadership charm turning into loss of power, the acquisition of which was not so easy. Why not to give a thought and consideration to this possibility? Anything can happen!