When handsome young men with a few books in an expensive cover ring at my door and say, “We want to talk to you,” I just close the door, because I have neither time nor wish to
listen to sectarians’ nonsense. However, if some people come to our homes in this period, introduce themselves as people from the city hall, condominium and some other institution and start to ask questions about the election or, worse still, collect passport information, why don’t we do the same thing? They have as much authority to enter the apartment and ask questions as Jehovah’s Witnesses. But no, here we have the genetic fear of a state institution, a “body” inherited from the Soviet time. If the “body” comes and wants the information from us, it is decided at the top and is necessary. So, let’s not resist that man from the “body” – who knows what he might trump up against us – and do what he says. And residents easily tell him whether they will participate in the election or not, whom they will vote for, as well as take their passports out of their sideboards and tell him the information. Then a part of those people call the offices of information agencies, parties, and NGOs and complain that the government collects information from them, but they also add: “Don’t mention our names, or else we are in trouble.”
Those fears are just “inertial” and are not grounded at all. Certainly, it is right to call, but first of all, don’t be afraid to tell your names and addresses, secondly, before calling, grab this man or woman from the “body” by the sleeve and politely see him/her to the door. Next time, s/he will think twice before ringing at someone’s door. And if a few citizens show him the door like that, he will report to his “boss” that he cannot do this campaign “job.” By the way, while dismissing those “envoys,” you can refer to the statement released by Serzh Sargsyan’s headquarters yesterday, in which any initiative to collect information is “strongly condemned.”
Certainly, the issue becomes more complex when the head of a state or private institution takes that vicious, if not criminal, initiative. It is clear that the employees are dependent on their director (owner), and it will be hard for them to ignore his illegal “orders.” Well, here one really needs some courage not to come home and complain about the boss who curries favor with the government, but to jointly resist him, applying to the mass media and NGOs, as well as suing him. In that case, that “work style” of currying favor with the government will not be employed at the level of directors either.
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ARAM ABRAHAMYAN
