By intending to appoint a MIA official as executive secretary of the party, the Government has demonstrated that it is preparing for the coming elections – Kakhi Kakhishvili

InterPressNews sat down with the Political Technology Research Center Head, Kakhi Kakhishvili, to discuss the acute issues of Georgia’s internal and external policy.

--As it has become known, they are planning to adopt the candidature of former head of MIA General Inspection, as executive secretary of the “Georgian Dream” Coalition. We have found it a bit strange that the vast majority of the Georgian Dream party leaders have fallen short of information regarding this issue. In your opinion, can the move to appoint an MIA staff member as an executive secretary of the Coalition Georgian Dream mean that the Georgian Dream party has already set to preparing for the elections of 2016?

- Mr. Gharibashvili is not only the Prime Minister of Georgia; he is also chairperson of the Georgian Dream party. Because of certain reasons that are easy to understand, he cannot find time to reinforce the party and to move it forward. The same could be said regarding our Energy Minister, Vice-premier and General Secretary of the party, Kakha Kaladze.

Any Governmental party is in desperate need of a powerful party. As it appears, the party has made a choice in favor of a man in whom it places confidence. In the wake of this, Zviad Jankarashvili is to be appointed as an executive secretary of the Coalition. Each and every person who knows the ins and outs of the party or has ever been a member of this or that party is very well aware of the fact that its executive director is, as a rule, given the task of organizing its future activities and elaborate its future action plan. A move from the Georgian Dream Coalition to grant the post of General Secretary to Mr. Jankarashvili obviously points to the fact that the party has gotten down to preparing for the coming elections. And really they have not left much time to bring all these misunderstandings and opinion clashes within the party to an end and to prove that the Coalition is not a chaotic mix of voices… all this clearly is dragging the name and reputation of the Georgian Dream Coalition through the mud.

- Deputy Goga Khachidze has named those police officers that presumably have planted narcotics on the accused Eristavi. Willingly or unwillingly, we must link this case to those officials still left within the body and who have stooped to committing different crimes there. In your mind, what has prevented the powers that be from dismissing these law braking law enforcers from different state agencies?

- Everyone knows that personnel policy is the Achilles’ heel of the acting authorities. And this can be described as a sore point for our country. How it can be that the law breaking officials, the mercenary forces that could stoop to complying with any directive have remained on their positions thus far? I think that MIA is need of serious restructuring; this body as well as the Prosecutor’s Office must be reconfigured to the core. Moreover, in my mind, the reforms within the Court have not resulted in the creation of an independent body that is free from any kind of influence. The judges that have condescended to performing different misdeeds and rendering unjust verdicts are still comfortably nestled within the Court. And tell me how can these judges take independent steps? They fear that somebody will remind them of their misdeeds, do they not? Thus, if we want an independent court, we must replace these criminal judges with those who have immaculate reputations and who cannot be led by their noses neither by the Government nor the representatives of the opposition. We all know that within the Court there are still left some biased judges who are either under the influence of the Government or the National Movement …

Now let’s move onto another issue…as for our Prosecutors Office and police officials, regarding them I can say that the Government has repeatedly stated that they are in need of old officials as they cannot find new experienced ones. They seem to be unable to get that these people have gained all their experience thanks to following the instructions of the former criminal top officials. Even more, these people cannot even address the needs and requirements of our day-to-day Georgia. As you know, they have incarcerated different people, even innocent ones, without putting enough evidence on the table to prove their guilt. Due to different objective or subjective reasons, the requirements of our Court have changed... Hence, the allegation that they cannot find more experienced and qualified officials is absolutely preposterous particularly in today’s Georgia, where many consummate professionals simply cannot find jobs…

- The Government’s move to confiscate the ex-President’s property has stimulated wide discussions within our public. The statement from the Prosecutor’s Office regarding this issue seems incredible. They have also maintained that the Government has deprived Saakashvili of “the roof over his head” and this is shameful. However, some lawyers claim that no one has banned the President from running his financial affairs. Do you agree with this allegation?

-- In any country, where legal proceedings are instituted against the President, the public as well as international partners of these countries have the same reaction. They all pay great attention to this issue. Moreover, I am extremely thankful to our partners for having such a reaction… The more representative monitoring groups will study such issues and the more intense attention they will pay to them the better for us.

In my opinion, if our international partners got interested in the legitimacy of the special operations executed under Saakashvili’s rule, Saakashvili and his entourage might not have been in such a great hardship today.

As for our Prosecutor’s Office, they must know that when someone is charged with privatizing others property and pillaging the residents of the country, it means that their victims have sustained great losses. As you know, the Prosecutor’s Office has accused Mr. Saakashvili of depleting the state budget and plundering his own people. Thus, he has damaged his own country and people. What measures must they adopt to reimburse his victims for losses? If the Prosecutor’s Office refused to seize his property, they would prove to be unable to restore the property of his victims … as it appears, the court has shared the arguments from the Prosecutor’s Office and they simply have to make this temporary decision…

Seizing someone’s property does not at all mean that the Court has recognized the arguments from the Prosecutor’s Office as just and fair and based on them they have deprived someone of his or her property. Obviously, this is not so…If the Court finds Saakashvili innocent, he will naturally be granted the right to independently run his financial affairs and… However, if a guilty verdict is handed down, it also does not mean that his property will be instantly alienated. In a nutshell, Saakashvili’s family members can do anything they want with their property. The only thing that they are not entitled to do is to transfer its ownership to someone else.

