GOVERNMENT – NOT AFRAID OF UNPOPULAR SOLUTIONS
Gevorg Haroutyunyan
Hayots Ashkhar Daily
Published on April 30, 2008
Armenia
Within the time-limits of and in accordance with the procedure
prescribed by the Constitution and the laws, the newly-formed
Government yesterday submitted its new, 2008-2012 program to the
National Assembly.
After introducing the Government’s program, Prime Minister TIGRAN
SARGSYAN also answered the questions of the journalists.
He put a special emphasis on one of the clauses of the program which
says, "We should have a responsible government. It is necessary
to change the standards of behavior of the well-to-do class. It is
indecorous of a Christian Armenian to demonstrate wealth and luxury
in country facing the problem of poverty.
According to the Prime Minister, "It is necessary to change the
standards of behavior of the wealthy in our country. If we want
our country to live in solidarity, the wealthy should be disallowed
to demonstrate their property; they should be required to assume a
conduct appropriate to a Christian. We should start with ourselves,
and this precept concerns all of us. It is necessary to have a public
consent around these values as our society has no alternative."
At the request of the correspondent of "Hayots Ashkharh", T. Sargsyan
touched upon the promises of the government to pay more attention to
the publications concerning the officials.
"Our opponents often misrepresent my speech; they try to distort
the contents and the sense. The pivotal thesis which I have proposed
and want to draw our opponents’ attention to is that if we want to
have responsible media we should first of all have a responsible
government. We will hold accountable all the guilty parties. This
thesis also refers to all the officials.
We will also protect all the honest officials from lie, spiteful
insults and gossips. Otherwise, no decent and honest person will
wish to work in the state government system. We are introducing a
new concept, and you should help us. We will be open and public."
The Prime Minister expressed belief that healing the public atmosphere
requires everybody to change, "I can’t demand you to change, without
changing myself. In order to live in a different society and have
different customs, we all should change ourselves and never make a
distinction between old and new Armenians. We all have certain things
to learn."
According to T. Sargsyan, we often see people rebelling against the
enforcement of the law. There immediately appear demonstrators who
complain that their rights are being violated. But as a matter of
fact, the authorities want to enforce the law to a full effect. It is
extremely important to find out, for instance, who push the people
to gather in front of the Government building and protest against
the reforms undertaken in the sphere of the customs services. They
actually pursue a goal to recover the old regime when it was possible
import a smuggled product from China. T. Sargsyan accounted for the
accusation of deviating from democratic values by mere ignorance, "I
would like to inform you that human rights and freedom of speech are
not absolutely European standards; they are Armenian standards. If you
were familiar with the works and the profound summaries of Maghakia
Ormanyan, one of the outstanding figures of the Armenian Apostolic
Church, you would make sure that these norms have always been the
characteristic features of the Armenia people. And there’s no need
to duplicate something that already exists in our reality. It is just
necessary to reveal it."