WILL BE THE BEST SHOT FOR THE FUTURE OF GEORGIA [2008]
by Bryan Adrian
In memory of Dolores Ann Adrian, my mother
December
2008
ONLY A FULLY RE-LOADED NEW PARLIAMENT
WILL BE THE BEST SHOT FOR THE FUTURE OF
by Bryan Adrian
Georgia needs a totally new opposition, or she will sink.
For the Future of
I
believe Ms. Hammick, a reporter recently writing for JANE'S DEFENSE
WEEKLY,
upon the upcoming election in
of, as F. Scott Fitzgerald once said, of "the test of a first rate
intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind
at
the same time, and still retain the ability to function".
How
so? She was evidently flipping through her mind the several
conflicting tentative dates set for the parliamentary elections,
starting back in late 2003. Since Nov. 23rd, 2003 , when President
Saakashvili
parachuted into his position as ruler of
rarely clarified-in-the-media Georgian constitutional amendments,
made in December, 2005, most people are understandably
deeply confused and
divided on basic democratic procedures here, regarding
efforts that
would help the majority of people, rather than propping up
some cold
and abstract ideology in its stead, helping old insiders
and new
“graspers,” only.
Here
is a blurb from Freedom House back in mid 2005, to refresh your
memories of the jigsaw puzzle of parliamentary election
procedures
here:
[First,
Saakashvili and NED [the National Endowment for Democracy], and the Liberty
Institute set in train the protests which brought him to power on
23rd
November, 2003 . Thus, it can be argued, that parliamentary elections should
have been held in Nov. of 2007.]
15.06.2005 - Source: Freedom House, ... the 2004 elections
were
somewhat free and fair; however, the level of political
pluralism had
been severely reduced, as no party could compete with
National
Movement-Democrats
("Nations in Transit 2005") [#32929], [ID
4745]
"...the
elections of 2004 were considered generally free and fair,
though voter lists were still not fully complete. There was
no
harassment of the opposition. However, the level of political
pluralism was sharply reduced as the former ruling party
completely
disbanded and no political group could compete with Mikhail
Saakashvili and his National Movement-Democrats.
Only
one opposition bloc of the New Rights and Industrialists was able narrowly to
overcome the 7 percent threshold for party lists."
Historical Margin Note #1 on
Compared
to Georgians and their 6 or 7 thousand year old fiercely loyal and
family-relations-devoted traditions, how many Americans do
you know
who actually continue to look after their old parents and
older
grandparents and perhaps their great grandparents too, themselves?
Perhaps in the same household? These Georgians,
all of them here,
would NEVER put an older family member into a rest home, or
a Memory
Care
Home or into a criminally overpriced USA-style and shamefully
profitable nursing/senior/memory care home, you know -- the kind
of
racket in the States backed up in large measure by
HHS/MEDICARE
political insiders, working along with State and Federal
congresspersons, to milk the tax systems bone dry!
These
same Georgians are trying to use this familial passion and commitment to
forge a new and democratic Parliament this May 21st, 2008 ,
but the
likelihood of any success is as slender as the homeless of New
The
forces here preventing a true democracy in
identically same forces at work against them there in
Margin Note #2--QUESTION: How many Americans
typically speak and read three languages and alphabets, and
who work
anywhere from 10 to 25 hours a week overtime, with not even a
tetri
[penny] of paid overtime, and who never complain about the
total lack
of labor laws coming out of their Parliament??? Again, nearly zero.
These
Georgians here have not yet been educated by their strictly
censored media, in any shape or form, upon labor laws or labor
rights, yet the USAID personnel here and the
"beacon of light" regarding fulfillment of democratic
ideals!
A
whole new team of concerned Georgians need to take over their
parliament, this May 21st, these citizens desperately need new
opposition forces deep in their Parliament, and not only the
elites
and millionaire businessmen/women that they now have as
MPs, and THEY
should be the 'new ones' to select a new president, if there
is to be
any hope of true democracy here in
click here http://www.osce.org/documents/odihr/2008/04/30927_en.pdf
[ for a full OSCE report on the unlikelihood of a fair and
square
parliamentary election in
A
president such as "Misha" [short for Saakashvili], who galloped
into power overnight on the day quoted above, would be
fairly tested by
the people of his new democracy, if and only if, the
people themselves
gave him something like his report card grades after the
last 4 long
years in which he could evaluate himself too, in careful
and painful
self-examination. The result of a revitalizing and invigorating new
parliamentary election process, in which a `new batch of 2008
parliamentary MPs', not in any way part of Saakashvili's clan, nor
part of the current Opposition's clan, could and would
implement
fresh and vigorous legislation and programs. If only they
had been allowed
to do so at the end of 2007, a global miracle would have
been born –
a real beacon of light !!!
A real
beacon of light, especially when one considers the helpful and
democracy-building funding from outside agencies of
the last 4 years,
thanks to credits and currencies from the USAID, the EU, the
UN,
SECO/
SDC, the German and Polish governments, et al, who have greatly
helped make many of the improvements the Georgians have
desperately needed,
after the mayhem and ugly scenarios following the collapse
of communism in this nation.
