WHEN THE GOVERNMENT LACKS POLITICAL PERCEPTIONS
JAMES HAKOBYAN
Lragir
11:49:41 – 22/02/2008
Ostensibly, after the deputy ministers of defense Manvel Grigoryan and
Gagik Melkonyan have stated that they will not let the army interfere
with politics and have showed that together with the Yerkrapah Union of
Compatriots they are beside Levon Ter-Petrosyan, they will soon become
the target of the government propaganda. The television will probably
start displaying footages through which they will try to persuade how
bad the generals are, what things they have done. It is not ruled out
that they will voice doubt about the participation of Manvel Grigoryan
in the war in Karabakh and will recall that he used to be a truck
driver before the revolution.
However, in fact, it already does not matter what the government
propaganda says. The vivid evidence to it is that the permanent
negative reports about Levon Ter-Petrosyan and regular appearance of
the ghost of the past on television for three months were absolutely
helpless to prevent his popular rating from rising. Moreover, the
efforts of the government to denigrate Levon Ter-Petrosyan and his
supporters with a rude and disrespectful tone got his rating to rise.
In addition, in one of his rallies before the election Levon
Ter-Petrosyan confessed that he is thankful to God that he has such an
opponent government whose every action have his rating go up.
It is difficult to say what Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s rating would be if
the government did not try to blacken him, launch an attack of
one-sided propaganda, avoid displaying Ter-Petrosyan’s rallies, and
instead started a civilized, political, regular, peaceful debate with
him about the occurrence, development and solution of the problems in
the country. Certainly, it is beyond doubt that Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s
rating went up thanks to his actions, his tactics, his political moves,
and the mistakes of the government simply favored him, helped him
because Levon Ter-Petrosyan skillfully made use of them. Generally, the
`secret’ of Ter-Petrosyan’s political success is that at least so far
he has been able to display one of the most important features of a
political figure, if not the most important one ` to make utmost use of
even unfavorable circumstances.
In politics – since it exists, it is a dynamic process inside – there
are no unfavorable circumstances at all. There are simply
circumstances, and the shrewdness and ability to assess and analyze the
reality soberly makes them favorable or unfavorable, and subsequently
they either suffer or benefit. Those who do not realize this, who do
not have this shrewdness and in politics are led by the rules of
wholesale or retail trade, at best if they do not suffer from the
circumstances they become circumstances.
Most probably these perceptions become the cornerstone of the political
situation. Their deepness has become the main motivation of the present
reality. However, it is obvious from the reaction of the government and
the rest of the political sphere to Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s actions, it
already becomes absolutely inadequate. They continue to be driven by
the same perceptions. If before it used to be fair to some extent
because there were no landmarks, now the oldness of these perceptions
is not merely wrong for the political sphere but unforgivably wrong.
Perhaps the problem is not the oldness but the absence of political
perceptions. There are perceptions but calling them political would be
a compliment for our forces called political.