It’s about ten days since the presidential candidates started campaigning. It is ten days that we are waiting to see whether two candidates may manage to sit face to face and debate. It hasn’t happened and hardly may happen either. The candidates are busy with slashing each other and promising people that they will do good things if they are elected.
As it was expected, there is not competition of ideologies. As for the platforms, they were discussed only in the beginning of the campaign but later they were forgotten. It is natural: demand creates supply. Does a villager of a rural community need to read the programs of any candidates? As for the candidates, they are trying to comply their supply with the people’s demand: some are singing, others are promising to work well, etc.
Why are the pre-election programs ignored? In our publications we have emphasized that the biggest and common shortcoming in all programs is the lack of concreteness. However, it is not the main reason. For instance, Vazgen Manukyan offers concrete steps in the taxation and other fields. Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s program is concrete to some extent too. For instance, in connection with monopolies Levon Ter-Petrosyan promises to apply import quota despite the general promises of the ARF that monopoly should be raised. This has been suggested by Hrant Bagratyan for many times too.
However, there are provisions, which are true reality and have been spoken for many times: “Application of three main principles of market economy, which envisages provision of equal opportunities to businesses, free competition, guaranteeing ownership immunity”.
In fact, the law and the Constitution are to guarantee all these promises. The problem is that what should be done to apply those laws in a duly manner. The problem concerns the “Armenian mentality”. In other words, we have inherited bad things such as corruption and bureaucracy form the Soviet times and learned to obey and not to stand for our rights from the times when our nation was under the rule of the Arabs, Turks and other nations. We are like a bad dancer and even the state officials have numerously said that there isn’t sufficient state thinking in us. For instance, corruption fighting will not bring to positive results in Armenia not only due to the fact that the corruption fighters are those who are taking bribes, but also due to our mentality that the best places during Armenian parties are given to those state officials, who have the most expensive cars and have bought those cars with the money they have taken as bribe.
Serzh Sargsyan’s program refers to this problem and writes the following: “For fighting corruption and shady economy besides the known approaches also some psychological barrier should be overcome”. The next idea is confusing: “Failing to pay taxes and taking bribe will be considered as dishonored and condemnable activities”. It is a wonderful thing. But how can it be done? What laws are they going to adopt or what are they going to do not to let such officials who take bribe be praised during parties? If there are possible steps to be taken, we wander why they haven’t done it before. If they have done, we wander why it is widespread now. In a word, it is more a dream than a pre-election program. There are a lot of provisions in Serzh Sargsyan’s platform, which are more true rules taken from school books than pre-election goals. For instance, the reformation program for the second generation reads the following: “For the purpose of encouraging investments and active business the taxation and customs systems of our country should be internationally compatible… The regulation of the economy shall not hinder the development of businesses, but it shall support to create equal conditions, support development and cut risks”. There shall, it shall, shall… Certainly good things shall happen, but it is written in any books of economics. Such definitions should be done by theorists and the leader of the country is to make them come true.
There are such definitions in the platforms of other candidates too. For instance, Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s program writes: “Improvement of management, provision of legality, adoption of a new package of reformations, cutting down the shady sector, i.e. reduction of state risks”. Another section should be added to the program to specify the ways and methods how those goals are going to be achieved.
If we try to be honest, we should confess that it had to be like that because the situation is so bad in our country that no platform can resist critics. The problem is not the fact that in our country everything is connected with personalities, but the fact that originally everything was built on weak basements. We should first of all give realistic and objective estimations to the existing situation and then speak about the steps to be taken. Everything is in different poles here: the government says we are on the way to paradise and the opposition argues that we are close to the doors of the hell. In such situation there is no sense to speak about the future with concrete programs as the society does not care about any programs.
In such situation there is no sense to specify concrete points as Vazgen Manukyan has done. He is not from the government and he can’t have reliable information about the reality to use in his program.
If we compare all the platforms we will see that the best one is the Constitution, which writes that the Republic of Armenia is a sovereign and democratic state and the process of government is carried out by the citizens, etc. It doesn’t differ much from Serzh Sargsyan’s vision about the Armenia we want to have. It doesn’t differ much from Ter-Petrosyan’s vision on what citizens dream of in this country. It neither differs from the good wishes of the other candidates.
Definitely Arman Melikyan is the first person to notice that, thus he has dedicated a great part of his program to ideas from the Constitution. Tigran Karapetyan appears to be more original since he has announced that his program is the Bible, thus he has saved both the voters and himself from extra troubles. It is really fair.