Yesterday the Armenian parliamentarians voted 13 to 10 to reject the no-confidence motion brought against the government by the ARF Dashnaktsutyun parliamentary group. It was originally clear not only to everyone but also the authors of the motion that it would be denied. It is no accident that before the voting the head of ARF faction in parliament Vahan Hovhannisyan stated that according to NA bylaw they have the right to propose the same motion one more time in four months. “Try to understand us. This is a serious responsibility and we promise to propose it one more time in four months and at that time I think we will be in a much harder situation,” he stated. During the presentation of the motion ARF MP Armen Rustamyan said, “The failures of the government were demonstrated in their 22 priorities, the programs approved by the government and the steps take in that relation. All that served as a ground for this motion. Government’s answer has grounded the doubts and concerns of the parliamentary group rather than dispelled them. There is an impression that the Armenian government was taking some actions, while stating and thinking secretly about other things,” Rustamyan said. The problem is not that there are no grounds to submit a vote of distrust to the government. There are perhaps more than the ARF submits. But it’s clear that the faction, which only has 16 MPs raises an issue like that at this stage it is merely trying to raise its reputation and image of an opposition party. Of course there is nothing bad about that. It is quite natural that closer to elections it will be necessary to attract the votes of the opposition electorate. Besides that, although the motion doesn’t resolve any concrete issue but it activates the environment and makes the government more alert.
In the approach of the ARF there is a bigger contradiction and uncertainty. First of all from Rustamyan’s words it turns out that the government has started to think about absolutely different things covertly only during the past three years and prior to that (when ARF was in the ruling coalition) everything was done transparently and openly. For the sake of justice let us mention that the former government was more open and they were openly debilitating the economy by showing a dual0digit growth of the economy and GDP. The table above clearly shows what the former government was thinking and doing. They were making the sector of construction the benchmark for the Armenian economy. If in 2002 the ratio for construction in GDP was 11.7% then in 2008 it reached 23.6%. USD rate slumped from 573.35 to 305 AMD by providing super incomes for importing monopolists and by zeroing the competitiveness of the domestic producers. Armenia was receiving from abroad remittances and would buy the external products with that amount by enrooting the approach in the society that in this country there is no need for serious production and industry development. As a result of this (and not only) the negative ratio of foreign trade from 483.8 million reached 2.6 billion USD. The list of negative phenomena can be continued very long by speaking about corruption, nepotism, linkage of business and government and other things. But all this is also enough to understand the “useful” policies of the former government during the past 9-10 years. Let us now return to ARF. This party includes serious specialists, economists, who know better than us about the abovementioned and the consequences as well. Why wouldn’t they demand the resignation of the government back then? And why are they criticizing Tigran Sargsyan now for ruining the economy if back then he was the CB chairman and was lowering the USD rate and revaluating AMD? Wasn’t it then when Tigran Sargsyan would respond to the complaints of the domestic producers by saying that it is their fault that their goods are not sold and are not competitive and would recommend them to modernize their production? They wouldn’t say anything because back then they were in government. Moreover, they were involved in those sectors, which are most currently criticized for being corrupt (healthcare, education, social field). Dashnaks were in charge of these sectors. The most interesting thing is that if a pensioner playing backgammon in the backyard will tell us the same and explain the consequences. It means that by taking anti-government steps ARG will hardly gain dividends. And if after all this you still have a question why they would do that then let us mention another possible answer to that. The government is trying to blame the former government for the economic difficulties. And the previous government is trying to respond an in indirect and solicited manner. This is simply one of the possible options.