ABOUT THE NECESSITY OF A REAL OPPOSITION

As we know tensed negotiations are in process between the President-elect and the political powers, regarding the formation of the coalition and the new government. Later, naturally this process “will go down” to the level of Ministers and departments, anyway the state machinery is on the threshold of a significant innovation.
Let’s imagine an impossible situation. On the second half of April, the President-elect, disapproved of the willfulness, corruption, and low efficiency of the officials’ work makes up his mind to completely change the state machinery and starts a universal recruitment among the citizens.
Moreover the President complicates the conditions of the recruitment: like – everyone must be recruited by contest (the parameter is: spotless reputation), all the pretenders must pass a qualification test, and their moral qualities must be checked by the “lie detector”.
Question: Will this change the situation? Will the new state machinery serve the society and not the authorities? Will the volume of corruption, sponsorship, and lawlessness reduce?
At the beginning - maybe. But maximum in one year we will face the same problems. Why?
First: because this is our tradition and psychology. Of course the condition of the society reflects on the state machinery.
Second: because power leads to temptations. This is closer to reality. Temptations usually lie the officials and the political figures in ambush, all over the world. But why anarchy is not on that level for example in Germany, Great Britain, or Sweden. Of course in those countries as well the political figures, high-ranking officials and even the judges appear in scandalous situations. But each of them is well aware that scandal means resignation at best and prison - if the worst comes to the worst.
Thus – another question? Why? Their values are different from ours. There are national peculiarities in every country. Even democracies in the western countries very often differ. But you will never find a “value” due to which disgrace must be justified, if it is committed by the high-ranking official. Such a “value” doesn’t exist.
The problem is, in the democratic countries authority is permanently under control. How can the society control the President, the government, and the ruling authority in general?
First of all by the help of the opposition, which means - the powers that didn’t win the elections at this stage.
How can they control the authorities? Through their statements and inquiries in the parliament, by drafting the state budget, by the supervision of the expenditure of the state resources.
By revealing the gaps of the authorities opposition has all the chances to come to power and will be interested in manifesting a spotless behavior. This is how they provide the selection of the state machinery. Seeing that the “political pendulum” really works, that is to say today’s ruling authority can turn into an opposition tomorrow the law enforcement agencies, judges, and the state machinery will change their working policy.
This is the scheme of the social control on the authorities. Of course it demands concretization. But the thing is, the same way as it is senseless to speak about the “western” and “Armenian” scheme of the lamp, the same way it is ridiculous to make judgments about the “western” and “Armenian” democracies.
The make the system of the political competitiveness work in our reality we need a real classical opposition and not a crowd of slaughterers who organized the mass disorder on March 1-2. It is only in the existence of a real opposition that we can impose certain conditions upon the authorities, which will provide an opportunity to control the latter.
And only in this case can we teach the authorities respect the society and serve them.
“HAYOTS ASHKHARH”

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