“Politics is not a hysteria. Is the politics mathematics?” One of the publicist living in Ukraine, Vitali Portnikov, has come to such a conclusion, commenting on Saakashvili-Avakov conflict. The governor of Odessa region, Ukraine, and the minister of interior affairs of the same country have argued on the following: How are you going to privatize one of the major factories in Odessa? Former Georgian president responded, “You are the corruption, I’m a good guy.” And it was followed by the dispute typical to the representatives of two hot-blooded peoples of the South Caucasus.
I will not try to make judgments about who is right or wrong in this dispute, it requires to know the Ukrainian realities better. But I want to refer to Portnikov’s idea that the politics is not a hysteria, it cannot consist of only populism, only sonorous statements, rhetorical tricks or, better yet, just hysterical buzzing. Maybe it is a component part of politics but never of the whole politics.
Almost in the whole world, the politics is carried out not so much through shows, scourging words and disclosures, as by the daily work not visible to the public and, why not, through negotiations and agreements. There are countries where there is no public politics at all, for instance, Azerbaijan. In some states, the politics is mostly public. And in Ukraine, as in Armenia, it is the “hybrid option”. The great part of it is carried out in the sight of the public: debates, elections and referendums do not play a particular role, the problem is solved before that, while the “official events” only fix the situation. Hysteria and buzzing begin just in this case as a consequence of the lack of free political competition.
It is a different matter that the coefficient of the efficiency of this noise is zero. One can stand, sit or lie down on the podium of the parliament. One can take a ten-centimeter nail and write a curse on this podium. Such actions may be worth of praise by a few hundred or a few thousand people. It’s all the same, it will not bring closer to the “collapse of the regime”.
… Incidentally, FLY to the RPA parliamentarian reciting Narek from the podium of the National Assembly. The great poet and philosopher, when writing cited bitter words, was not blaming or insulting anyone. Saying “you”, he was referring to himself.
Aram ABRAHAMYAN
