You have noticed that in the middle of the American action movies, one of the heroes, whom we, the naives, were considering a negative character, is “revealed,” saying, “I work for the U.S. government.” He is a special agent or something like that. The circumstance of working for the government is emphasized with a separate pride, and here, of course, there is also an element of propaganda, thus the hero is emphasizing that he does not get wasted taxpayers’ money.
Working for the government in Armenian is not respected (fortunately, serving in the army is an exception). The state employee is perceived either a thief, corrupt and rider, or a poor man, who not only has to live with his, to put it mildly, not luxurious salary, but also be subjected to various pressures. In particular, many schoolteachers are forced to take part in electoral frauds.
It is obvious that, for example, not everyone working at the ministries is a criminal. Those who have appropriate levers, take bribes and “kickbacks”, get into the business and so on, but the others, hundreds of people, do not have the opportunity of it or maybe do not steal based on principal reasons. Given all this, in fact, it was right to raise their wages. It’s another matter that our state apparatus for a country with three million of population is excessively big, and there is a point in making structural changes in the government.
But imposing the funded pension over the young employees of state agencies, it seems to me, is not a good idea. First, it’s a display of discrimination. Similar laws, as I understand, should not operate depending on which form of ownership the agency where the citizen works belongs. Secondly, it creates a social tension. Why the 35-year-old employee of the ministry or the 35-year-old doctor and the teacher must have “not a good eye”, let’s say, to the 35-year-old journalist of “Aravot”, feel depressed and offended.
Finally, the rating of the employee working for the “government” should not be diminished, on the contrary, increased among our society. This citizen should not be viewed as an object of “funded” experiments, who, depending on his status, cannot withstand the pressure from the “top”.
Is it the fault of these people for working for the state agency?
ARAM ABRAHAMYAN
