Deeply Concerned: Ogden on the Contradictory Nature of Georgian Politics

OPED

I wasn’t a very big fan of the former government – I’m not a big fan of any government, since governments are invariably made up of politicians, and politicians are tricky beasts at best and downright villains at worst. I know that the United National Movement was responsible for filming the intimate lives of rivals and citizens, but seeing as the British Parliament is under scrutiny for participating in organized paedophilia since the 1970s, why, what’s a sex tape more or less? (It’s true, too; Google Jimmy Savile and you’ll see what I’m talking about. No mad conspiracy theories in my Op-Eds, no sir.)

However, neither am I particularly enamored with the current parliamentary infestation; making a footballer who looks as though he’d have difficulty remembering the days of the week Minister of Energy and seemingly taking turns at who-gets-to-play-Prime-Minister this year hardly suggests competence or responsibility. Things are getting better, of course (sort of, bar acts of occasional Orthodox Christian violence against people who are ‘different’), but whether that’s due to the new government or if Georgia was already on the right track is, I think, open to debate.

Despite my misgivings about Georgian Dream, I did meet the President last year at an embassy party and took to him immensely, not only because he seems to be one of the few voices of reason in the government, but also because he didn’t allow his bodyguards to shoot me when I drunkenly staggered over to him and slurred congratulations on a job well done. I didn’t actually slap him on the back, but gave him a back-slapping look designed to show him that he had got T. C. J. Ogden firmly in his corner. At any rate, he was good enough to allow a picture to be taken of us together, which I remain rather proud of, not least because he actually looks far more excited to meet me than I am to meet him. (Incidentally, I wonder if the British tax payer knows their money goes towards funding embassy parties which distribute enough wine to fill Lake Victoria, unless the Georgians supply it. Aye, well, fill her up, waiter.)

My mate the President has occasionally come into conflict with members of the government for (quite rightly) disagreeing with them and Mr. Ivanishvili. I was surprised to see that whenever my pal Giorgi verbally brawls (though I’d pay to see a physical fight between the President and some MPs; he looks as though he’d just as soon spar with the police than eat his dinner), the international community do and say nothing. This seems completely at odds with the established MO of the helicopter diplomats who seem ready to stick their oars in at any opportunity and express ‘deep concern’ at anything that doesn’t meet European parliamentary standards (whatever those might be).

Ivanishvili’s clandestine involvement with the government has become doubly alarming in recent months because it doesn’t seem very clandestine anymore. The man has openly said that he is no longer involved with the running of the country, yet equally openly appears at party sessions and gives speeches on the future of the government. Why, just this week he declared that if society has had enough of him, he will retire from public life...directly contradicting his earlier comments of having retired from public life some time ago.

Quite why this has not been picked up by the diplomatic corps or the President (of whom I had expected better things) is anyone’s guess, especially as foreign attaches here are always happy to jump on anything they feel to be ‘undemocratic’. Perhaps they feel if they target one party they might be violating their official neutrality and influencing public opinion, but any criticism directed towards Georgian Dream in this way would be entirely justified and nobody’s fault except the party itself.

If all the international community is capable of doing is expressing ‘deep concern’ over internal issues, I’d like to see them express it towards something worthwhile. Opposition government in Georgia does not seem to amount to much beyond complaining and screaming ‘Conspiracy!’, but it is frightening that their fears might be justified. When the government is accused of being controlled from behind the scenes, and the puppeteer has now stopped even trying to deny that he pulls the strings, some sort of response is surely warranted. If nobody else will express it, I will; I officially state that I am deeply concerned. A career in the diplomatics beckons me, I’m sure.

Tim Ogden