I know that what I will say now will not be liked by the majority of readers. But the media and the politicians pour such an avalanche of “likeable” words on people that someone should tell the truth. Do not accept it, rebelled against it, blame me, but let a little doubt raise in a remote corner of your soul when next time you hear populist rhetoric or repeat them in any surrounding by inciting yourself.
The pension system reform should be passed, but the question is how and on what basis. What was offered up to now was incomplete and not well thought out, and the proof is that the majority of the youth of the public sector does not know how their pension is accumulated. But if the reform is not passed, then today’s 30-40 year-olds at best will receive the pension of the needy, which my peers will receive soon and which our parents receive. The government will postpone the resolution of these problems for another 10 or 20 years with the greatest pleasure, if the populists routinely demand leaving everything the same. On the contrary, social and political forces must require passing this reform.
The municipal transport fares should rise in Yerevan, otherwise this market will collapse in the next few years. But just rising will not help, we will remain in the same smelly and sweaty “Gazelles” and will continue taking the same pose of a “chess horse”. The industry should be radically reformed and be built on entirely different principles. The government will again try evading this problem with “great pleasure”, this situation is favorable to it. But the active youth should not wait until the mayor announces about the fares rise, and only after then to come out to the streets to protest against it, but beforehand to suggest real outcomes from the situation together with specialists and social forces.
The drivers violating traffic rules must be punished, regardless of whether those violations are fixed by the traffic police, or special tools. People who are “getting the bliss” of driving on 120 kmph should not have any “political” justification and should not refer to any other illegalities in our country. Political and social forces, the intellectuals should encourage people to law-abiding rather than to “politically motivated” transgression.
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In a big cities like Yerevan, there should be paid parking stations, and there should be places where parking is disallowed. It is possible, of course, to demand a place for parking anywhere to please the undisciplined drivers and especially, taxi drivers. But in reality, we must demand a much more stringent and more precise regulation.
The essence of the Armenian version for demagogy is not in the calls to move forward but backward.
ARAM ABRAHAMYAN
