The last topic of the year 2006 of “Pressing” Club was dedicated to individual politicians and majoritarian system. As noticed by the facilitator of the discussion, deputy chief editor of 168-Zham newspaper, Armen Baghdasaryan there is a slight contradiction between populism and capacities of legislative activity.
“For example Shavarsh Kocharyan is an author of numerous legislative initiatives and is one of the most active deputies of the NA. And the President of ALM Holding and the Chairman of the People’s Party, Tigran Karapetyan has a great popularity among people, however, few people can assume what legislative initiatives he might come up once he’s elected. What is he going to do? Take everyone to Sevan?” asked Baghdasaryan.
“Later the Ministry of Culture will take to Sevan,” answered Tigran Karapetyan. “The people, who are in Parliament now, for example the Legal State, which claims that it came up with 275 legislative initiatives, I’d like to ask them a question. What have they done for people so far? Why are our people still in such a poor situation?” asked Karapetyan. Karapetyan doesn’t agree with the opinion that if people were not able to change anything over years then he won’t be able to do it either. Karapetyan believes that now the opposition is less concerned about the conditions of the people than their seats. He doesn’t pay attention to the ones, who criticize him for taking old people to Sevan. Vice versa, he is going to take these people to Kobuleti to swim the sea. “You are greatly mistaken if you think that we just organize games and dance,” mentioned Karapetyan.
Karapetyan made another announcement about his political career. “If I enter the Parliament on my own without faction I will give up my mandate. It’s not only about being a deputy. I want to serve to our people by making good laws to improve their lives.” Baghdasaryan’s remark about the contradiction was accepted differently by the participants. For instance, NA Republicna Deputy, Hamlet Harutyunyan understood the question the following way. Why do people, who deserve are not elected? In Karapetyan’s opinion the question related to the following. How can the person, who takes grandpas and grandmas to Sevan make decisions in the Parliament? Baghdasaryan once again has mentioned that the issue relates to two poles. “The brightest representative of one of the poles is you (means Karapetyan), the representative of the other pole is Shavarsh Kocharyan, who has quite serious legislative initiatives but doesn’t have means to take people to Sevan,” added Karapetyan.
NA former deputy, communist Khoren Sargsyan thinks that the unproductiveness of laws is not only up to them. “Unfortunately all those good recommendations, which are sent to the NA, are often denied… We have a clear program but its realization depends not only on us but also other deputies. However in our country if there is an order from above the majority will vote against the bill regardless how good it is.” Khoren Trchunich also informed that he is going to be nominated through majoritarian system in the coming elections.
They have also mentioned the opinion made in the previous discussions, by which the one, who gives away most part of potatoes, will win. Karapetyan doesn’t have a negative opinion about giving away stuff. “Every person works his way. How else are people going to see that we care about them? If it was something negative we should have gone out to talk to people. When you go to speak to them one says his daughter wants to sing on TV, the other one asks to participate in the “Locomotive” show. Does this mean I should say no to all of them?”
NA Deputy, RPA member, Armen Ashotyan thinks that we are building a European political system but the methodology is the same methodology of the American political system. “Money is what determines how successful you are in politics.” According to Ashotyan our situation is specific because it the Soviet “quasi-culture” joins this whole process. “Thus we have a hybrid with a Soviet past but with American standards,” he said and added that whoever makes opinion is going to be right no matter it’s pro-Western or old Soviet. By reminding that the unwritten function of the NA is to be a political stage Ashotyan said, “Politics is a field of people’s interrelations. And very often the political actor, who best interrelated, no matter through potatoes or lab equipment, turns out to be the best politician. This proves that the politicians must be able to communicate with people.”
Regarding the balance between the NA majority and the minority Ashotyan mentioned that there is an unwritten law, according to which the job of the minority is to talk and the majority votes instead. That’s normal. “The future however belongs to the ones, who have finances. The modern political approaches require that political-financial unions make decisions. The political actor, who doesn’t have a certain economic base, doesn’t have relations with the business elite is subject to failure,” thinks Ashotyan. Nevertheless, shall the NA be formed on ideologies or charity? RA President’s Adviser, chairman of the “National Security” Party, Garnik Isagulyan reminded that in 1988 there was a clear ideology, around which the people gathered. “If there was no ideological unity no obstacles could be overcome.” In his opinion sooner or later the elections will exclude the majoritarian system.
Isagulyan says that there is no need to compare our reality with the American model as there are serious social issues in our country and the social support to our people may become decisive during elections. “Over there in the US it’s not about taking from Democrats or republicans to vote for them.” Isagulyan is against gaining votes through charity. “We should move to the proportional system, where the programs will be much more important. That’s the model, which works in the US – the party, which proposes less taxes, new workplaces, etc,” he said and added that there will be time when people will make a choice based on ideology. In his speech Isagulyan also mentioned that his number one issue has been and still is the Karabagh conflict and in that regard he highly estimated the activity of Shavarsh Kocharyan despite the fact that thy are in different governmental wings. In this context it was very important to know the opinion of NA Deputy Arshak Sadoyan, who is the brightest example of an Armenian Deputy.
