“Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”
I am not the author of this text. I quote this from the US Declaration of Independence 240 years ago where the founders of this newly created country explain what caused the people to revolt against the vicious realities.
Armenia can be conditionally called a newly created country, and the conversation about the aforementioned causes, among others, must have started and ended still a quarter of a century ago. But the reality is that the above mentioned remains imperative even today.
The mechanisms of restraints and balances, splitting of the government wings, splitting of authorities and business, accountability of the government, competitive environment, priority of law and rule, respecting fundamental human rights and freedoms and other social-political “goods” are decorations caused not by being idle or someone’s taste but the minimum demand of any political system. The mankind has not found any better forms of refraining from internal security, stability, and shocks, solving the problems in a legitimate way and understandable for everyone and ensuring all goods generated thereof, and apparently, will not even find. All other remaining forms, by and large, lead to shock and chaos, jeopardizing the future of the society and every citizen.
Read also
The incident on July 17 when a group of armed people seized the Police Department in the capital of Armenia and the police regiment, it is the most serious alarm for the authorities and society. However, which of the government senses should this alarm reach if the political system is dead?
There is de fact no mechanisms of restraints and balances and splitting of the government wings, people everywhere are guided by the principle “Dear chief, as you say,” correlation of government and business is turned into black death and the government is accountable only to the “Dear chief” rather than to the public. People are paying taxes and the budget generated from these taxes is spent without the real supervision of these taxpayers. There is no competitive environment, the monopolies have strangled the competitiveness, and the newly appointed minister of economy does not dare to give even the name of an Indian-cow-status obtained monopolists, the supermarkets built in Yerevan have strangled the small and medium-sized businesses, and those who are not “strangled” are “slaughtered” by tax and other bodies turned into punitive institutions. One can also draw conclusions about the priority of rule of law and the degree of respect of human fundamental rights and freedoms just by seeing what is going on in the law enforcement and judicial systems. And it happens that the portion of provincial circus and human cynicism and stupidity in the country that has lost the lion’s share of the government have reached the level of intimidation.
It would be amazing if after all, another attitude would be formed apart from serious discontent among the society. It looks like ideal conditions for the formation of new political forces, forces, which would make these sentiments ahead of the elections a serious capital for the political advancement. However, this in the case of normal conditions. But if the political system is dead and none of the institutions is not what it should be but only its meaningless analog, despair emerges which leads to radicalization. And here’s the result. The policy in Armenia is dead. And if it is not regenerated and nor re-established, we are closing all the doors of the state future before us.
Just follow the extent of desperate sentiments, mutual distrust and hysterical suspicion and justification for violence in social networks. Facebook has turned into a big stage of interpersonal and pseudo-ideological conflicts, people lose the ability to solve problems together…
The number one political responsible of all this is, of course, the authorities. When the mechanisms to raise questions, discuss them and giving natural solutions for the benefit of all is consistently eliminating, then such desperate moves are only the beginning. And multiplying the police staff list will not mitigate the internal threats but given the “peculiarities” of our law enforcement system, on the contrary, will multiply.
But the question here are not only the authorities. The government will be better in the condition of public indifference. Nor, moreover, will change. It will take place only under the public compulsion by giving it a distinct political content, idea and purpose.
Maintaining a peaceful and political course of the solution to domestic problems is of vital importance for Armenia, as well as its conscious. The fight against the authorities should not turn into a fight against the state. Furthermore, the state needs a protection from the authorities, and it can be successful only by the way not prohibited by the law. And it’s not just a good wish but to guarantee that similar problems will not arise in the future. And this, as it is said still 240 years ago, is not only the people’s right but also the duty. Let the authorities decide whether it is a part of the solution to the problem or it is the part of the problem itself.
…The old Chinese proverb tells how a butterfly breaks the camel’s back. The camel is already overloaded. And sooner or later, a butterfly would like to sit on the back of the camel or will accidentally sit…
Ruben MEHRABYAN
