Mamardashvili syndrome

“It is harder to be a decent person for a week than a hero for fifteen minutes,” Jules Renar wrote at one time. In the field of politics, where the decency, first of all, is associated with fidelity, if not universal, then at least party ideals, this formula often gains a fateful meaning. It is precisely because of the lack of fidelity (not to confuse with personal devotion) conformists, among whom there are many mediocrity, can be heroes overnight.

The recent scandal in Tbilisi with a resigned by the Minister of Defense Irakli Alasania and the Minister of Foreign Affairs Maya Pandzhidze and the state minister of European integration Alexy Petriashvili became a kind of Lakmusova Paper of Georgian political life, revealed the true motives of the behavior of many figures in the highest structures of power. The Russian billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, who returned to his homeland in 2004, was at first engaged in charity work and shocked politics, but later he unexpectedly became actively, but in a secret of secrecy, support Saakashvili's reforms in the field of defense and law enforcement agencies. It was about the uniforms of the police and the army. It came to the point that even Ivanishvili paid a salary from his pocket. According to Bidzina Grigoryevich himself, in total, he spent about $ 1 billion (!) Of dollars. Even in critical for the “pink” power, the periods when the protest movement in Georgia totaled hundreds of thousands of people, even after the unsuccessful military campaign of 2008, as a result of which Russia occupied about 20% of the Georgian territory, Ivanishvili remained next to Saakashvili and continued to maintain its regime.

However, since October 2011, the oligarch again suddenly turned into a radical opposition, created his coalition "Georgian Dream" and, using powerful financial resources, inflicted the defeat of the "Nationals" party in the election, forced to leave the leadership of the country of his former comrade-in-arms. Ivanishvili explained his actions as follows: "During the reign of Saakashvili, such small, large and unforgivable mistakes were made that in his place any soberly and reasonably thinking politician would have left the policy ahead of schedule and asked for forgiveness from his people."

Information, meanwhile, unanimously offered a different, conspiracyological one, the version of what happened to society: the reason for such a metamorphosis of the views of the Miliardrian philanthropist was in fact not political or ideological motifs, but a personal conflict with Saakashvili-in the expansion of the “disassembly”, during which the president dealt heavy insults to the interlocutor, and he gave the floor in response Cruelly avenge the offender. A few days ago, this version unexpectedly received confirmation from the lips of one of the participants in the scandal: about those threats on the part of Ivanishvili, in one of his appeals to compatriots, no other than the ex-President of Georgia, who is now living abroad.

Moreover, Saakashvili published a list of people who threatened to arrest his current worst enemy. In addition to the former president, almost all the leading figures of the previous government appear in it: Vano Merabishvili, Bacho Ahalai, Gigi Ugulava, Georgy Baramidze, Giga Bokeria and others. Some of them, as you know, are already in prison. Having come to power, Ivanishvili used his remarkable resources and literally put the pupil of the Srosov Institute of Liberty, Minister of Education George Margvelashvili in the chair of the country's president of the country unknown to fellow citizens. Judging by everything, Ivanishvili hoped to find a faithful performer in the person of his protege. However, as soon as Margvelashvili began to show the desire to act independently, the oligarch subjected him to public criticism and put a hand in the fact that the institution of presidency began to “bypass” other branches of power.

If we "collect" new thinking from old representations, then with the accuracy of a copy we repeat all the structures of the totalitarian system

The same fate befell the winners of the winners of the Free Democrats leader Irakli Alasania, who, by the way, once collaborated with the "nationals". He did not retreat from the Saakashvili regime either after the brutal overclocking by the police rally by the police on November 7, neither after falsification of the results of the 2008 presidential election and resigned only after the August war, when it became clear that the regime was doomed in the strategic perspective. In 2011, Alasania joined the coalition of Ivanishvili and, after her victory in the election, received the posts of Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense. The Deputy Prime Minister of Alasania soon lost-because he dared to take independent actions without the knowledge of Ivanishvili, in particular, without asking for permission, put his candidacy in the election of the president of the country.

And so, a year after Ivanishvili’s formal departure from politics to the civilian sector, another heal person, Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili, removed the alassania from the post of Minister of Defense. The reason for this was the investigation of financial violations in the ministry, against the unacceptable form of which the minister spoke out in sharp expressions. The true reasons for the resignation are stated in different ways: Garibashvili claims that Alasania, who returned from a foreign trip, led the negotiations unauthorized by the government in France and Germany, and the minister claims that the power, no less, turns off the country's Euro-Atlantic course.

In protest against the removal from the post of alassania, the Minister of Foreign Affairs Maya Pandzhidze, three of her deputy and Minister for Euro -Industration Aleki Petriashvili immediately resigned. Again: it is difficult to say that only loyalty to political ideals became the motive of these resignations. Panjikidze, for example, has never been a member of the Free Democrats party. Apparently, the fact that her own sister was married to the leader of the Alassania party played an important role in this story. The very next day after the collective demarche, one of the deputies of Panzhikidze, Tamar Beruchashvili, had a confidential conversation with Prime Minister Garibashvili, after which she urgently took back the resignation statement. A replica from the theater of the absurd was her explanation: “It was an emotional-salt misunderstanding,” she said.

The reaction of the authorities was not long in coming: the Prime Minister appointed Beruchashvili the new Minister of Foreign Affairs. The new minister immediately stated that the government did not turn off the Euro -Atlantic course (!) ... The statement of the Georgian philosopher Merab Mamardashvili involuntarily comes to mind: "We have multi -partyistry, but we do not have multi -party reality ... I mean the independent structure of groups, that is, what is called an independent society in which the state is an official body, public service." And one more thing: “if we collect” new thinking from old ideas, then with the accuracy of a copy we repeat all the structures of the totalitarian system, and the blind will again tell the sighted, hunched over the universal and complete obedience. He wanted the leader? Know, this is slavery. ”

Yuri Vachnadze - Tbilisi journalist and political commentator

Opinions expressed under the heading "Law" may not reflect the point of view of the editorial office