According to Sadoyan his approach is the following – speak about the negative things. “If something is positive why would you speak about this? In this regard I think that all the talks about Karabagh conflict are not serious. That’s why I don’t even speak about that…” In Sadoyan’s opinion in certain aspects time works on our behalf. For example, certain things may come out, which may improve the situation. “On the other hand, it’s very bad when we are saying that we are developing a dual-digit economy. However the growth of Azerbaijan’s economy is higher. Of course, the economic might, which is going to become a military might, is going to be used against us.” Sadoyan thinks that there is no need to speak about Karabagh so much as there are no serious issues here. “Now we are talking here and saying that proportional system is better. We have done recommendations of constitutional amendments, the contents of which is the following – Parliament, which also has a Senate. We recommended changing the territorial-administrative division – 26 marzes and one person should be elected per marz.”
Sadoyan doesn’t agree with the opinion that the opposition has been in Parliament for years and didn’t give positive results. “If the party has ideology some day it will be able to express it regardless of how rich you are.” Sadoyan thinks that the people who go to Parliament just because they have a goal must, “at least learn what ideologies are, what the word state means.” He also expressed his concern that terrible clouds are gathered above Armenia and if the future elections of Armenia are falsified Armenia will have a hard time for at least the coming 10 years.
Tigran Karapetyan was also sharing this opinion, by which if the lections are falsified Armenia will not have a future. Karapetyan also clarified who he criticizes and why. He criticizes the Republican Party for only one thing. That is – the governing party must have made sure that the local governments are separated from the central government. The President of the RA is criticized because “he must be there for not only the coalition but also for all the parties of Armenia, including the People’s Party.” Karapetyan’s criticism to the opposition was tougher. “The opposition must be higher than the chair and always work on behalf of people.” As it turned out Karapetyan also criticizes himself only for one thing that he craves to serve to the people. Regarding the MPs, who wish to be re-elected Karapetyan said, “They have worked. Honor to them all! Now they must let others work.”
Indeed the deputies will not agree to yield their places with great pleasure. For example, RPA member, NA Deputy, Hamlet Harutyunyan agrees that instead of him some other person is elected, who is tightly connected to this country through a naval string. “For me it doesn’t matter at all, who the idea comes from. The important thing is who carries the ideology. When the person speaks about something he doesn’t believe in that’s terrible.” Harutyunyan quoted the words of the author of the US declaration of rights, Thomas Jefferson, who believes that for the state the important thing is to have 100 devoted statesmen. There are several criteria regarding that – whether the person is willing to sacrifice his life for his country, is devoted to his family and friends and is absolutely indifferent about comfort. “We should ask us a question. Do we conform to those criteria? Without that no program and no idea will work no matter how you get elected, whether through proportional, majoritarion or in underwear. If we don’t have at least 50 devoted deputies in the NA we won’t have any success,” confides the NA deputy. In his opinion we will have an ideal Parliament only when the single-mandate deputies have features appropriate to statesmen. He also mentioned that the latter are useful for their communities especially in terms of showing social support to the residents.
In the end Harutyunyan unveiled another thing. “You are asking why the ones, who deserve don’t enter the Parliament. That’s because we don’t have the society to make an objective choice. As long as we don’t have a stable society and a middle class there won’t be objective election,” thinks Harutyunyan. He also spoke about the Karabagh conflict mentioning that he is categorically against those politicians, who say that the conflict is resolved. “The conflict is not solved yet and Karabagh expects more tense trials than it has ever seen before.”
NA Deputy Shavarsh Kocharyan spoke about the issues he was signifying most. His number one priority is 1988 National Movement. “The Movement of 1988 was comprised of three main ideas – Nagorno-Karabagh, democracy and peace, national unity. A riot took place for those three ideas and the whole world was astonished.” In his opinion the only sphere we succeeded in was the Karabagh war. “Due to the spirit and tortures of our people we had victory in the war, which eliminated the opinion of others as though we always lose. The people proved that we have power.” However, in his opinion, since we lagged behind in achieving democracy and unity, we cannot enjoy our victory. “Karabagh should have been recognized long ago but factually it’s not.” When speaking about statesmen Kocharyan adverted to Churchill. According to Churchill the good statesman is the one, who is concerned about the future and prosperity of the country. Kocharyan insists on not forgetting about the main three directions (Karabagh, democracy and unity), based on which we became independent. “If you forget about this then you don’t deserve to be a member of a political elite.”
In Shavarsh Kocharyan’s opinion charity is when the organizer doesn’t expect response for that. “However when it’s done on the threshold of elections, when the person spreads good stuff around just to go to Parliament and continue what he has been doing before and the leave the people in the same conditions then it’s not called charity.” At present the opposition has neither material resources nor an opportunity to demonstrate itself. “When the opposition comes to such a state and it subject to destruction necessity of radical changes comes out. Nevertheless it doesn’t mean that the current conditions don’t create means to overcome those obstacles as the opposition, which was able to withstand for so long will be able to find supporters and material resources. Perhaps I’m an optimist but that’s what I think. I connect 2007 with those factors.”
Let’s also add that despite the accusations and attacks the participants of the discussion parted in a quite tolerant environment. Perhaps the reason was that the debate was taking place on December 25, on the threshold of holidays and no one wanted to spoil the mood.