It has been a while since the opposition in Armenia has turned into a
ministry. Don’t be amazed at once because if you think about it, you
will see that one is not born to be a member of the opposition, but
rather, becomes one, or better yet, gets appointed as one throughout
the course of time.
As all ministers, the president appoints and removes members of the
opposition. Of course, they don’t take part in the government sessions,
but they get the first hand orders and decisions. The situation at hand
is so mixed up that those “ministers” do not even have the right to
resign by their own will. I should not mention the fact that nobody
wants to do that. Who would want to resign from being a member of the
opposition with all its benefits and move on to another job?
Can you imagine that? Let’s take for example a member of the
“Artarutyun” (Justice) union who meets with the president: “Honorable
President, even though you were not elected legitimately, I ask you to
please fire me since I have a new job now.” The president signs the
document: “Accounting. Complete the final calculations, pay the paid
vacations.” There is something which does not exist in our country: we
are not grateful for the work done for us and we don’t give a parting
gift, such as a “Polyot” or better yet, a “Rolex” watch.
Still have no idea? Of course you don’t. For example, let’s say you are
a seller in the store. While you are working, you realize that you and
the client don’t get along. You are offering the customer mustard when
he wants marmalade. To make a long story short, it just doesn’t work
out between the two of you. But can you picture yourself going up to
your boss and asking him to fire you? I understand, it is hard to find
a job out there, especially if you are not between the ages of 18-30,
long legged, blonde, and a pretty girl. That is why you don’t write the
statement to leave. All of a sudden you get this feeling that you hate
the workers from the other stores, the ones that are able to sell the
mustard and marmalade. You do not want to accept the fact that they
have understood that you have to sell mustard to the customers who want
meat, and marmalade to customers who want to buy coffee or tea.
After all that, can you imagine Arshak Sadoyan get up and announce that
he no longer wants to play a role in politics. (Let’s leave things that
may bring terrible consequences aside). I am just asking if you can
imagine that. Allow me to state the question in a different way. Can
you imagine Arshak Sadoyan, let’s say, working at a tourist agency? He
can not explain the delay of a flight in the following way: “Some
people have robbed the plane’s kerosene, that is why the plane did not
fly.” As you can see, that doesn’t work out. The passengers will
complain, moan and groan and demand to get their money back. That is
why Arshak Sadoyan does not resign from his job.
How about Stepan Demirchyan as an officer controlling the streets like
the Kievyan-Kochar-Kasyan-Baghramyan intersections at 9.a.m. in the
morning? ( I must say beforehand that I pass that intersection every
morning and very often all the traffic lights are turned off). Now do
you see how much we demand “rules and regulations”. The police officer
keeps saying “rules and regulations”, but drivers try to find a way out
of the situation.
Let’s try and picture Aram Gasparich as a reporter for the “Karabagh is
ours” independent weekly. He writes every day, gets interviewed by
morning show journalists sometimes and replies “yes” to the question
“Do you like your profession?”.
I must say that despite Shavarsh Kocharyan’s appearance, I can’t
imagine him working on an experiment in a scientific library. Some
experiment based on proving the fact that an independent television
network can close due to a law defended by the opposition. I can not
imagine Albert Bazeyan as a boxing trainer. I don’t imagine that
because he can do away with the country’s Olympic reserve for one
reason: “Nobody cares about boxing in school”. I picture Hrant
Khachaturyan reading the continuation of the “Count of Monsieur” by
Alexander Dumas while he was imprisoned in 1989 for mixing up the
superintendence hours at the Sovetashen jailhouse.
After viewing the debut film produced by Artashes Geghamyan, I tried to
imagine that he would be filmed in a movie called “They were fighting
for the Homeland” where Geghamyan would be Superman and fight to the
end. But he wouldn’t die so that he could bring politics to a HAPPY
END.
Can you picture Vazgen Manukyan as a mathematics professor? Of course
you do. Everything is simple, except for one problem which can not be
solved. If we subtract 2 from 1998, we get 1996,but add another five
and we get 2003. Now go and explain to students that mathematics is an
exact science. I don’t know why, but I picture Aram Sargsyan lecturing
history and the topic is “How History Develops”. However, this is a sad
story, better yet, extremely boring.
Now we can ask what the title of this article has to do with all of
this, who Abo is that doesn’t like Bobo, or who is Bobo that Abo
doesn’t like. I know that you are interested in knowing, but to be
honest, even I can not give a straight answer because neither Abo nor
Bobo is one person for me to point out and show you. In general, no
matter how sad and boring this story is, we must find the answer by
reading how history develops.
P.S. I dedicate this article to the Armenian National Movement-the only
political party in its kind which I have been a member of for a short
while.