LTP: A SELF-PROCLAIMED “TOOL” IN SEARCH OF OTHER “TOOLS”
Armen Arakelyan
hetq
12:16, December 1, 2011
The evident boldness of the Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP) to bring
some degree of autonomy to the political field turned it into a large
and tasty morsel hungrily eyed by the other important players.
They want to get their hands on the PAP and the reason is clear.
Any position taken by the PAP, whether to leave or stay in the ruling
coalition will lead to a major reshuffling of the political landscape.
Understanding the cards it brings to the table, the PAP is trying
to draw the game out and raise the stakes and derive the maximum
concessions from the president.
It might all be a farce; a project to create a pseudo-opposition in
an attempt to win votes from the opposition electorate. In any event,
it all makes sense politically.
The same logic holds true for the recent overtures made by the ANC
regarding the PAP.
At the end of last year, when RA President Sargsyan demanded that his
coalition partners clarify their positions regarding their support
of him in the upcoming presidential election, the ANC noted that if
the PAP were to clearly distance itself from former President Robert
Sargsyan, it wouldn’t be averse to forming a tandem with it. This
idea was voiced every time there was an intensification of interparty
intrigue.
At the last ANC rally, Levon Ter-Petrosyan made a specific proposal
to the PAP – declare yourself free of Robert Kocharyan and the March
1 tragedy and in favour of free and fair elections and the ANC will
be willing to collaborate.
Moreover, singly out the PAP as a force with the potential to form a
third political axis, the ANC essentially accepted its second role
status and the supremacy of the PAP. I state this because up till
now Levon Ter-Petrosyan had always claimed that since the ANC existed
there was no possibility of forming a third political front.
There is no common ground between the ANC and PAP – whether political,
ideological nor motivational. This precludes any long-term cooperation
between them.
Levon Ter-Petrosyan no longer conceals the fact that he views the
PAP merely as a tool to destroy the regime from the inside.
Ter-Petrosyan, in his speech, stated that it was not only common
for political opponents, even irreconcilable ones, to cooperate on
matters of great import but that it was also a political imperative.
He pointed to all the revolutions and national liberation struggles
that wouldn’t have succeeded without the united struggle of various
political forces.
In the context of political objectives, all this is understandable.
HAK merely is suggesting a new methodology and arsenal to achieve
the aims it has always adhered to.
The pivotal question we must ask if all and any means are acceptable
to reach ones goal. This is more so the case here when we are just not
talking about a single political unit like the ANC, but the possible
long-term vision of forming a pan-national movement.
Neither this question nor the pan-national movement, in general,
are simply plucked from the political sector.
In the first place, they are moral categories. Consequently,
suggesting cooperating with the PAP, a member of the ruling coalition,
with the aim of removing the same regime from the scene is not only
simple-minded, from a purely political context, but is an approach
with an underlying manipulative sub-context.
Here, we are not talking about operating with various political forces
but with a party that is a member of the ruling coalition that has
targeted the ANC with its criticism and charges.
This is not the case of “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.”
Can the ANC seriously talk about cooperating with a political force
whose removal from power has been the rasion d’etre of the ANC?
What, in the end, is the true aim of the ANC and Levon Ter-Petrosyan?
Do they merely want to come to power by destroying the criminal regime,
using the PAP and the oligarchs as tools?
Or do they want to rid the country of the social and political diseases
that they spoke about when the “movement” came to the fore, issues that
they constantly inspired hope in people about for the past 3-4 years.
In this light, the ANC isn’t merely faced with the problem of
correcting it relations with the political forces.
Firstly, it must come face to face with the public at large, the
people in whose name the ANC reserved the right to speak on behalf of.
Otherwise, those who declare themselves as mere “tools” to be used
for the greater good will be regarded as those who have made “tools”
out of the people for their own partisan and personal ambitions.