People Who Complain, Doubt and Dispute Will Change Life
Siranuysh Papyan
Story from Lragir.am News:
Published: 13:00:16 – 18/02/2012
Interview with Tigran Paskevichyan, publicist
Mr. Paskevichyan, a few reporters are rumored to run for parliament.
Will it be possible to achieve change in the country and in the
parliament through them?
Thanks god there are no hindrances. The Constitution empowers everyone
to run for parliament, there is only an age limit, and it is good. The
rest is up to voters to decide, if they have the freedom to vote.
Basically, it would be better if the legislature became a profession
and there were respective master’s programs. It might end the
ambitions of most people who can hardly read and write, and on the
contrary, make some people get another education between ages 40 and
60.
What is your opinion on the pre-election period? Will there be use of violence?
The use of violence will be there if the necessity occurs but the
purpose of the government is to falsify the elections peacefully and
quietly, which we saw in the mayoral election in Hrazdan. Now they
will say they are dissatisfied even if we hold good elections. A good
election is not only the visible outcome but the similarity of the
real public demand and the outcome. Take the example of Hrazdan. You
go to the website of the City Hall and no outputs are visible there.
The website is a PR tool, so something should be there. You read the
interviews of the mayor and all you find there is listing of a very
small part of his daily responsibilities. If people chose this person,
it means people have lost their ability to choose. I don’t believe
that people have lost this ability, so I am sure that the government
continues to rig the elections.
There is an opinion that this election will be different, and the
Congress will appear in parliament.
The problem is not the Armenian National Congress. If it is the
ultimate goal of a force, it will appear wherever it is needed. The
problem is to establish another system and introduce it. Coming back
to the mayoral election in Hrazdan, Sasun Mikaelyan did not become
mayor but one important thing became known. It turned out that the
other system of values represented by the Congress had a rather big
resource.
Most people say it is not the ANC supporters but those who are
dissatisfied with the government.
In fact, it is the same thing. If the government worked well, they
would perform their functions. The ANC might not have supporters or
the standpoints of the supporters of the government and the opposition
might be opposite regarding the issue of abortion, for instance. Now
they are the same thing because before demanding change there must be
dissatisfaction. We have been taught that dissatisfaction is a sign of
low intellect, selfishness, and so on. On the contrary, if one does
not complain, doubt, dispute, one stops being a social creature.
But the majority of the population of Armenia…
Yes, they don’t complain, doubt, dispute. The government should have
its resource too. The resource of the government is bourgeoisie. In
1998 Robert Kocharyan said: `My party is my people.’ He imagined a
mass around the petty kingdom which was dough made from the
post-Soviet technical and cultural intelligentsia. This intelligentsia
always had considerable influence except for 1990-1994 when its
outstanding representatives would give it all to avoid the war.
Isn’t the technical and cultural intelligentsia you mentioned too
small to be the resource of the government?
Bourgeoisie is not counted in number and amount. Bourgeoisie is a
situation in which both you and me may appear from time to time. When
Robert Kocharyan became president in the fraudulent election of 1998,
his resource was not big. On the contrary, there was a big mass of
those who complained, doubted and disputed and supported Karen
Demirchyan. They became the resource of the Unity Alliance. Kocharyan
dissolved this basis by way of October 27, and bourgeoisie started
doing better. Besides using violence Kocharyan has other ways of
boosting bourgeoisie which were inherited by Serzh Sargsyan – to show
that the mental and moral characters of a leader must not differ from
the average characters of the society. It is very comfortable for
people but at some moment the natural urge to complain, doubt and
dispute wakes up, such as after Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s return. I am
more than sure that in 2008 people won, and the bourgeoisie lost. This
axiomatic truth was unfortunately confirmed by the March 1 crime.
Does it mean that March 1 changed the pattern of forces?
Not at once, it changed gradually. The existence of political
prisoners, police, tax and administrative terror and other
unlawfulness boosted the value of comfort. But since the movement did
not stop after March 1, the leaders were not distressed and tired. A
great mass of complaining, doubting and disputing people were faithful
to the Armenian National Congress which is able to change the
arrangement of forces and climate in the National Assembly.
From: Baghdasarian