Lragir, Armenia
Nov 30 2007
ARF DASHNAKTSUTYUN CANDIDATE AGAINST FALSE AUTHORITIES
`In our country power dominates law, and law is subject and does not
belong to all of us.’ This is part of the speech which sounded on
November 30 during the 11th extraordinary Supreme Meeting of the ARF
Dashnaktsutyun. The speech was made by Vahan Hovanisyan, the
presidential candidate nominated by the ARF Dashnaktsutyun. Although
at that moment he had not been nominated yet because the voting was
held later.
`In our country, the law and the reality do not overlap, this is the
problem. Therefore we are facing a choice: to live with the law of
the ruler or the rule of law,’ Vahan Hovanisyan says, noting that the
ARF Dashnaktsutyun prefers the second. Vahan Hovanisyan thinks our
country is now living in a period of false authorities. He does not
specify which forces these false authorities belong to that are
trying to solve the problem of government but says the period of
false authorities lasted through the Soviet years and through the
years of the All-Armenian Movement, and still lasts. For Vahan
Hovanisyan, the word authority has been associated with the criminal
world and lifestyle for such a long time that it is associated with
only nicknames that are difficult to pronounce and these people with
nicknames, declared as authorities, are trying to use the state to
strengthen their position.
`Why is it so? The answer is clear, our society is used to the idea
that authority can be based on force and material ability. Neither
intelligence, nor knowledge and talent, only force and money. This is
the ailment of our society, an ailment imposed on it. I do not mean
that everyone who has money and force necessarily lacks talent,
knowledge or intelligence. No. But they are not appreciated for the
latter. Unfortunately, they only appreciate force and money,’ Vahan
Hovanisyan says.
According to him, in this reality we face a choice between struggle
for power or struggle for the idea. `Dashnaktsutyun chooses the
second. Only political struggle enables shaping a government with a
moral authority, based on law, and a civil society. As a result of
struggle for power all the political forces lose, and first of all
those which appear to win, because the real victory in that case
belongs to the bureaucratic system which instinctively craves for
absolute freedom of control,’ Vahan Hovanisyan says. According to
him, it is possible to control the bureaucracy only in case the
government takes into account the opinion of the minority.