Georgia: national leader’s joke

By Georgy Kalatozishvili, Tbilisi. Exclusively for Vestnik Kavkaza

After the inauguration of President Georgy Margvelashvili and the introduction of Irakly Garibashvili as the Prime Minister, the most curious question is who will have all the power in Georgia?

Irakly Garibashvili, aged 31, as Georgians say, “grew up on the hands” of billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili and owes him everything. Sociologists say that he, despite all his education and doubtless intellect, he did not have a single chance to become the president without Ivanishvili.

Nonetheless, the first decisions and steps of both leaders demonstrate that they are ready for independent decision-making, without a backward glance to their benefactor. Ivanishvili has never demanded this of them: “I would never offend my dignity and country by calling the prime minister or president. If something displeases me, I will speak about it publicly and openly,” he said a few days after the presidential polls.

Even the most meticulous adherent of democratic transparency and civil control over the government would not find flaws in this position. No one can restrict a public figure from expressing his opinion publicly. The influence on public opinion will depend on his authority. In any case, Ivanishvili made no decisions to make control over mass media harsher to manipulate the public opinion, despite owning a fortune he could easily spend on all local TV companies and papers. On the contrary, Ivanishvili closed down and put TV-9 up for sale. The company belonged to his wife.

It turns out that both Georgian leaders have carte blanche to make decisions, which is essential for domestic and foreign policy.

The personal qualities of the president and prime minister may become a significant factor. With the efforts of Mikheil Saakashvili, the word ‘ambition’ lost all the negative connotation in Georgia. At least, the ex-leader did all his best to strengthen the approach where ‘an ambitious leader’ is fruitful for the country, its development and realization of necessary reforms. Although, it is noteworthy that an ambition is indeed good, but only if it does not provoke a war with a nuclear state.

In his first interview, Georgy Margvelashvili said that he did not rule out visiting the Sochi Olympics, should he receive an invitation. The topic was forbidden until recently. In other words, there were disputes about participation of Georgian athletes in the Sochi Games and most were positive, but presence of the president among guests (especially in the presence of the Abkhaz and South Ossetian leaders) was unacceptable. Nevertheless, Margvelashvili is not afraid of the critical response of the ex-president’s supporters and the majority of the political class. In an interview, he put the responsibility for problems in Georgian-Russian relations on Saakashvili and his ‘provocative policy’, never mentioning the mantra about ‘occupation of Georgian lands.’

In terms of common sense, it seems like a ‘diplomatic reverence’ and expression of pragmatism, rather than the ‘capitulation’, as members of Saakashvili’s United National Movement (UNM) called it. Margvelashvili could not have expected such a reaction.

In his turn, the future prime minister made two significant decisions: he announced that 28-year-old Alexander Chikaidze will become the Interior Minister of the new government and ex-Financial Police Chief Otar Partskhaladze will be the Prosecutor General. None of them had anything to do with Ivanishvili, but both belong to Irakly Garibashvili’s team. The prosecutor general and the interior minister are the key posts in the Georgian political system.

Not only the decisions, but behaviour of Garibashvili show disinhibition and non-tunnel vision. For example, a member of the UNM Chiora Taktakishvili joked at the parliamentary headings when asked about appointment of his wife’s relatives at the Interior Ministry: “Don’t you know that a wife’s kinsfolk are not considered relatives in Georgia?”

This gives hope that the new ruling team will make extraordinary decisions and pull the country out of the pit it has been in since 2008.