Two weeks have passed since the parliamentary election on May 6, which is not a short time also in consideration of the problems of the country and promises of political powers to solve those problems as soon as possible. Especially the ruling party used to give promises to change things in the country. Their slogan and message to voters was “Let’s believe in order to change”. Let’s imagine that people believed in them. What’s next? Nothing has been changed so far. It is not clear either whether there will be a coalition or no. Some processes are going on in the relations between parties. Based on the information in media, people in important positions will continue occupying the same offices. There will not be serious changes. Many people knew that there would not be many changes. “We have not been able yet to fight corruption and poverty, neither we have been able to provide equal conditions for all participants of the business sector. We must take out the sickness that our society has, which is the corruption. On this way intervention may be needed, including surgeries and legal methods,” promised the RPA’s pre-election platform. In parallel with those promises they were distributing electoral bribes. If there are people who believe in change offered by the government, we would like to remind them that for the past four years they have not been making changes and staying loyal to their commitment. If we look back, we will see that the philosophy of “believing in order to change” was introduced long ago before the parliamentary election; it was in 2008 when the newly appointed PM Tigran Sargsyan spoke about it the first time. He used to speak about an internal revolution meaning that everyone should start making change from themselves, and especially officials had to change in order to be able to change other things. He used to petition people to believe in that change to generate internal stimulus. Below is an excerpt from the interview given by Tigran Sargsyan to our newspaper in 2008.
168 Hours – You are saying that it is very important to create an environment of trust. However, a large part of our society does not trust the government. As the prime-minister, what will be your first initiative in that direction?
T. Sargsyan – The solution is very simple. If our words and actions are the same, we gain trust. Likewise, if there is difference in what we say and do, we lose the trust.
168 Hours – Do you mean that there is no need for radical actions and what needs to be done is the government’s project implementation?
T. Sargsyan – Of course. If we say that change must start from us, the society should see that. And we are changing.
168 Hours – You have published an article entitled “How to make a revolution”. Is the revolution you meant connected with such change?
T. Sargsyan – Of course. Because changes first of all should take place in our mindset. It is a painful and difficult process.
168 Hours – There must be something making those changes happen. What is that something like?
T. Sargsyan – The inner belief. First of all the ideology comes, you take and adopt that ideology, which is becoming your private ideology. After some time and approbation that ideology becomes your belief. After that you don’t imagine your life different than your belief and implementation of those ideologies. This is the path to revolution.
168 Hours – Do people have to convince others as well?
T. Sargsyan – Yes. If you have not made that revolution inside yourself, you cannot do it inside others or a society. This process is painful because people are not easy to change their routine and habits. Everyone wants a better life but they do not want to change; what they want is improvement coming from their government. If we want to live in a good society, all we have to change together. This is the only way that will make the entire environment change.
168 Hours – Isn’t it normal that people think the first ones to change should be the government officials? They must be changed so that people can follow their example.
T. Sargsyan – Correct. That is the reason why Serzh Sargsyan said that we had to start the changed from ourselves, within our team. We must ban corruption, patronage business and our team should consist of clean people. If we become like that, the society will trust us.
168 Hours – If it happens, how long will it take for the society to feel that the change has happened?
T. Sargsyan – I wish it could happen today, I mean I wish you could trust me now. If you trust me, that will be the first step and you will give a message to your friends through the media and other sources saying that time has come and they should change.
Did you read it? Did you see the last sentence about believing in change? Now do you see where the notion of “believing in order to change” is coming from? Now please make your own mind how much we have trusted the government and how much they have changed during the past four years.
The notion of believing in order to change has been given the final shape as a result of an evolution. In 2008 it would sound like “believe in order we change”. Later the meaning and message changed to evolve more people and to give a message that it is not only about us, but changing others as well. However, nothing has changed so far, even they don’t hide the fact that they don’t want to change. For example, yesterday the head of the RPA’s coalition Galust Sahakyan said that the coalition had to continue to exist. “All political powers must be able to come to an agreement and those who have been elected in the parliament must be able to fulfill their promises, thus the incumbent coalition should continue working,” said Sahakyan.
In a word, Tigran Sargsyan’s philosophy is moving forward very slowly. Neither they have changed nor people have started to trust them during the past four years. And now they are discussing the issue of making a coalition and other important issues. However, the most important thing for them is not making changes, but showing that they are changing. First of all they should show this to the world. They are doing very well in this.