Society and opposition against 5% obligatory pension payment
Since 1 January 2014, the obligatory funded pension system will be introduced in Armenia, which recently faced counteraction of the parliamentary opposition and certain sections of society. With the introduction of the system from January 1, the actual salary will be reduced by 6.6-13 %. Moreover, the foundations where these amounts should be deposited are private and, in fact, do not give money back guarantees. By the initiative of parliamentary opposition, as we know, a special session was convened on Friday with an agenda to delay the “mandatory” component of the law for one year.
The session failed by consecration of the political majority, although RPA and Rule of Law part participated in special petition, and the Head of RPA faction Galust Sahakyan said they will not fail the special. The representative of political majority said that the reason for failing the session was the following, they learned that the opposition is going to conduct substantive discussions. Then, the members of “Against 5% obligatory pension payment” initiative conducted a protest in front of the Parliament and RPA main office, and the parliamentary opposition disseminated a joint statement condemning non-constructive stance of political majority. Yesterday, at the press conference, members of “Against 5% obligatory pension payment” initiative stated that they will continue to fight. They said that they the possibility of organizing mass strikes and demonstrations are pending.
How to continue the fight? To the question of “Aravot”, the Head of Heritage faction Zaruhi Postanjyan said in her view, the rebellion needs to be continued. “In all workplaces, I think, there should be small groups created, and begin the series of strikes.” And what options of legal fight are there that the opposition must apply? Ms. Postanjyan said that probably a special session with the same agenda will again be convened. “Legal mechanisms exist, but as the majority is not tended to respect the legal mechanisms, therefore, such legal mechanisms do not succeed. But I think that this power would very easily cede when they begin specific actions of strike. There is almost no such family, which is not affected by this deduction, it refers to about 250 thousand people, and this huge fundraising will be transferred to an unknown accumulated foundation.”
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We asked whether there is a specific agreement in the parliamentary opposition with regard to cooperation, coordination and directing with the newly established movement. Ms. Postanjyan said that during the last meeting, representatives of all opposition parties have said that the application of the law should not be allow from January 1, and everyone’s efforts is required. Zaruhi Postanjyan thinks that this mentality should keep moving on. However, there are no specific and clear arrangements or plan of actions.
In the conversation with “Aravot”, PAP MP, the party’s Spokesman Tigran Urikhanyan said regarding this topic that they also think that further combat operations should be continue within the framework of logic of the joint statement made by the parliamentary opposition parties on Friday. There is still no clear plan of action, but Urikhanyan believes that the option of joint steps will still be under consideration by factions. Our interlocutor reminds that the PAP has submitted its recommendations regarding this law, some of which are related to the age threshold, obligatory component, and so on, are still topical. He recalled that the PAP once has submitted a draft law to the government on deposit insurance, one of the core mentality of which was that the deposits should be formulated as an internal state debt, rather than material support, as it is formulated now. “A state that has not yet compensated, moreover, has not acknowledge this commitment towards its own citizens, how does it claim that its citizens will again have confidence in it by giving their sweat-earned money for a long perspective to be ever returned, under the condition of unclarity of indexing, inflation and other issues,” said Tigran Urikhanyan.
To the question whether he considers it possible that the social rebellion and the activeness of political parties can make the authorities face serious problems, as some opposition expect, Urikhanyan answered, “The difficult situation that drives people, first of all, to seriously consider to complain and mutiny under such projects, is a serious matter for the authorities. If it were not the difficult social situation, I think that this project would not cause such a degree of dissatisfaction. Finally, the expression of the protest, by itself, should be a problem to the authorities. The authorities, particularly, the government, as an author and initiator, if not already facing a serious problem, then I leave the conclusions to you.”
Tigran Urikhanyan also hinted that we already have the display of “honesty”, meaning the answer of the Prime Minister to his question at the last four-day parliamentary sitting, saying, “In fact, it turns out that a lot of things is clear and acceptable for them, there are opportunities to improve, but there is no desire. It is possible, but, not.”
Nelly Grigoryan
