Post-Soviet “democracy” still differs greatly from the Western interpretation of the term in its content and forms of expression.
As was expected, the authoritarian consciousness existing in the Soviet world of the twentieth century proved to have a resistant genetic code with the implementation of democratic values having turned into a painful process.
The fact that the deliverance from this heavy mental heritage did not become the real goal for the political elites in the majority of post-Soviet countries, however, was quite unexpected. On the contrary, these leaders were content with simply learning the democratic terminology and phraseology by rote whilst in parallel strengthening the tools of authoritarian governance.
Today, we can clearly see that the dream of many generations for a fair state, guaranteed human rights, a total freedom of speech and democratic and transparent elections, amongst other achievements, fell victim to this kind of malpractice.
Georgia, wherein the centuries-long aspiration towards the restoration of its independence was once viewed as one of the most significant resources of the country’s development, now once again finds itself at the hazardous crossroad of Western civilisation and the Soviet “Super Power.”
The need to prove the same goals, which had been clarified by the end of the twentieth century, has arisen again on the eighteenth anniversary of the return of the country’s long-desired independence. Nowadays, Georgians have to reassure the world through its tears and blood that progressive Western values and genuine democracy are indeed their conscious choice.
The necessity of reassuring the international community of this truth is mainly conditioned by the irrelevance in the style of governance of the Georgian state authorities who were elected — and or imposed — in 1990-2008 to universally acknowledged democratic principles and traditional moral values.
It is hard for the Georgian people — as for any nation which takes pride in itself — to put up with frustration, falsehood and injustice. For some reason, this truism seemed to have been difficult to accept by the three presidents of the independent Georgia each of whom left his position before his constitutional term was finished. The current president is facing a unique threat; that is, to resign from his office for a second time in two years.
The system crisis which developed in Georgia in 2008 caused a new wave of protest against the Government and made finding an adequate evaluation and potential for discharging the situation within the existing governmental team a difficult task.
It is true that the system state crisis has been developing for several years already and it was not difficult to make this forecast given the tangible negative processes which remain ongoing. Politicians, professionals of different governmental branches, civil society institutions and experts from different international organisations have all spoken publicly about the existing and potential threats.
President Saakashvili’s government has never shown a political will to share any of the critical views existing in civil society nor to discuss them publicly with the rejection of an opposing view with pathological obstinacy having been raised to the rank of state policy.
At the same time, the Government realised that the protection of the basic principles of democracy posed a threat to its stability and so it tried to establish a façade or a make-believe democracy. The campaigns promoting illusory expectations and covering up the existing reality were generously funded by the state budget.
It became more and more obvious for the public that the Government’s immediate priority was not to overcome poverty or to peacefully restore the country’s territorial integrity but, rather, to maintain its own power by any possible means, including crime.
This is how the country found itself in such a inadequate reality when the declared vector of its political development was straightforwardly directed at the West whilst the Government — without having produced any explanation whatsoever — deliberately strengthened its economic development towards the North to please the interests of the occupying country.
The disregard for democracy as of a way of life and a necessary condition for the development of civil society by the authoritarian Government of Georgia shows an equal disregard for the human being as a subject bearing the highest of values. Consequently, there is no place for human values amongst the priority values of the current Government with the interest and compassion towards a human being, a citizen or a compatriot being alien for these individuals in power. The sphere of its interests implies (once in four-to-five years) only the “electorate” and, of these, only the poorest and most destitute whose votes are far easier to obtain in the elections.
The Government, for which the truth, justice and democratic development represents a threat to its own well-being, tries to constantly speak about its achievements of fair democracy whilst at the same time does everything it can to bury it. Certainly, these kinds of political technologies are not Georgian know-how although, and unfortunately so, they have come to easily fit within the post-revolutionary Georgian reality.
