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IS THE “BEACON OF LIBERTY” DYING OUT?

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ZAAL ANJAPARIDZE,
Political analyst, Tbilisi

Inscriptions “We will always remember November 7” have appeared recently on some streets and buildings in Tbilisi. This day, tragic for many Georgians, has divided the already split Georgian society.

After the known events of November 7 the presidential election scheduled for January 5, 2008 acquires more significance. It has gone beyond the usual constitutional expression of the popular will. Some local psychologists and sociologists argue that this election will be a real examination for the Georgian ethnopsychology and for the phenomenon defined in the wide public as “Georgian mentality”. Nowadays, when the globalization and the integration of the country and its citizens into the international political and economic processes are becoming increasingly challenging, this mentality is intensely looking for the best, the safest and the most comfortable niche, where it can be harbored securely.

According to the public opinion polls, in the past four years, the charismatic leaders with aggressive behavior and aggressive governing style have attracted the Georgians less and less. The ruling party with its sole competitive “political article” Mikheil Saakashvili is well aware of this public attitudes. These public attitudes appears to be a reason behind Saakashvili’s pre-election reverent gestures towards the part of the Georgian society, which was the driving force behind the November protest marches and expressed the well-grounded and justified social and moral grievances against the authorities. Later the authorities, agreed, though reluctantly, with much of that criticism. On the other hand, the ruling party leaders are remaining adherent to the long-standing and well-tried Georgian strategy, keeping saying that in the forthcoming election the country and the nation have to choose between “the past and the future” and between “the good and the evil”.

The official campaigns of search for “enemies of the nation”, “the Kremlin’s agents” and of “saving fatherland” from the oligarch conspiracy and “dark forces” have calmed down a little, but are still continuing. What’s alerting is that Saakashvili’s entourage still consists and, probably, will consist of those who reportedly made the decision about cruel dispersion of the peaceful rallies on November 7. To many people’s surprise, they include Chairwoman of the Georgian Parliament Nino Burjanadze who has been regarded as a moderate-liner until very recently.

Many Georgian journalists were aggrieved by the results of a closed-door meeting with the government officials last Saturday that focused on several issues, including possibility of resumption of the broadcast of the sole uncontrolled by the authorities TV channel “Imedi”, which had been closed by the authorities and smashed up by the riot police, relations between the authorities and the Media. The authorities insist on their vision of the November events and try to drag out the channel reopening for as long as possible, in spite of the insistent requests from the Western community.

The “Beacon of Liberty”, that, to believe U.S. President George Bush, Georgia embodied in May 2005, when he made a visit  to the country, is dying out, even though the West does not want to believe that and continues to give Saakashvili and his government a helping hand. But, it seems, not all the government officials want to take it. According to the available information, in the Georgian corridors of power the worst scenario such as abandonment of the Western support, is being considered. The statements like “We are not afraid of being left alone” are made.

If the West considers Georgia to be the country that, according to «The Economist» magazine Intelligence Unit’s index of democracy, has a “hybrid regime” with a trend towards curtailment of media and other civil liberties, one can agree with the widespread view that the West is most likely to maintain partnership relations with Georgia, but will keep it at arm’s length for a while.

December 6, 2007




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