On Saturday, a large scale rally “Against funded pension” was held in Armenia. Thousands of people have expressed their concerns that the government will pocket 5 percent of youth wages. Do people have the right to have such doubts? Of course, they do. It is not so that the government avoided pocketing anything in the past 22 years to enjoy much confidence now.
Some commentators point out that 4 parties who participated in the rally benefited from this uncertainty and dissatisfaction. As a record of fact, it is normal, but as a surprise or reproach, it is absolutely incomprehensible. And, why should not they benefit? How else would the political forces in any other country behave? Opposition parties around the world exist just for the reason to prove the citizens and electorates how bad the current government is and how well they manage the country when to come to power. Armenia’s and a number of other countries’ peculiarity is that the parties “do not have patience to wait” for 4 or 5 years and require special elections. However, it will go away when the election results inspire confidence among the public.
The rest are natural phenomena in the political fight.
The second president of Armenia, allegedly, leaving the politics, in his recent interview, expressed his special negative opinion regarding the “funded” issue to give a “signal of activation” to his political team. And, there is nothing reprehensible in it. As well as in the fact that there are parties and the media, who are working for Kocharyan’s return to power.
However, all this does not mean that the rally was organized by political parties, or that there is no objective basis for complaint. In my personal opinion, the overwhelming majority of retirement in Armenia, some 20-25 years later, will be funded; the employed will not be able to pay for the unemployed. But, it requires serious work to introduce this concept which the government failed to comply. In the process of at least three years, they should have shown that here are people, who voluntarily use the system, and are checking their accounts every month via internet, here are the funds accumulated in their accounts, here is this Fund that works as follows, and the employers whose employees have gone through that system, have these privileges.
Instead, once again cynically ignoring public opinion, the government preferred to act with a “sledgehammer”, “we will seize and that’s all”. What should the man thereby conclude under the conditions in Armenia? Only one thing, “hence, they will plunder us.”
As for the political forces, if the employees, who have become unemployed due to shut down of casinos, go out to the street tomorrow, the parties will stand next to these people.
ARAM ABRAHAMYAN
