A CIRCULAR FOR FOREIGN ENVOYS
Hakob Badalyan
Lragir.am
31 May 06
The Armenian public is used to not hearing a true word from the
government. The word “government” is associated with “lie” and
the citizens no longer have a critical attitude and condemn this
association, because “government” and “lie” have become habitual,
passed the test of time and enriched the stock of synonyms of the
Armenian language. They say that nature maintains balance with an
invisible hand called “the law of nature” by environmentalists and
“God’s will” by the clergy. It is hard to say thanks to which one
of these, but for the Armenian society the envoys of authoritative
international organizations offset the synonymic meaning of
“government” and “lie”. Over the past 15 years of independence the
thinking has prevailed that foreigners would not lie and strike
a criminal bargain with the Armenian government officials for
falsification.
In other words, the citizens of Armenia hope to get the truth from
foreign diplomats. Obviously, this is the extreme form of failing
states, when the citizens anticipate the truth from foreigners. It
was comforting, however, that there was, at least, a source of truth.
However, this source is gradually drying out, and it is again difficult
to say whether the reason is the law of nature, God’s will or yet
another reason. The fact is that the public is losing another source
of truth. And this is due to the determined and tenacious work of
envoys of international organizations, engaged in our country. And
due to the ambassadors who became engaged in the campaign of the
constitutional referendum, violating the legislation of Armenia,
due to the organizations watching democratization in Armenia who
explained how natural the irregularities are instead of watching,
saying that after all nothing happens at once. Due to the officer,
sent to Armenia to monitor economic reforms, who praised the sale
of the fifth generating unit of Hrazdan Power Plant to the Russians,
whereas this deal would not fit into economic logic if sound reason
underlies it. And after the World Bank Country Manager for Armenia
Roger Robinson had announced that the government would publish the
conditions of the sale of the generating unit within the following
week (it was early this May) and the public would become convinced
that everything is alright, the public understood that they were
being cheated again. They were cheated that the sale was beneficial,
and they were cheated that the government would publish the details of
the contract. The uncertain thing is whether Roger Robinson’s economic
approaches changed, and he started to accept the sale of “generating
units” as a positive thing for the country after contact with the
Armenian government, or from his contact with the Armenian government
Robinson simply learned to say things which are not true. Also it is
uncertain what made the ambassadors of law-abiding countries believe
they could propagate constitution to the public in Armenia, or that
the law in Armenia is not their law, and they can violate it as much
as they want.
In fact, the government failed to attempt to persuade the public
even within several weeks that followed Roger Robinson’s statement
that they had sold the fifth generating unit for the sake of state
and not tyranny, as the society thought. And the minister of defense,
the ideologist of this sale, announced that time will come when they
will reveal detail, and we will become convinced that it was a good
deal. In other words, the time will come and they will gag everyone’s
mouth. Why did they need to open Roger Robinson’s mouth then and make
the poor man lie? They should have told him to wait until the end of
the Chess Olympiad to see what we would exchange the fifth generating
unit for, a gold, a silver or a bronze.
They did not say anything and damaged the credit of the World Bank as
if WB’s credit were the same for them as the credit that WB lends. In
the meantime, this authoritative organization appeared to have been
cheating the Armenian public.
Who is supposed to apologize to Robinson, and should Robinson apologize
to the public for misinforming them? To establish a precedent for
foreign citizens, for them to understand that their partners in
Armenia are the citizens of this country, because the citizens are the
masters of the country. For them to understand this at least before
they will have left Armenia. Like Roger Robinson. On May 31 Donna
Dowsett-Coirolo, Country Director for the South Caucasus Country Unit,
Europe and Central Asia Region, announced about the rotation of Roger
Robinson at her meeting with the prime minister of Armenia. The WB
official said they had not decided yet who would replace Robinson,
but she said that the new country director would hopefully work
equally well on the joint programs with Armenia.
Hence, it is even more important that Robinson understand the essence
of his mission by the end of his mission, that joint programs are
for the citizens of Armenia. He might no longer need to understand
this, but it could be useful for the one who will replace him who
will hopefully learn from his mistakes and not repeat them. Certainly,
only God knows what other mistakes the new one will commit, and the new
one may even be worse than the old one. Nevertheless, it is time that
not only others try to explain us certain things but we also explain
them something. For them to understand once and for all that they must
not enjoy the exotica of violating laws at the expense of Armenia,
following suit with the government. After all, the same suit means
the same destiny.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress