SERGE SARGSYAN’S WEAPON IS HIS CONFIDENCE
Hakob Badalyan

Lragir, Armenia
Aug 1 2007

An interesting situation has occurred in Armenia. Everyone or almost
everyone is waiting for the upcoming presidential election but at the
same time everyone or almost everyone is sure that Serge Sargsyan
will win the election. The opinions about the ways of winning the
victory are certainly different. Some people think Serge Sargsyan
will win through electoral fraud, even though it will be improved
to perfection. Others think Serge Sargsyan will win thanks to the
indifference of the society and inability of the opposition. Yet
others think the society will vote for Serge Sargsyan on seeing how
caringly he treats the citizens as a prime minister.

Perhaps the only person who is not so confident of Serge Sargsyan’s
victory is Serge Sargsyan himself. If he were convinced, no doubt
he would not try to appear as a public figure who often meets with
different groups of the public freely, discusses their problems
with them, promises to solve their problems. When one follows these
meetings, it is impossible not to notice that these meetings make
Serge Sargsyan feel uneasy. The figure who implemented his part of
government in the shadow for so many years and never was a public
figure now has to go on the stage. And the only reason is that he is
not quite confident of his victory.

In addition, not only he is unconfident but he also thinks that
this election will not be possible to make through the "traditional"
methods used in all the previous elections. And if the "traditional"
methods were reliable, the prime minister would not try to resist
to his psychological state and would not have to transform a shadow
manager into a public leader. For these psychological torment affects
the physical health of a person too. In the long run, the meetings
with the society do not have a major effect on the efficiency of Serge
Sargsyan the prime minister. Maybe he would work with equal efficiency
if he had fewer meetings with citizens. However, the upcoming election
requires being closer to the society, which allows supposing that the
prime minister nevertheless acknowledges that the importance of the
society in the presidential election will certainly be greater than
it was in the parliamentary election.

The problem is, however, that no one else besides Serge Sargsyan
acknowledges this reality. Not only they do not acknowledge but also
they are sure that the society will not determine anything, and there
will be no need because everything has been decided. For instance,
what is the quest for the common candidate of the opposition? It
means the opposition is already looking for justification of their
defeat because in the end they can say that someone from among the
united was a provocateur and thwarted the plan. Certainly, with the
common candidate the opposition stands a bigger chance to win but
when the opposition states either a common candidate or an imminent
defeat, it thereby displays its narrow political mind and inability
for anything else.

In this situation when Serge Sargsyan’s political opponents are
thinking about justification of their defeat rather than the mechanisms
of victory, perhaps the prime minister need not think about winning
over the society possibly fast and possibly more. Even there is no
need to think up new slogans for the election campaign.

One is enough with the portrait of Serge Sargsyan: "My Weapon is
My Confidence!"