“The forces that try to obstruct the government will be thrown into the political landfill,” one of the Civil Contract deputies recently stated. This threat can be interpreted in only one way: the current government is always a priori right on all issues, and the opposition forces, who think that the Civil Contract is wrong about something, do not deserve a fate other than being in the landfill. Of course, we can not officially declare that we are moving to a one-party system, and we need some parties that can be appointed opposition, but the condition is that these forces be called “opposition,” but let’s agree that all the steps of the parliamentary majority are genius.
Suppose the government once again wants to please its electorate and decides to reinstate the death penalty. Fans of the government are overjoyed that people they do not like will finally be shot. And here are the people who say that the death penalty is wrong, that it contradicts the values they profess; in other words, they prevent the Civil Contract from carrying out that program with their attitudes. Those people, who may represent “some forces,” will be a minority of Armenian citizens, but that does not mean that their place is in the landfill. There should always be disagreement in Armenia, and from the point of view of history, it is impossible to answer the question of where to throw it right now. Often, people fight about such issues for decades, sometimes for centuries.
The context of such statements, however, is clear: the opposition that has appeared in the parliament is not really an opposition, they are the former regime, criminals, and enemies of the state that hinder our Civil Contract’s nation-saving activities. The real opposition, by that logic, is a group of parties loyal to Pashinyan, which from time to time gathers under the “high patronage” the acting prime minister. Oh, they should not be thrown in the political landfill.
But I must disappoint the Civil Contract and its supporters. It is not the government that chooses the opposition. The opposition, like the government, is elected by the citizens. The majority of the citizens who participated in the last elections, 53.91%, voted for the Civil Contract, and that choice should be respected. Those citizens wanted the Civil Contract to be a parliamentary majority. But the 21.09% and 5.22% of citizens who voted for the Armenia and I Have Honor alliances should also be respected because according to their will, those two alliances should be a parliamentary minority and not the product of a “political landfill.” Approximately 20% of the citizens who took part in the elections (including myself) wanted to see other forces in the parliament. This is also a respectable choice.
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Aram Abrahamyan
