Guest post from a friend
I, like many others in Armenia, are steering clear of Raffi and his mob. Sure, now that the ARF has decided to capitalize on its pre-election propaganda campaign against the legitimacy of Armenia and dragged its rank and file into the fray, it may seem more political and less personal, but in the end this is about grudges. Some of the grudges are between oligarchs, the exclusive club to which Raffi, Serge, LTP, Tsarukyan, Paruyr, and the other dozen or so figures with whom the public is on a first name basis and who have arrogated to themselves the right to decide the outcome of elections behind closed doors. Other grudges are between ordinary people and functionaries who overplay their hands, smug and abusive. Others are societal, between various groups that believe they are entitled to a bigger piece of the pie. So what do we have, our post-election ritual - a bunch of people trying to settle their grudges on the streets. When they see a brawl in the making, thoughtful people stay clear or try to calm things down. The idle, gawk. The bored and irresponsible, goad. The instigators and beneficiaries, gloat. In the face of this, the result of the elections that most independent observers said were a step forward for Armenian democracy is preferable, regardless of who was elected. The peaceful process that we took part in is now being undermined by the mobocracy with a former American citizen as its ring-leader. Nice job, Raffi. Just what we've waited 10 years for you to do - make a royal mess of things and package it in tired slogans about truth, justice and the American way - you must have missed the class on Al Gore.
I, like many others in Armenia, are steering clear of Raffi and his mob. Sure, now that the ARF has decided to capitalize on its pre-election propaganda campaign against the legitimacy of Armenia and dragged its rank and file into the fray, it may seem more political and less personal, but in the end this is about grudges. Some of the grudges are between oligarchs, the exclusive club to which Raffi, Serge, LTP, Tsarukyan, Paruyr, and the other dozen or so figures with whom the public is on a first name basis and who have arrogated to themselves the right to decide the outcome of elections behind closed doors. Other grudges are between ordinary people and functionaries who overplay their hands, smug and abusive. Others are societal, between various groups that believe they are entitled to a bigger piece of the pie. So what do we have, our post-election ritual - a bunch of people trying to settle their grudges on the streets. When they see a brawl in the making, thoughtful people stay clear or try to calm things down. The idle, gawk. The bored and irresponsible, goad. The instigators and beneficiaries, gloat. In the face of this, the result of the elections that most independent observers said were a step forward for Armenian democracy is preferable, regardless of who was elected. The peaceful process that we took part in is now being undermined by the mobocracy with a former American citizen as its ring-leader. Nice job, Raffi. Just what we've waited 10 years for you to do - make a royal mess of things and package it in tired slogans about truth, justice and the American way - you must have missed the class on Al Gore.
Instead of asking for power, it would be nice to have a
substantive list of things that will make life better for people:
1. more support for
the elderly
2. fairer tax
collection, especially from oligarchs
3. cheaper natural
gas
4. less regulation
and more protection for small business
5. support for
families with children
6. compensation for
farmers who've been foreclosed after being forced to buy defective seed wheat
from the Government
And the list goes on.
It would be nice, but unlikely that Raffi will turn his leverage to
actually improving something for real people in Hayastan - instead he and his
coterie will likely focus on getting positions for themselves, on the theory
that first they get power, then they will attend to the needs of the
people. But they've got their
priorities backwards. The people should
come first.
Barevolution is the term he coined and also the color is
orange, just like in Ukraine. Smart people learn from their own mistakes,
really smart ones from mistakes of others. Where is Ukraine after the
"revolution"? Georgia? Both worse off today than before. Georgia's
final loss of territories is part of that equation.
I think realistically he will try to drag this mobilization
to Yerevan's mayoral election. There's nothing else from a rational political
calculus that is workable.
-Armen
-Armen
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