THE LUXURY AND MISERY OF THE NATIVE OPPOSITION

Hayots Ashkhar Daily
March 27, 2008

During the pre-election stage most of our readers have most probably
heard from their pro-oppositional friends or kinsmen or maybe they
have also thought: "Who should we vote for? I don’t see any candidate
who deserves my vote."

The citizens disapproved of the authorities didn’t pin their hopes upon
on Serge Sargsyan’s rivals. At present there isn’t any personality
in the political sphere who could have complied with the average
demands of the disapproved, who could have been able to confront the
authorities based on the wide social support.

It’s worth mentioning that by saying "opposition" we don’t mean Levon
Ter-Petrosyan’s group, for well-known reasons, because it is not a
political power, but a sect. Because we speak about real opposition.

There is no ideological struggle in our elections. There is a struggle
of promises, where the authorities have lots of advantages.

What the pro-oppositional powers can promise is – to increase the
pension ten times, but it will have less influence on the electorate,
than the promise made by the authorities to increase the pension
"only" by 50%. That is why the pro-oppositional powers chose the
strategy of influencing the emotions.

If we observe the political audience, not the political stage, we
will see that the people gathered there are yawning and waiting when
will all this finish, because they don’t anticipate anything new.

Why did Vazgen Manukyan and Artashes Geghamyan, for example, lose the
big part of their traditional electorate during the recent years? Of
course we can link it with the insidiousness of their friends from
both the pro-oppositional and pro-governmental camp, but this will
be part of the truth. The main reason is, like the most part of the
political long-lived, they have also surpassed the culmination of
the social anticipations.

It reminds us of the novel about a doctor in an American city where a
terrible epidemic broke out. Every day he used to tell the citizens
gathered in front of his balcony that very soon he would find the
remedy against the disease. In the beginning the whole city was
gathering there to listen to the doctor, but little by little their
number decreased and everything had a very sad end.

What is charisma? It is the gift of an individual to make people
unconditionally believe in his/her "exclusive" capacities. The
pro-oppositional leaders are at the stage of their "age" crises
of charisma, because only their fanatic supporters unconditionally
believe in them (and they are very few) all the others would like to
see new stars, bright and attractive, in the political dome.

Of course it is possible to understand this desire but very difficult
to perform it. It is a wide spread consideration that the authorities
are the ones to hinder the appearance of these political talents. But
it is far not like that. The new personalities having the capacity to
seriously compete with the leaders are being annihilated in their won
parties. Green light is only for the fighters of "the regime" who will
arouse surprise among the citizens, far from the political kitchen.

We don’t have any intentions to accuse the pro-oppositional leaders
who fear inter-party rivalry and to justify the power. The latter one
is also guilty, because at present they do their best to suppress
the desire of the young people who feel potential in themselves,
to manifest this potential.

They have two options either to serve the authorities or to take to
the streets. Some of them choose the streets, which was evident during
the recent developments. It would have been very naive to think that
the radical youth gathered in the Theatrical Square consisted only
of Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s supporters. Absolutely! The young radicals
grew spontaneously, and by the way, on the ground fertilized by
the authorities.

What do we have as a result? From the exiting pro-oppositional
powers no one is able to have serious influence on the President, the
government or the parliament, in any issue of social importance. They
can’t do it even jointly, because they are too different to merge. Let
alone their affectations.

The electoral season is over and there is a long period of time for
the next one. The overwhelming majority of the people don’t have time
to think whether we have or we will have a real opposition in our
country. We will remember about it only during the next elections. And
at that time yet again we will lament: "Oh my God, who should I vote
for? None of them deserves my vote."