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Zaza Shatirishvili – Establishment of Liberalism by Violence Led Us to Bolshevism

July 17, 2009

Interpressnews interviewed Zaza Shatirishvili, Expatriated Scientist, Culture Anthropologist of the Chicago University about the current political situation in Georgia.

Shatirishvili said that current political situation in Georgia is logical result of the last year fraud parliamentary elections. “Attempt to establish the liberalism through violence and ignoring of procedures and law led us to the bolshevism. Consequently, we have received the current situation when the government cannot maintain the power without serious repression.”

How do the people across the ocean feel about the Georgian politics and how will you assess the current political events in Georgia?
 
The government cannot manage the process. Society trusts the opposition but the latter cannot influence the process because it does not involve the activities of the government. The society does not have real mechanism to influence the authority.

Opposition and society shall participate in the governance of the country together with the ruling party. When the society is artificially expelled from the government, we receive the situation we have now. We can call it a poor management. I cannot say anything about the management of the opposition because in fact they are not represented in the parliament.

A fraud election is result of poor management. If the opposition had at least 45-50 MPs in the parliament, the situation could have been different in the country. Opposition is active because they are not represented in governmental institutions and cannot influence the process. Current developments in the Georgian politics are logic result of the last year fraud elections. The government cannot handle the situation because the political forces are represented in the parliament unequally. The government thinks that everything can be ruled from the one point and similar attitude lead us to the disaster.

In your interview with the Radio “Palitra” you said that Saakashvili is unsuccessful Putin and Putin is unsuccessful Saakashvili. Can you explain what did you mean by that?

To understand this statement we should discuss the attitude of Saakashvili and Putin towards media and opposition parties. They have completely equal attitude towards the media and opposition – they need restricted media and marginalized opposition. However, Saakashvili speaks about democracy though his efforts fail because real situation in Georgia has nothing to do with Democracy.

As for Putin, he does not speak about democracy at all; he speaks about outstanding future and role of Russia. In parallel to it Russian population is very patient and it is a resource for Putin; while Georgian people are impatient.

Many experts and you think that the government opposes the opposition parties by Bolshevik methods. Part of experts connects the activity of the opposition with the wish of revenge of Soviet Inteligencia. How do you think, is similar assessment of the situation real?

Maybe similar understanding of the situation is close to reality. Maybe, there are many bad people in the opposition or the society is full of nasty people but when you discredit them you behave like a typical totalitarian. Bolsheviks thought they had to annihilate bourgeoisie; Spanish communists could not stand peasants and clergymen. In our case, people are not killed but they are discriminated based on their age.

The government fired old people from institutions because they had different knowledge and expelled them from political process. The authority did not leave any space for these people to live in. Despite the nastiness of the people, the government shall not apply to totalitarian methods. Hitler did not do anything worse. He distinguished Jewish people from other nations and said: they are revanchists and we received the holocaust. The government carried out the policy of age discrimination to neutralize old people. Ageism is one form of discrimination and every problem in the country is related with the government.

At one point, the government seems a winner in the competition with the opposition. How do you see the government-opposition and government-society relationship in near future?

I can say that current situation is very complicated because the society and the opposition act beyond institutions and cannot manage the situation. Even if the government uses violence against the opposition, the results will be hard for the government too. The authority cannot maintain the power without serious repressions.

The ideology of the government completely excludes the possibility of dialogue. If the government wants to maintain the same authority as it had before November 7 2007 they will have to start repressions. Making laws more severe is readiness of the government to start repressive machine. Alongside the laws, the situation might get even more complicated and the government may fail to implement them. The authority does not appreciate the discontent people and considers they should be silent or dead. If the government starts to use severe laws, the political situation will get tougher. The government cannot calm down politically active people. The government is making the law more severe but it cannot implement large-scale repressions.”

If Rose Revolution was a revolution, the main feature of it was ageism and it is not accidental. Although revolutionary government had liberal values, the establishment of liberalism by violence, and by ignoring procedural norms and law led us to bolshevism.

Source: Interpressnews
Koba Bendeliani
 

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