What Gives, Folks?
Op-ed
If we fit the answer into the same old vein, it will sound like the devil is not as black as he is painted. I would gladly accept the cheerful streak of the response, but there is a certain bothering air to this seemingly optimistic statement. The recent governmental warning about the possibility of a second viral wave in the country cast an ominous pall over the premature celebration of our victory over the pest. And doubts about our triumph might have substantial reason to persist, notwithstanding the internationally proven fact that this nation’s medicinal success is on par with the best in the world.
More interestingly, when the ruling party associated the possibility of the renewed outburst of the virus with the prospect of delaying the upcoming parliamentary elections, the opposition felt it had been kicked right in the pit of the stomach. On hearing the news, they were first reduced to silence and then, all of a sudden, broke into prolific comments that nothing can rescue the ruling power from the incipient crucial defeat. Watching some of its most televised representatives making their habitual spiteful remarks about every governmental intent or judgment, it was obvious that their knees were shaking from irritation that the Election Day might be moved from October towards the end of the year; seeing them warning the public with obvious annoyance that the nation will find itself on the edge of chaos if the date of the election is changed.
The pre-electoral arguments of the opposition are always set forth in the same creepy wording, with the same hysterical tone: the foreign policy fiasco, the bias towards the Russian narrative, the double-game diplomacy, the bottom falling out of GEL, poverty going through the roof, the downtrodden Georgian citizenry living from hand to mouth, the head of the ruling party in conspiracy with the northern neighbor, inadequate reaction to the current medicinal strife, the country’s strategic partners increasingly aggravated over our government’s operating style, the most polluted air in the world, the calamitous management of the country, the educational system hardly functioning, the government squandering the taxpayers’ money, crime at the zenith and economic growth at the nadir.
How do you like this apocalyptic picture painted by the allegedly united oppositional spectrum, adding even darker colors to the state-of-the-nation mural and lacing criticism with unrestrained vehemence? Why is this happening? How much good can this kind of political aversion do? While it is true that the unbridled oppositional condemnation lands nowhere in people’s earshot, it still has an unfair effect on the electorate ear. I can bet any political analyst that the current style of trilateral interaction between the government, its opposition, and the electorate leaves much to desire. When I see some of our political biggies flying off the handle at certain occasions, my brain becomes as if clamped between the vice of propaganda, my body feeling like it is made of lead. In front of the television screen, I often catch myself cupping my hands over my mouth and thinking what I have just heard can’t be true. But in Georgia, it has always been that way: the opposing sides have always wanted in this political culture to wipe each other out, as chalk from the blackboard. Even if one side says or does something worthy, the other wants to change that with a mere flick of a pen or a twist of a tongue.
The opposition, even if our government is the best in the world, would spoil for a fight regardless, and woe betide anyone who dares to go against the way they see our future. I would give anything to slake my curiosity and understand what in reality is going on: why are so many people involved in politics chronically shooting at a moving target and still hoping to call the tune and see all of us dance to it?
By Nugzar B. Ruhadze
Image source: rebuilders.net