The Political Process in Georgia
Op-Ed
What kind of a political course have we had in Georgia in the last thirty years? My unequivocal answer is: not completely comprehensible to the average mind and not very favorable for the wellbeing of this nation, as multiethnic and many-sided as the world knows it. And I want to be responsible for this ruthless atmospheric evaluation! In the wake of the excruciating soviet demise, an attempt to make a checks-and-balances type of governance was made, but it has never worked for real. Having created the classic western model of a three-branch rule, the system up until now remains in a mode of permanent repair: as for the legislative branch, Robert Stevenson’s maxim ‘We all know what parliament is, and we are all ashamed of it’ does not lose its effect in Georgia; the executive branch has tried hard, but the current national idea of territorial integrity is at standstill; the independence of the judicial branch is still subject to discussion; and the overall political culture often needs to be further cultivated by our western friends exactly as a caring parent would patiently shape the character of his or her recalcitrant child.
No doubt, and thank God, that Georgia’s political life flows freely along the channel of inextinguishable controversy between the ruling power and its opposition, but their ideological discourse is too loud, excessively rancorous, overly revengeful and, most regretfully, lacking constructivity. The impression is that the entire dialogue between the opposed sides is out of kilter. In their conversation, the most observant part of the electorate cannot hear the logic that would help the nation out of the quagmire it has found itself in.
What people hear is just the contrary to what helps build the national welfare. There is nothing easier than holding the government responsible for every single rustle in the country, and purposefully blowing its trivial misdoings into calamitous errors. It would also be fair to note that mocking the opposition and ignoring its critique, no matter how deviated it might be, will never be considered as a reasonable governmental attitude. Georgia’s political discourse has never been balanced: this is one of our national drawbacks, slowing the progress of the country. And this is so plain and obvious that even the least educated and politically uninformed person would say so without my prompting it from an elevated journalistic platform. Yes, all of us are in absolute consensus that that there is something wrong with the 30-year old democratic political process in Georgia, but none of us has the capability to write up a remedial prescription to right the wrong.
Isn’t it amazing, and sad too, that a nation with an early-medieval statehood, reading the best of the world’s philosophical and literary opuses in its own tongue, depends on the diplomatic corps, accredited in the country, to solve elementary political squabbles? The helping hand of a friend is always welcome, but not at every step of the way. Why is it so difficult to know the sores on the body of the nation and to take mutual pains to heal them without backstabbing each other at every possible occasion? Wouldn’t this be much more sensible than frazzled everyday insinuations against one another? Nobody is saying that the fight of the ruling power and its opposition has to be a love affair, but it is also true that their unconstructive struggle is destroying the nation.
The other day, I stumbled on a funny phrase in the American press: “Trump gets Trumpier,” a new similarity between our and American politics: the opposition gets more oppositional and the government becomes more governmental every second of the current political process in Georgia, within which the fermentation of political thoughts, human feelings, constitutional changes, economic proposals, social alterations, juridical fluctuations and cultural shocks become a whirlpool which has the scary potential to suck in the entire nation without even leaving a trace on the surface.
By Nugzar B. Ruhadze
Image source: Leung Pomui/Pintrest