Categories
Journalistic Survey
Articles
Reportage
Analitic
Photo Reportage
Exclusive
Interview
Foreign Media about Georgia
Editorial
Position
Reader's opinion
Blog
Themes
Children's Rights
Women's Rights
Justice
Refugees/IDPs
Minorities
Media
Army
Health
Corruption
Elections
Education
Penitentiary
Religion
Others

Bidzina Ivanishvili - Popular only at home

March 21, 2013

The Economist

DOES Bidzina Ivanishvili have an international public relations problem? High poll ratings and a commanding majority in parliament suggest his position is secure at home in Georgia. Yet the international press tends to portray a billionaire chief executive who does not understand democracy and wants to crush his foes. As political cohabitation between the Georgian Dream and the United National Movement (UNM) is not working, the country’s image abroad is suffering.

Some Georgian Dream members blame the UNM. Mikheil Saakashvili, the president, is certainly quick to criticise the new government in front of foreigners. In January, hedenounced the new cabinet at the parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe. Last week, he claimed that Russia would use the same tactics in Azerbaijan’s elections as it had in Georgia: "oligarchs, Russian funds, blackmailing and provocations”. On March 4th Mr Ivanishvili issued a public statement apologising to Georgia’s allies for the president’s behavior.

Mr Saakashvili’s histrionics do not get Mr Ivanishvili off the hook. Since taking power, his government has made a number of mis-steps, as some of Georgia’s leading non-governmental organisations have pointed out. The process to identify “political prisoners” in parliament, without a systematic review of each case, was too hasty. The failure to prevent the intimidation of local government officials loyal to UNM was another black mark. That inaction, coupled with the rush to prosecute former UNM officials in Tbilisi, raised concerns about selective justice.

Abuse of the law for political ends is nothing new in Georgia. Mr Ivanishvili was on the receiving end during the election campaign, when the Georgian Dream received over $100m in fines. The recent acquittal of Irakli Okruashvili, the far-from-angelic former defence minister charged with high-level extortion two weeks after he left the government to form an opposition party in 2006, further illustrates the point. 

Moreover, some of the allegations of high-level corruption and human rights abuses against senior UNM officials clearly merit investigation. Here, the government’s approach has grown more savvy. Last week, Tea Tsulukiani, the justice minister, visited the United States and NATO headquarters to discuss judicial reform. Parliament is debating an amnesty bill that will balance punishment for past crimes with leniency for those lower down the chain of command.

Yet the debate about the amnesty highlights widely divergent perceptions of the UNM’s legacy. As Mr Saakashvili put it after meeting Mr Ivanishvili on March 4th, did lower-level officials commit crimes, or build “the modern Georgian statehood’’? Mr Ivanishvili has a tendency to discount the UNM’s achievements. Georgia took huge strides forward in the past decade, particularly in the years after the Rose Revolution. The economy grew, taxes were paid and collected, and basic services restored. In the course of solving old problems, the UNM undoubtedly created new ones. The new government is trying to tackle the Rose Revolution’s dark side. But it would not be able to do so without the strong state institutions bequeathed by the UNM.

Ultimately, the failure to acknowledge the positive side of the UNM’s legacy is self-defeating. It perpetuates the bitter divisions at the heart of Georgian politics, which in turn obscure the positive things the new government is doing. NGOs report a greater openness from government institutions than in the past. Stronger legislation is under consideration to tackle the monopolies and cartels that dominate key sectors of the economy, as a recent report from Transparency International shows. Reforms to the Interior ministry are reducing its excessive power. Dialogue with Russia is underway, and the chances of Georgian goods re-gaining much-needed access to Russian markets are strong. Divergent views from within the governing coalition indicate a greater degree of political pluralism than the UNM-led government allowed.

It is unclear what, if any, underlying vision drives these changes. According to a new reportfrom the Carnegie Endowment of Peace, 45% of Georgians have a positive attitude towards Stalin, despite his crimes. That does not mean they favour autocracy; rather, the authors say, it reflects confusion about the future. The unwieldy nature of the governing coalition, united by access to power, resources, and hatred of Mr Saakashvili, gives rise to further uncertainty. A compelling vision of how Mr Ivanishvili plans to build upon the best part of the UNM’s legacy, not just reverse its excesses, would be very welcome, at home, and abroad.

Original

News