I watched “Newsroom,” an American TV series, which is about journalists’ work, lately. The first impression it made both on me and on my Armenian colleagues, as far as I can tell from conversations with them, is the following; our journalists – this is about journalists and not preachers or those who make up news – are neither less talented nor less professional than
the Americans. Instead, they have a greased and technically perfect machine, which differs from our machine to the same extent as the “newest” ErAZ from the newest Ford.
I recalled the TV series, reading news about how the US President nominates the director of the Central Intelligence Agency and the Defense Secretary, and how the nominations are discussed in Congress. This is a testimony to the fact that the government mechanism of the given country is well-coordinated. It won’t be easy for Obama who represents the Democratic Party to appoint John Brennan and Chuck Hagel to those offices, because the Republicans accounting for the majority in Congress have many objections against those candidates. Moreover, in this case, the Democrats can also make objections, because Hagel, who, by the way, is a veteran of the Vietnam War, is a Republican, thus, he is formally a member of the “opposition” party, which, nonetheless, didn’t have any impact on Obama’s decision. Thanks to these checks and balances, Obama cannot and won’t try to appoint people to high offices based on the “clan” principle, and if it unexpectedly happens, all the same, society, the Congress, the Senate and the mass media will put him under such pressure that they will easily get rid of those officials and maybe the president. American officials and politicians are not better than ours either morally or intellectually – not counting the educational qualification, which half of our National Assembly members lack. It is just that institutions and mechanisms, which have been created in that country over the past 240 years, can efficiently organize political and economic life.
Certainly, we don’t have time to wait for 240 years. Nor can we afford uprisings, revolutions, civil wars and other “luxuries,” which took place in the US history and the history of other currently more or less prosperous states, taking into account our surroundings. Both stagnation and revolutions are equally dangerous for us. The only thing left to do is organized, peaceful, restrained, but decisive pressure, which will make our country reform.
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ARAM ABRAHAMYAN
