Who said there was no corruption in the West? For example, yesterday Dominique de Villepin was summoned to the police and is most probably suspected of being involved in fraud in the hotel industry. The French newspapers remind that this personality, being a member of the same party as former President Sarkozy, had complicated relations with the latter and willingly or unwillingly, contributed to the latter’s defeat by a set of suspicious actions. It is quite imaginable that the Prime Minister of a civilized country can have a shared business with a certain businessman, as officials in Armenia are involved in all more or less profitable businesses.
However, it is much harder for me to imagine that a member of the French National Assembly, assuming the office, would first of all luxuriously decorate his office, which the state had given to him temporarily to fulfill the MP duties. That provincialism would be striking and would become a subject of wide public discussions. Because the person’s taste and at the end of the day, intelligence level are directly connected with his legislative activities.
The speculations about establishing ethics commissions both at the parliamentary level and at the state level, which will watch the behavior of figures who have appeared at the top of the pyramid in Armenia this way or another, are refreshed from time to time. Those speculations are quickly forgotten, perhaps, first of all because neither those who put forward that idea, nor, even less so, the society believes in the effectiveness of that commission’s activities. By the way, this is the only field, in which the presumption of innocence doesn’t work. If I am accused of slaughtering someone, certainly, the accusers must prove that. But if a minister earning 300 thousand AMD a month builds a mansion worth one million dollars, the minister himself must explain, for what money he has been so successful. The problem is that generals, MPs, ministers and others in Armenia are not afraid of such issues – they explain it with some relative’s business at best and usually don’t give any explanation at all. For the same reason they are absolutely unrestrained in terms of their provincialism.
As for the MPs engaged in decoration, one can understand them – one can read a book or write a bill on an ordinary table too. However, they are not going to do that. And one can eat kebab and barbeque only on Armani plates.
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ARAM ABRAHAMYAN