- The situation within the law enforcement agencies has repeatedly become a topic of hot discussions in our country. As the left-wing party claims, this system is ruled by the criminal authorities and everything is in their hands there. What kind of a comment could you release in terms of this issue?

- The law enforcement agencies and the department of Corrections are really serious bodies and the people who will preside over them must really be a quintessential professionals with great experience and qualifications. The order within these bodies under the Nationals was fully built on the criminal acts against the people. They have committed unspeakable crimes to maintain this so-called order within our prisons under the ex-President.

In order to “create order” within our prison facilities, they subjected the inmates to inhumane treatment -- they intimidated, raped, blackmailed, threatened and even “accidentally” murdered them. Syndrome of fear and the iron hand of criminals ruled the department of Corrections in our country in those dark days. This department has, in fact, turned into a punitive organization where the people went through hell. Many people having passed through this are now a bit shaken up; all of them have different mental problems; all this has obviously taken a toll on their health.

In light of all this, I think that nothing now can put this system on the right path if it is not purged of the criminal authorities completely. It’s an actual fact that after 9 years, the Nationals have been molded as ultimate thugs… even under the present Government the criminal authorities have repeatedly attempted to exert control on the system. Moreover, even know they are employing all levers in their hands and are pulling all strings to assume control over this system again and to retake power. And we can also say that they have partially succeeded in realizing this goal.

Nowadays, the allegations go that there are no problems within the Department of Corrections. These allegations do not ring true though; on the contrary, this system abounds with different problems, and they need to adopt a correct posture as well as take adequate measures to handle the existing problems. Otherwise, the criminal authorities will still implement control over this system and will run the prison facilities again.

Hence, today the Government’s key objective is to maintain the levers enabling them to run the penitentiary system. The prison must be run as it is due; the rule of law must be upheld there, and the inmates’ right must be observed. However, the so-called criminal authorities and thieves-in-law are not a problem of our penitentiary system only. A number of countries around the world, including Italy, Turkey, the states of South and North America, Greece and others, need to tackle this issue. Thus, they need to elaborate an effective action plan to get rid of the drags of society and maintain order within our prison facilities.

- In your opinion, what has hampered the Government from implementing a more civilized methodology to run Georgia’s penitentiary system more effectively?

- If they really long to establish and maintain order within our prisons, they must amend the legislation to the core. In addition, they must introduce different training programs for the people working in this system, and in this way, they must boost their qualification. They must also replace the existing infrastructure in the prison facilities with more modern facilities.

And in order to realize all these objectives, they must have a certain vision, an action plan and they must introduce it to the public. Once again I repeat this problem is not posed for our country only; it’s extremely difficult to quench the criminal authorities’ enthusiasm to take up rains and rule everything in the prison facilities of this or that country…Only a trenchant policy and complex approach from the Government can draw positive changes in this system.

- Minister Tchikaidze has declared that the Nationals are preparing to arrange a coup; he has not brought any evidence to corroborate this allegation though. You have also issued similar allegations; thus, do you really think that the Nationals aim to fan the flames of revolution in our country?

--The Nationals do know perfectly well that all their attempts to start a revolution in our country will prove abortive at this point in time. That is why they are simply trying to make our public adopt a belligerent stance; they are not actually gearing up for the revolution. They are taking precisely the same steps they took in 2000-2003; they just want to spark discontent in the people and pit them against the Government.

Precisely, for this purpose they are so vigorously trying to drag the names of different state institutes through the mud; they want to discredit their officials; they are trying to bring all existing problems to the surface. From my point of view, they will attempt to create a party the members of which will not be directly linked with the Nationals; however, they will hold the same ideology. And as soon as this party grabs enough power, they will create all conditions to start a revolution in Georgia. In my opinion, the Nationals will start taking active steps in this direction only after the election years of 2016, in 2017-18.

Today the Nationals have at least two reasons for why they will not even dare to arrange a coup in Georgia: 1. first, the people will credit absolutely nothing on earth coming from them and 2. Today the Nationals lack political allies.

In addition the Georgian Dream Coalition at the helm of the country suits them as their cases remain pigeonholed and they continue enjoying impunity.

- Clashes between the Institution of the President and that of the Premier have clearly demonstrated that the Institution of President is being incrementally formed as an independent body. The parliamentary majority has repeatedly expressed dissatisfaction with the present authorities. Can against this background we assume that the different branches of the Government have been formed as independent entities in Georgia?

- According to the Constitution of Georgia, the President and the Premier can easily be the representatives of two different teams. According to the acting constitution, the President can represent an initiative group that is not linked to this or that political party. All the existing problems have been posed to us due to the fact that a new constitution has been brought into force… whether this way or that, if we want to tackle the existing issues, we must not bring everything to light. Issues like these must be discussed and resolved behind the scenes.

As for our institutions, they are really being formed today. Now we see that the President’s institute has managed to be molded as an independent body. Our leader has reiterated that he does not preside over this or that party and he will always respect the Rule of Law. And such a statement from him can obviously be defined as right and rational.

As for the critical remarks directed against the Government, in my mind, when the Parliament forms the Government, anyone who wants to take it to task, must do this at the party’s political council that is convened rather frequently. That is why, very often I prove unable to get why the leading power is taking such uncoordinated steps. I hold strongly that the disputed issues must be resolved within the party. However, if anyone thinks that his/her place is not within the team, this person must first leave the body and only after this criticize the Government as vigorously as he/she can.

Koba Bendeliani

InterPressNews