What does a parliamentary mandate give to a person? In the case of a business owner, the answer to the question is clear. With the mandate, they, in one way or another, stand close to the government and insure their business. Maybe there are people whose ambition is flattered by going to the “Central Committee” building and sitting on the chairs in the courtroom. The motives for the rest are not so clear (I do not rule out that some of them are attracted, in fact, by doing nothing and getting a fairly high salary).
If the problem is to “crush the opponents morally,” then it can be done without a parliamentary tribune. Sit in front of your computer webcam and crush them as much as you want. If you use strict, preferably non-normative vocabulary, the audience will be bigger than any MP.
Legislative work? But at the top, in the government, everything is decided. To press the “right button” you may not belong to the species homo sapiens. You may not be a living being at all. In our age of high technology, it is not a problem to put 88 robots in the seats of the hall and to program “yes” in case of the laws brought by the government, and “no” in case of the projects proposed by the opposition.
Since 1995, the role of the National Assembly in our political life has been almost nil. Opposition lawmakers made passionate speeches over the years, criticizing the government’s legislative initiatives, but then the voting mechanism was activated and a pro-government decision was made.
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Therefore, if a person wants to change something in this life and to influence the situation in some way, they must look elsewhere for the implementation of his ideas. They will not be able to realize his idealistic aspirations in the parliament. A person with such aspirations will just get bored in the sometimes seemingly hectic but in fact monotonous atmosphere of the parliament.
Artur Vanetsyan’s step in that respect is welcome. And no matter how much the propagandists of the government announce that he has surrendered, he has realized that there is no game against them, that step can actually become a basis for a positive process. Such a process, in my opinion, would have taken place if all the deputies of the two factions had resigned at the same time. The next candidates on their lists also continued to resign. I do not think that it would immediately lead to the dissolution of the National Assembly. But there would be a real peaceful resistance. At the same time, the rumors that “you get paid, you use shoes, but you do not work” would stop.
Something tells me this will not happen. Probably, there is a special sweetness in the parliamentary mandate, which we, ordinary citizens, do not understand.
Aram Abrahamyan
