THE WITNESSES OF MENTALITY

Lragir.am
02 June 06

`And if we are unable to change people’s mentality and approach to
problems, even the best laws will not work in our society.’ This is an
expression from the approaches of Ombudsman Armen Harutiunyan he told
the public on May 31, on his 100th day of office. With such an
approach, Armen Harutiunyan will stay in office for several hundreds
of thousands days, let alone 100 days.And generally, one may occupy an
eternal place in the government of Armenia, take up any post, because
the government solves the problem of its eternity by instilling this
idea in the public. If a minister of defense blames the national
mentality for electoral fraud, what else can an ombudsman do to stay
in office? And generally, what else can the government do besides
declaring mentality the source of illegalities. Is there another way
of justifying corruption, electoral fraud, tax avoidance?

But it should be noted that this mere approach itself is a crime,
because the government is trying to blame the way of thinking and
outlook of the society for its illegalities. For its part, the society
also commits an offence by listening and not reacting to all this. And
allowing itself to be turned into an excuse for the government. The
intention is clear; to instill in the consciousness of people the idea
that the mentality should be changed and everything comes from the
mentality. Every separate member of the society believes that he does
not bear this mentality but he also believes that the rest are the
victims of mentality, and he or she alone cannot do anything because
the mentality remains the same. Hence, the human rights defender has,
in fact, learned the key principle of the government within his 100
days in office.The rest is a matter of technique, minor problems that
can be solved, sometimes even in favor of the society. Hence, the
government can even encourage those public officials who are able to
discern the key problem and uphold it, even at the price of changing
certain things for the sake of leaving the mentality unchanged.

HAKOB BADALYAN