Decisive loner

The September 17 government session may become the “hit” of the year. Now the members of the government live in the before and after September 17 session mode.

It is really difficult to tell what be changed in the lives of the government and society. It is evident that first of all President Serzh Sargsyan needs a change. In almost all aspects this session of the government was sufficiently discussed within the society and in media. Moreover, in almost all circles this session may be considered as a PA action.

The problem is that the session was considered as the launch of the pre-election campaign of Serzh Sargsyan. This was a means to show him in light of an “angry and strict leader.” In a word, this session was mostly showed as the use of force on part of the president. Nobody has ever said that the angriness of the president comes not from his strength but weakness.

The problem is not that Serzh Sargsyan just now after four years found out that the government doesn’t work well and that the economy is in a devastated state, migration reached alerting levels, etc. The activity of the government exactly recorded such results. In that case, the question is why Serzh Sargsyan didn’t express his concerns 1-2 years back when the quality of the government work didn’t much differ from the current activity. The answer is really simple – in only 5 months Armenia will undergo presidential elections. T

he campaign managers of Serzh Sargsyan have probably conducted some surveys and have revealed that the situation is really bitter. They realized that even in conditions of low competition it will be really tough to win the race. So this means that only Serzh Sargsyan himself is interested in his own victory. With its archaic methods the government even more complicates the situation. It would be needless to say that besides Serzh Sargsyan no one else is very interested his victory. The impression is that most of them are even trying to hinder his victory. In this case the problem is not in possible conspiracies or well-thought actions but the whole attitude of “indifference,” which the government elite lives with. The elite is mostly interested in retaining their posts and businesses. By the way, in the government, which mostly consists of men, has becoming more babbling and gossiping.

Almost all the officials in their offices are complaining of the current situation and point at the picture of Serzh Sargsyan hanging on their walls of their offices. The point is to create the impression that they are trying to do everything they can for the country but the “boss” won’t let them do so. This means that Serzh Sargsyan’s anger not necessarily has been artificial but quite natural. In fact, on the threshold of elections he remained alone. The September 17 session resembled a party campaign office session. In that case, the question is why doesn’t Sargsyan dissolve the government?

Perhaps the reason is not only the assumption that it’s no good to change the team closer to elections. But who would be the new prime minister and government members? By having unlimited governmental resources Serzh Sargsyan doesn’t have a big variety of human resources because the government has been surviving with a collective instinct for years. As a result, months before elections, Sargsyan has appeared in a state of a “decisive loner,” the teammates of whose only care about his re-election in order to keep receiving “financial kick-backs.”