Bidzina’s mixed crowd

The freshly elected parliament passed the political program “For Strong, Democratic, and United Georgia” (88 votes for and 54 against) and the new Cabinet, headed by billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili. In particular, Irakli Alasania became the Minister of Defense, Kakha Kaladze – the Minister of Energy, Nodar Khaduri – the Minister of Finance. The MIA is now headed by Irakli Garibashvili, and the MFA – by Maia Panjikidze.

The newly elected prime minister presented the main features of the new government’s action plan titled “For Strong, Democratic, and United Georgia.” In particular, he said that the government “will do everything possible to establish the rule of law, not to let political persecution occur, will take care of the democratic institutions development, elimination of corruption among high-ranking officials, and depoliticization of the law enforcement agencies.”

According to Ivanishvili, “the government will take specific and effective measures to overcome unemployment and poverty, develop small and medium business and agriculture, protect the right to private property, and create decent living conditions for the population.” Ivanishvili noted that “one of the government’s top priority tasks is the availability of health care and education for each citizen.”

Prime Minister Ivanishvili stands for both normalization of relations with Russia and further unification with the EU and NATO. When presenting his action plan at the parliament, he stated that European integration is his priority.

Earlier, Ivanishvili appealed to the new government not to steal money from common people. And if “anyone faces some sort of personal problems, they should come to me, and I will find another way to solve them.” However, it remained unclear if he is determined to pay the officials with his own money.

At the same time, he said that he was not going to stay in the government for long. “I will leave politics in a year and a half, but I will not leave Georgia,” Ivanishvili stated.

The government is going to number 19 ministers, 4 of them being women. The fact that the former football player Kakha Kaladze, who played for Dynamo Kyiv and then Milan with Shevchenko, is also one of the ministers, cannot go unnoticed. He was assigned to lead the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources. The Ministry of Health, Labor, and Social Affairs and the Ministry of Agriculture will be headed by politicians who were a part of government under the former Georgian president Eduard Shevardnadze.

The Day addressed Georgian experts, political analyst Ghia NODIA and Rezonansi editor-in-chief Lasha TUGUSHI, with a request to comment on the Cabinet of Ministers presented by the Georgian billionaire.

Ghia NODIA: “This is a very mixed crowd. Some ministers have certain political experience, some are unknown to the public, and some have no experience in such kind of activity whatsoever. But there is a lot of uncertainty at the moment regarding in what way and where the government will lead the country. They gave a lot of ‘social’ promises before the elections, but now they stress that they have never talked about strict deadlines of their implementation. That is why it is possible that their activity will cause the population’s frustration to rise to a certain level, since a lot of people expect a rapid growth of pension, better health insurance, etc.”

Lasha TUGUSHI: “The new government’s program is rather interesting. It was supported by the majority of Georgian people. Of course, it is too early to make conclusions since the government has just started working.

“The new Cabinet includes people with new ideas. For example, the Minister of Justice wants to change and reform the judiciary system. The Minister for Reintegration is promising too. We know some new ministers due to their previous political activity. So far, the overall mood is optimistic and encouraging. It does not mean that there will be no critical remarks or that public organizations and media have decided that we are already in paradise.”

Ivanishvili has made a lot of statements in these past few days. In one of them, he said that the new government should not steal. In the other one he said he was going to leave politics in a year and a half…

Gh.N.: “These are rather unusual statements. Ivanishvili seems to cut a rather strange figure to some observers. Concerning his statement about resigning in a year and a half, he repeats that all the time. When he first came into politics, he said he would stay for two years, and then he even shortened that term. He often says he does not like politics and does not want to be engaged in it for too long. Of course, people are puzzled: why did he join in then and undertook so much responsibility? It also sounds strange that he intends to pay high-ranking officials with his own money. Such behavior reminds more of a medieval feudal lord than a modern constitutional ruler. War on corruption is the task of any government, but constitutional and legal mechanisms have to be used for that, not prime minister’s personal funds.”

What can you say about Kakha Kaladze’s appointment? He had a great career as a football player, but does not have experience in politics. And how did Georgian society react to the new government including two ministers from Shevardnadze’s government?

Gh.N.: “The majority of the population does not approve of Kaladze’s appointment, due to his lack of political experience. And the fact that he owns private business in the energy sector (hydroelectric power plants construction, to be precise) only adds fuel to the fire.

“The appointment of Shevardnadze’s ministers is rather inconsistent. Even Ivanishvili’s supporters, who form the majority of the population at the moment, are against these appointments. However, there are other people, who did not accept Saakashvili and his reforms. This is an older generation of people, who rather like the fact that these politicians are out of the previous president’s shadow.”

L.T.: “Kaladze is a new man to politics. But this is not a technocratic government. Some of the new ministers have certain experience in a specific sphere. For example, the ministers of education, finance, and economy. We have also had questions about some candidates, including Kaladze. But the new government also includes professional politicians. Perhaps, this is a risky move, but the prime minister knows best. If Kaladze does not cope with the task, replacing him will not be a problem. If we talk about Shevardnadze’s ministers, we should also remember that Saakashvili was the minister of justice at the time. We should not have this strict separation according to a person’s date of birth. We have a small country with limited resources. If someone was a minister during Shevardnadze’s rule, and he is clear of corruption and crime, his candidacy is quite possible. I would not dramatize it.”

Saakashvili has been criticized quite a lot lately. Some even talk about trying him in court. These days, the then nominee for the foreign minister post, Maia Panjikidze, accused Saakashvili’s government of great concessions to Russia when nothing was received in return.

Gh.N.: “What she said was a regular political argument. She is not right. The fact that Georgia established a visa-free regime for Russian citizens is not a concession. On the contrary, it attracted more tourists, thus improving Georgia’s economy. Concerning trying Saakashvili, such intentions are rather strong in the former opposition. This causes serious concern within the international community. Ivanishvili and the minister of justice say that everything will happen on legal grounds. But since the degree of the court’s independence is doubtful, there is a risk that all legal actions might be politicized and used as means of pressurizing of the opposition.”

L.T.: “Saakashvili will remain president till October 2013. A lot has been said about the absence of political revenge, and this applies to the Georgian president as well. The stand which led Ivanishvili’s party to victory should not be changed. Their actions should correspond to their statements. Concerning the officials that let some criminal activity happen during their time in office, suffice it to remember the recent jail scandal. Saakashvili’s government conducted a series of arrests. But society still has a lot of unanswered questions, and the new parliament will create a special commission that will conduct an investigation into violations in prisons. If it turns out that high-ranking officials are involved in it, the public prosecutor’s office and court will take corresponding action.”

We have received messages that PIK channel is about to be closed down. It is widely believed to be involved in the change of the government, since this channel was originally created as “Saakashvili’s mouthpiece.” What can you say about this?

Gh.N.: “No doubt, they are related. No one can explain the evanescence of the money which was allocated for this channel, because it was associated with public television. Unfortunately, no one would provide a reasonable explanation of how PIK was able to work before, and now it is so problematic.”

L.T.: “I do not think this is associated with the change of government. Neither PIK’s journalists nor the management of public television will speak about it. They had inner challenges, and now this problem is being actively discussed. This is why I do not see any political background there. To the best of my knowledge, the problems are of technical nature, the breach of the inner agreement, etc. I hope they will be settled. Recently both parties made a statement. Besides, everyone would benefit from the solution of the problem.”