Isn't
this Parliamentary “stuffing” the nub of the conflict today,
and a major cause of the loss of public and international
confidence in
the current Saakashvili government? Aren't I correct that
these
Georgians
need to immediately reload their Parliament?
Georgians
themselves, excluding the ever and over and twice again
prospering current Members of Parliament, the normal children of
the
legendary Family of Georgia are cut off at the knees from any
kind of
truly democratic structures and planks and platforms, in
nearly every
respect, in the current situation.
Can
anyone remember how Shevardnadze reinstated most of his Parliament after he
dismissed them, more
or less, can you dig
out these events from the faded memories of the past? How many key players in
Saakashvili's current clan
worked at one time
[for quite a long while, indeed] on the monorail of Shevaradnadze's express
train to disunity and oblivion and hunger?
Will
not the Saakashvili MPs and he as their leader, and most of the
old Opposition MPs, simply repeat the same mistakes again
and again?
So we
might conclude after an hour or two of productive thought on
this matter, [i.e., of a fresh and uncompromised
Parliament], that
the Georgian people were indeed deprived of a timely, and
legal, and in-
their-favor, parliamentary election, in November of 2007,
which might
have brought about the promising guiding-light of fresh
teams of
Georgian
MBAs and MDs and Masters degree winners, coming back
from
A
parliament comprised of the principals and top teachers of
and
activists for the desperately needed hospital care and health
care
here fighting on the behalf of the struggling desperate
people of
them also, the many passionate property rights activists
fighting the
Chancellery, and the grey panthers of organized parties of
disgruntled pensioners, and the many magnificent and proud
Georgians, which
include among them the displaced farmers flung from their
hectares who are being replaced
by huge corporate conglomerated and automated farms,
owned by many current
MPs,
and more and more frequently, supplanted by Chinese imported workers, these
urgently needed new MPs who
I am dreaming about here-- who might be able to stampede
into parliament as newly elected MPs if just given the chance – this imagined
truly democratic and
model parliamentary election, could come into being at the most opportune time
for the natives of this land, early 2009,
consisting of the non-elite of
old
Shevardnadze and Moscow-resonating fiddlers too, who/which are frequently and
deeply embedded in the half- dozen or more, old and very tiresome Opposition
parties here, as time rolls on like domestic tank treads on these pot-holed
streets?
Such
new MPs could rectify the hurried and hasty presidential elections of Jan. 5, 2008 , and would install their own new president.
This
would improve the quality of Georgian political debates, within a newly transfigured
Parliament, MPs most probably not in tune with Misha.
They would have to agree and/or disagree with
each other in a gentlemanly or ladylike way, until solutions are legislated and
enacted.
Political pluralism will flower like the
Garden of Eden, and new and friendly coalitions will emerge [only in this
scenario] and triumph from the authentic
reforms of Saakashvili's first two years.
These
new and unheard of freshly minted MPs will TRULY
debate issues and policies and finances, rather than the mud
slinging ejaculations and shouting spasms we see today, and
these angels of
democracy will be in many aspects watered from the garden of
justice,
with its flowers showing her firsts blossoms. These new MPs
might have had the chance to vote in Parliament on the issues
TRULY
important to THEM and to their constituents, and not just to pocket USAID and
other nation’s aid money for imported
goods-laden highways, nor toady up to the Pentagon's missile
strategies for
proponents of Vladimir Putin, his inner team evidently NOT
allies of
business
ties to Russia that are still deeply entrenched here, but not clearly seen, and
counterproductive to a new democracy.
I am
truly astonished by the bright and hopeful and hard-working and
self-sacrificing Georgians in their 20s and 30s and 40s and 50s and
60s also,
who are well educated with admirable characters and
genuine integrity,
and who want to make a big difference in their country's
destiny, in
a disciplined communitarian manner, women most welcome
too, to join the
ranks, and they are all blocked by the current `map of
democracy', by
teams, Saakashvili's team, and the motley cluster of current
Opposition
teams.
Typical
and honest Georgians must control the future of
not American military investment conglomerates nor old
Russian mafia-like
business networks.
These
sterling Georgians mentioned directly above are the citizens
who belong in Parliament and THEY should select a
president, if there is
to be any hope of true democracy here any year soon. After
this
"turn-
around", Presidential elections could be arranged to coincide with
Parliamentary elections, as in other nations. After
such a model
transition, Saakashvili would go down in history as a fine and
admired agent of transition, a team player who saw he should
enter private
business after 5 years at the helm, rather than what is in
store for
his legacy should he win the election this Jan. 5th. His
past achievements would quite likely
be blemished beyond repair by another term in office,
and I think he senses this himself!
These
new hypothetical MPs would be loyal to
interests, and not to Saakashvili, as if he were their beloved
post-communism, riding-the-tiger boss, or a Godfather in a Francis Ford Coppola film,
or a
mirror of Putin's firm leadership, and these new hypothetical MPs
would not
and could not be loyal in any way or manner to any
tricked-out business interests
of the old Opposition, one would pray also.
Georgia needs a totally new opposition,
or she will sink. But she needs CHANGE,
and now!
Bryan Adrian
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