The reforms in the pensions of Georgia have heated things up and deputies on both sides are trying to prove that they are right by fighting against each other. At first, ideologist for the “National United Movement” Giga Bokeria representing the authorities and one of the leaders of the “Democratic Front” oppositionist political party Koba Davitashvili were almost at each others throats. But that ended with insults. The deputies, ready to attack one another, were stopped by their colleagues. However, nobody could stop the representatives of the political party councils of Tbilisi. The political figures fought against each other as much as they wanted and even showed some blood in front of the cameras. After the fight, Davitashili himself came out of the municipality building. He had managed to move from the parliament building and make his way to the municipality and announced to the pensioners protesting: “It is impossible to reason with these authorities. It is time to do away with them.”
So, what are the reforms planned out by the authorities that keep on talking about the poor, including the pensioners? If we summarize and leave out the fact that they are making women’s pension age go up from 60 to 65, all they are really talking about is equalization. Starting from next year, the pension for one citizen of Georgia will be 38 lari (approximately 20 dollars) instead of the present 28 lari, however, the authorities are not going to take into consideration the worker’s resume, or if the citizen has participated in the war, how much he or she has earned, etc. The amounts reserved are just cynical-the pensions of former deputies, judges and others that have been part of the authorities will be increased. The amount of the increased pension will be reduced from the present 1000 lari to 560 lari and that will not go up. As stated by president of the committee of Health and Social Issues Gigi Tsereteli, as of today there are many people receiving pensions worth 1,200-1500 lari and another 1000 receiving 600 lari or more. “The ordinary citizen receives an average of 28 lari and the government does not allow stratifying society and has decided to set the maximum standard for pensions,” said Tsereteli. Is this being humanistic? It seems as though it is, but if we look go deeper…
Let’s put aside the generosity of the authorities towards the people. That can be seen clearly. The only thing left to do is just predict that the authorities participating in governmental activities (this is limited to a 10 year period), are going to get tired of working more than, let’s say, a good doctor or any professional who will be forced to live on 38 lari when he or she retires.
Let’s also put aside the fact that the authorities keep showing themselves off, claiming that they have raised the pensions and have started to pay them on time. They don’t talk about the fact that they couldn’t stop inflation and that that inflation devaluates the increase in pensions completely. What do we have now?-nothing.
This kind of reminds us of the old anecdote about the Decembrist’s grandchild, who sees how the Bolsheviks encourage the people to free themselves from the rich and then remembers her grandfather’s dream to not see any poor people. If we talk about the moral/ethical part of all this, why does the deputy or minister of a poor country (a country that is poor due to its bad laws and not applying them, basically because of those people) receive more than the average citizen who is the victim of the legislators and political figures? If we think about it a little, it turns out that in the list of political parties, some deputy who has found himself at the parliament, who has waved the flag and screamed his lungs out during the “Revolution of Roses”, or someone who has done good deeds in order to be accepted by the authorities, is more valued and respected by society than the teacher, doctor or the few number of veterans. But if we ask any professional economist, we will almost get the same answer given to “168 hours” by Professor Alexander Tvalchrelidze: “What’s going on now can not be looked at as reforms. This is some kind of surrogate. Social reforms are not something that Georgia is good at doing. Social security is based on three things: mandatory state security, volunteer state and private security. The last loop does not function at all and the rest lack some things. There is one other problem. There are no life pension specialists in Georgia, when we have more than 750,000 pensioners, approximately 25% of the population. In all normal countries, the pensions correspond to the salary. The authorities are digging a hole for themselves. At the present, there are no trade unions in Georgia, but there will be sooner or later.”
For the time being, koba Davitashvili has taken on the role of “trade union leader” and he has sued the authorities a couple of times for the payment of pensions. Now he plans on starting a pensioners’ social movement which he talked about during a press conference. Mikail Sahakashvili’s former henchman announced that he has come to the conclusion that there is a necessity to form such an organization. “This legislation is just to trick the people and is a bad step taken by the authorities. It contradicts the promises made by the authorities during the pre-election campaign,” said Davitashvili.
Things are heating up. Even Sahakashvili did not put things in order with special regulations according to which the president’s pension is equal to the minimum pension of 38 lari.