BOREDOM DEFEATS INTRIGUES
Levon Margaryan
11:03 10/01/2013
Story from Lragir.am News:
The current situation of the extra-government sector can be described
as fragmental, civil and extra-systemic, non-partisan opposition or
the resistance defeated partisan opposition. In addition, it won
not because its fight was aimed at victory but because the losers
quickly escaped to the margin very quickly, for example, the ANC,
or they failed to find their place and identity in time and space,
for example, the PAP.
As a result, we have appeared in a situation which appears disgusting
because the government has no opponent in the “political field”
to dispute its victory at least a little. It is disgusting because
despite Ter-Petrosyan’s and Tsarukyan’s political qualities,
their participation in the elections would at least bottle up the
overconfident, arrogant attitude of Sharmazanov and his fellows to
the result of the upcoming election.
There is an interesting thing about the self-sufficiency of the
Republicans: it is defeated by Serzh Sargsyan’s “achievements” only.
On these days, in his interview with the Armenian service of RFE/RL,
candidate for president Paruyr Hayrikyan described the current
political situation precisely, saying that Serzh Sargsyan has been
able to take power through legal and illegal means with some defensive
lines, and underlined that he speaks about Serzh Sargsyan and not the
Republicans. The departure of Levon Ter-Petrosyan and Gagik Tsarukyan
from the field is the “achievement” of Serzh Sargsyan’s small group of
“friends” and not the Republican Party.
Let’s come back to the situation of the opposition. At the moment,
this disgusting situation is described by the lack of a candidate
who would shatter the government, if certainly the free field does
not unite around the idea of boycott. This would be a cold shower for
Serzh Sargsyan because his efforts of the past five years to achieve
legitimate reelection will vanish.
The issue is that the upcoming election will be the first in Armenia
which will lack intrigue, which is a negative aspect because hope to
change something in Armenia through elections has always been linked to
intrigues. The presence of intrigues has become a peculiar indicator of
political efficiency, and the opposition is neither willing, nor able
to participate in rational political and legal processes. It believes
in intrigues. By and large, the stagnation of the political field and
society of Armenia is not determined by the thought that everything is
predetermined but that everything is predetermined without intrigues.
In this sense, if the scenario of the forthcoming election does not
change, it may be interestingly significant. For the first time in
the history of Armenia, we have the opportunity to listen to programs
and not to follow intrigues. Though many people think listening to
programs is a waste of time, the upcoming election campaign will be
focused on programs.
Of course, the field remains irrational to some extent, namely due
to the presence of Vardan Sedrakyan’s epic and Raffi Hovannisian’s
funny linguistic innovations. On the other hand, there is pressure of
“heavyweights” who have been left out and who treat extra-governmental
activism as pro-governmental actions or put forth the thesis that it
is clear that Serzh Sargsyan will win so it is meaningless to run in
this election.
However, this approach is very primitive in terms of rational
politics because if guided by this idea there should always be
only one candidate. After all, the aim of elections is victory but
promotion of one’s political claim is no less important, including
for a future victory. The most important thing is the process of
change of the ongoing political perception in the public – programs
and rationality instead of intrigues and apocalyptic scenarios.
In this sense, the upcoming presidential elections may seem and
interpreted as boring. In terms of some political perceptions, the
elections are really boring but this is the main difference of the
upcoming election from the previous ones.