Georgia's Rose Revolution grapples with dilemma: Do ends justify means

Jaba Devdariani: 10/26/04

A EurasiaNet Commentary

Revolutions – starting with France in 1789 and stretching past Russia in 1917 – invariably reach a stage where those seeking to establish a new order must face the question: Do the ends justify the means? Georgia seems to have reached this point almost a year after President Mikheil Saakashvili led the "Rose Revolution." Civil society activists now are criticizing Saakashvili's administration for using arbitrary methods in the attempt to establish the rule-of-law.

Since assuming the presidency in January, Saakashvili has insisted that he seeks to transform Georgia from a fractured, failed-state into a prosperous democracy. Accordingly, his stated policy priorities have been restoring the country's territorial integrity and curbing corruption. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. Dissatisfaction over Saakashvili's smash-mouth governing style has simmered since the president engineered the adoption of constitutional amendments that enhanced his executive authority. [For additional information see the Eurasia Insight archive]. On October 18, discontent boiled over with the publication of an open letter signed by 14 leading civil-society activists, who accused Saakashvili of "intolerance towards people with different opinions."

According to the letter, the president's disdain for opposing opinion extends beyond the political sphere into the realms of business, education and culture. The letter, however, expressed particular concern about Saakashvili's tendency to make "more and more humiliating and insulting statements towards [political] opponents."

"Attempts to establish an intellectual dictatorship and mono-opinion will not lead the country to rapid reforms, but to authoritarian rule and stagnation," the open letter stated.

In addition to the charge of political intolerance, critics have assailed Saakashvili's administration for supposedly seeking to control news media coverage. They also claim that authorities are applying the law selectively in the on-going anti-corruption drive, arresting and punishing political enemies while leaving supporters untouched. Those taken into custody have been subjected to police abuse, human rights advocate say. The most recent controversy involves the draft tax code, which critics characterize as draconian, seemingly based on an assumption that citizens must be coerced into paying their fair share of taxes.

Saakashvili has traditionally shrugged off criticism, once describing those discontented with his policies as the "squealing opposition." The October 18 open letter will not be easy to ignore because it comes from what can be described as Georgia's "political middle class" – civil society activists who were once Saakashvili supporters, but who have become disillusioned as reality has replaced theory.

Two days before publication of the open letter, civil society activists held a closed-door meeting with Saakashvili, during which they reportedly aired their concerns about Georgia's political course. During the discussion, Saakashvili expressed "understanding" for criticisms aired by civil society advocates, Davit Usupashvili, a meeting participant and legal expert, said. ""But the problem is to reflect this understanding in practice," the Civil Georgia web site quoted Usupashvili as saying.

On October 18, the same day as the open letter's publication, Georgia's prosecutor-general, Zurab Adeishvili, pledged to address complaints about police brutality. He said at a news conference that a new oversight system would be established to protect the rights of detainees. Such good-will moves have been undermined by the continuing pattern of seemingly arbitrary decisions relating to the anti-corruption drive. The latest high-profile detainee is Koba Narchemashvili, who served as interior minister in former president Eduard Shevardnadze's administration. Narchemashvili was arrested on October 24 on charges of abuse of office and violations of customs regulations. Critics are mainly questioning the timing and the motivation of the arrest.

Authorities are also facing criticism over an October 23 ruling to extend the pre-trial detention of the former head of the state Audit Chamber, Sulkhan Molashvili, who is accused of tacitly sanctioning tax evasion by major enterprises in return for substantial kickbacks. The head of the NGO Former Political Prisoners for Human Rights, Nana Kakabadze, expressed doubts that the hearing that extended Molashvili's pre-trial detention by up to 40 days conformed to Georgian law, the Kavkasia-Press news agency reported. Supreme Court Chairman Kote Kemularia indignantly refuted the charge, telling the Rustavi-2 television channel that the "hearing was held in full compliance with procedural laws."

In a sign that the bloom has come off the Rose Revolution – from the viewpoint of many European nations – a Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) monitoring group met with Narchemashvili and Molashvili in jail on October.26 Following the meetings, PACE representatives announced that they would closely monitor the criminal cases against the two former government officials.

Ghia Nodia, the chairman of the Tbilisi-based Caucasus Institute for Peace, Democracy and Development and one of the signatories of the open letter, suggests that Saakashvili must overcome "prolonged revolutionary syndrome" in order to show that he remains committed to building a pluralistic political and economic system in Georgia.

Nodia, in a lengthy analysis article published in the newspaper 24 Hours on October 18, asserted that Saakashvili's administration has become accustomed to operating in an "emergency situation," in which authorities rationalize the need to "set aside the necessity of observing laws." Those in power tend to believe the rule-of-law will be easy to establish after conditions have stabilized, Nodia continued. "This idea has been advocated by many revolutionary leaders, but has always been false," Nodia insisted.

Making the transition "from the revolutionary way of rule to a ‘normal way of governance'" is not easy for any government, Nodia maintained. In Saakashvili's case, Nodia said the president must enter into "difficult compromises, listening to opposite opinions [and] making unpopular decisions."

At the same time, Nodia said Georgian citizens must ‘understand that it is impossible to solve the [country's] problems in one day." Therefore, people have to be prepared to make near-term sacrifices for the sake of the country's long-term benefit. "This means we should develop tools of cooperation and dialogue with authorities to go along with the tools [used to exert] pressure on the government, which we have been [developing] for the past 10-15 years," Nodia said.

In attempting to improve the government's performance, Saakashvili is hampered by a lack of qualified candidates to fill the ranks of the Georgian bureaucracy. Nevertheless, there are steps that Saakashvili can implement immediately that would help reassure civil society advocates. Some observers say Saakashvili could improve the way the government communicates information to the general public. Governmental information services, including the presidential press office, have often released statements that have been error-prone and contradictory, causing unnecessary confusion. Saakashvili himself in public appearances has proven prone to making ill-advised, off-the-cuff comments that have exacerbated problems faced by the government. The president would benefit if his statements and speeches were prepared in advance, and did not seem so improvised.

The preliminary conclusion that many in Georgian society are drawing about the Saakashvili administration's performance is that the state is governed more by the law of the ruler, rather than by the rule of law. A lack of transparency in the government's operations is, likewise, prompting people to believe that instead of cleaning up corruption, the government is merely redistributing the loot. This mood could prove tragic for Georgia, for it distracts from what is still a tremendous opportunity for the country to achieve its stabilization goals.

Editor's Note: Jaba Devdariani is a board member of the United Nations Association of Georgia and analyst of Georgian politics, currently working in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Posted October 26, 2004 © Eurasianet