Opposition Slammed Saakashvili, amid President’s Annual Address

The New Rights-Industrialists opposition coalition, which is represented in the Parliament by a small group of legislators, used President Saakashvili’s first-ever state of the nation address to the Parliament on February 10 to step up their criticism of the government.

MP Davit Gamkrelidze, who chairs the New Rights-Industrialists group, the only opposition faction in the Parliament, described Saakashvili’s address as an “untalented copy of the U.S. President’s speeches” and said that he was “astonished” that Saakashvili did not mentioned anything in his annual report about the events that occurred in breakaway South Ossetia last August, when clashes took place between the Georgian and Ossetian forces, resulting in the death of 17 Georgian soldiers and an unspecified number of Ossetians.

Gamkrelidze also spoke against the government’s economic, social and defense policies and announced that the New Rights-Industrialists opposition coalition will vote against Finance Minister Zurab Nogaideli, who has been nominated by President Saakashvili for the Prime Minister’s position.

“This annual report is very important for us, since traditionally this is the only way for the opposition to directly tell the President about all the problems which worry the society,” MP Davit Gamkrelidze said.

Gamkrelidze slammed the allocation of funds for training reserve forces, which has become one of the cornerstones of the government’s defense policy.

“I respect the enthusiasm of those Georgian citizens who serve in the reserve forces. But I do not believe that 90% of these reservists would fullfil our expectations in the event of hostilities. I cannot find an explanation for those huge expenses made in this direction and will continue to be made in future,” Gamkrelidze stated.  

MP Davit Gamkrelidze also spoke against the persistence of, as he put it, of “privileged and unprivileged military units” in the army. Particularly, he stressed that “the Georgian border guards have to serve in unbearable conditions.”

The opposition party leader also noted that the Patrol Police, a newly set up law enforcement agency which replaced the corrupt soviet-time road police and was listed by Saakashvili in his speech as a successful initiative by the government, is experiencing problems. According to Gamkrelidze, the salaries of patrol policemen have been halved. “Is it so difficult to take care of at least one successful project?” Gamkrelidze asked.

But the parliamentarians from the ruling National Movement party, particularly MP Giga Bokeria, described Gamkrelidze’s statement as “a lie.”

MP Davit Gamkrelidze also slammed the government’s economic policy.

“We face economic stagnation and I assume full responsibility for these words. Kakha Bendukidze [State Minister for Economic Reforms] connected the entire economic policy only to the privatization process, instead of establishing free entrepreneurship and market conditions,” Gamkrelidze said. He also criticized the authorities for conducting a non-transparent privatization process.

In a response to these accusations, State Minister Kakha Bendukidze told reporters later on February 10 that Gamkrelidze’s statements were “disgraceful.”
 
The opposition leader also pointed to the problem of unemployment. “We supported your decision to optimize the state structures, but we cannot support you when you fire hundreds of people [from the governmental structures] without any social guarantees and without any compensation… especially against the background of increasing prices,” MP Davit Gamkrelidze said, while referring to the President.
 
He also questioned President Saakashvili’s statement regarding the reduction of smuggling. “Contraband has not been curbed. Profit shares from the smuggling have simply been redistributed among new clans,” stated Gamkrelidze, who has numerously accused Governor of Shida Kartli region Mikheil Kareli of profiting from the smuggling trady in the South Ossetian conflict zone.

MP Davit Gamkrelidze’s criticism was also triggered by the continuing violations of human rights in the law enforcement agencies and the judiciary system’s dependence on the executive government. He said that “the Court has turned into the Prosecutor’s Office.”

He also expressed concern regarding President Saakashvili’s statement regarding political parties. Saakashvili said, while addressing parliamentarians, that all political parties operating in Georgia, including opposition ones, “should share the same position” regarding issues related to the country’s national interests. “Otherwise, the party should automatically be outlawed,” he added.
 
“There are particular principles — like Georgia’s European integration, as well as Georgia’s position regarding non-deployment of foreign military bases on its territory — over which the political parties should agree,” Saakashvili added.

Gamkrelidze said in a response that the New Rights-Industrialists opposition coalition “has never hidden the orientation of its support for the West, NATO and the United States. Should our political activities be restricted only because we supported a deployment of their military bases in Georgia?” MP Davit Gamkrelidze stated.