For the leadership, public lies and hypocrisy have become an ordinary form of communication with their own people as well as with naïve foreign colleagues. The makers of Georgia’s false democracy have been creating and embellishing a happy, virtual Georgia whilst a frustrated and disgraced Georgia became more and more estranged from the European and Euro-Atlantic paradise that was promised by the Government. It distinctly realised the reality of the threat inside or outside of the country that was coming from Russia wherein falsehood has always been a natural milieu.
It is exactly this massive falsehood which plays an extraordinary role in Georgian-Russian relations. It originates from the absolute identity of the ruling methods employed within these two countries.
Instead of real democracy, the reigning “Misha-cracy” and “Vova-cracy” are as similar as identical twins proved by the similar practices introduced in their own countries by the authorities of Mikheil Saakashvili and Vladimir Putin. In particular:
• Frequent changes of the Constitution and laws according to the President’s own wish
• Creating a one-party Parliament which is totally obedient to the President
• Subordinating the court system to the Prosecutor General’s Office
• Ignoring international norms of human rights
• The scale and techniques of falsifying elections
• Exerting harsh pressure over private businesses and protecting favourites
• Monopolising media space
• Being unpardonable towards political opponents
• Being a distrustful partner in international relationships
• Radical discrepancy between public statements and real processes
• Ignoring just, moral and human values, etc.
It is worth noting that the lies concocted out of the desire to mislead others are sooner believed by the authors themselves.
This is how the Government of Georgia assured itself that the 2008 Presidential and Parliamentary elections had not been falsified, there was a favourable investment environment in the country, court reform was developing with great success, democracy was flourishing, corruption was counting its last days and the Georgian Army was almighty with the Russian 58th Army enjoying summer holidays in the Caucasus Mountains and would never cross the Georgian border.
Likewise, the Kremlin was assured by its own propaganda that they had only three reasons to confront Georgia as they were over the past years; namely, the aspiration of their disobedient neighbour to become a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Alliance, the “Kosovo precedent” and its personal irreconcilability with President Saakashvili.
These arguments — which have been repeatedly made and not only in Russia — counted upon people having a very short memory; that is, those who do not remember that Moscow, relying upon its own military forces, took the right of Constitutional relationships with Tskhinvali and Sokhumi away from Tbilisi in 1992-1993 when none of the abovementioned reasons existed in reality.
In Russia, they do not want to face the truth that their government’s aggression towards Georgia appeared from the moment that the Soviet Union collapsed. For Putin’s Russia, which even today remains a worshipper of Stalin’s State Anthem, the collapse of the Soviet Empire is “the biggest geopolitical catastrophe of the twentieth century” whereas Georgians saw it as the fulfilment of their long awaited desire to restore their independent statehood.
Georgia and Russia have never experienced having state relations nor, unfortunately, has anyone ever bothered to teach Russians the ABCs of how to conduct civilised and good-neighbourly relationships.
All of us have naïvely believed that the “Evil Empire,” once buried forever, would never have a chance of reincarnation in this millennium. Have we all been mistaken?
But where should we seek justice? Reagan is dead…
Creating a peaceful and co-operative atmosphere in the Caucasus region is a long but not an endless process. Its ultimate success implies not only the need for a peaceful replacement of the existing non-democratic and deceitful Government but — even more desirable — the distinct awareness of the public of its own function and its implementation with high civic responsibility.
Society has the right to demand the Government to provide decent and committed work for the interests of the country and the population but only if it itself acts honestly in the process of electing the Government.
It is commonly known that governance is delegated to the elected government as a result of fair elections whilst the power stays with the people. Any kind of co-participation in falsified elections or the manipulation of one’s own vote is equal to being an accessory to a crime as a government which comes to the rule in this way will misappropriate power and its responsibility towards its people will again enter into question.
There is only one way to escape total falsehood and unrighteousness. This is:
Governance to Government, Power to People!
Soso Tsiskarishvili,
\”Crisis in Georgia, 2008. Preconditions, Reality, Perspectives\”,
Independent Experts\’ Club
