The most interesting part of these campaigns is, of course, the back-and-forth between My Step and the RPA. Viewers enjoy watching how they fight one another, what accusations they bring forward, what answers they give, and more. The playing cards are in the hands of My Step; people are interested in discoveries, arrests, interferences, deterences, and more. The authorities are doing everything possible during this last phase of campaigning to ensure that we don’t get bored with all of this. Gagik Tsarukyan’s business plans that were presented as party plans and Rule of Law’s constant reminders of the fact that they were the ones to return deposits are less interesting.
The activities of newly-formed political forces (such as Citizen’s Decision, National Progress, and Christian-Democratic Renaissance) are barely noticeable among the backdrop of such dramatic pre-election events. First, the members of such political parties do not have the kind of cynicism, populism, and demagoguery needed in such a field. Secondly, there are no well-known or charismatic individuals in those parties. Third, citizens are not interested and what those parties have to say. Citizens only care to know one thing: are you for Nikol, or against him? If you’re with Nikol, then you’re with the people, but if you’re against Nikol, then you’re a thief. It is difficult to talk about Christian, conservative, or social democratic values in this simple decision.
But since I am covering the 10th election campaign, and I already can recite by heart what will be said about selling or not selling Artsakh, stealing or not stealing, destroying or not destroying the country, punishing or not punishing the ones at fault, as well as what will be said about work and investments, I am more interested in discussions about such values.
The more I think about these problems, the more I realize that if the state wants to be stable and self-sufficient, it needs to have ethical and spiritual foundations. By the way, all successful states, from the US to Japan and from Iceland to China have such foundations. For example, the state demands its citizens to do this or that. If this does not have any moral or spiritual foundations, then people do not understand why they should or should not do that, and they start to hate the state. The saying “Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s” is a witty response to defeat the opposition, but in reality, the state needs to explain why and for what purpose is it calling upon individuals and citizens to perform a certain action. Otherwise, we will remain in a state of making simplistic decisions.
Aram Abrahamyan
