It’ll all end in tears… Why Georgia’s Radicals Need to See Other People

You know those unhealthy relationships you sometimes see people in, those ultimately self destructive, mutually damaging partnerships that you just know are going to end badly? Well that’s exactly the relationship that the Georgian government and radical opposition have with one another. It’s like Sid and Nancy reborn in expensive yet ill fitting suits.

Is this the future of Georgian politics?

As the country lurches towards it’s forgone conclusion of a local election on May 30 (the government will walk it), the pathological symbiosis of radicals in both pro- and anti-government camps becomes more and more apparent. It’s easy to see why many in the government are secretly in love with Georgia’s more knuckle-dragging opposition forces: the more idiotic, marginalised and downright bizarre the opposition, the more sensible, businesslike and rational seem the government (in spite of the fact that the government is not itself immune from indulging in completely ludicrous and ill judged schemes).

Furthermore, those in the government who are of a more authoritarian bent–those who don’t really like the idea of a fully free media or a court system that will judge everyone equally–rely heavily on part of the opposition for them to justify their arguments. Whenever some minnow of an opposition party it is says a revolution is necessary and inevitable, Georgia’s grey cardinals crack open the bubbly, safe in the knowledge that their monopolisation of power has been justified in the interests of national security. So when former prime minister turned opposition leader Zurab Noghaideli began travelling to Moscow to shake hands with Putin and talk about improving relations, there must have been a carnival in Georgia’s State Chancellery. His visit to the Kremlin provided the authorities with the straw man they need: now, the opposition are not just dangerous lunatics–they are in league with Moscow! From Noghaideli to the government, sealed with a kiss, from Russia with love.

Yet the truly disturbing thing about all this is the quid pro quo. Noghaideli is not–like many of his colleagues in the opposition–an imbecile, nor is he a political neophyte. When he launched his opposition party in 2008, he could boast an approval rating of less than one percent, and with an opposition spectrum full to bursting, he had very few opportunities to increase it. But by sipping from Putin’s samovar he has skyrocketed to being a major player once again. Each time he says it is time to mend fences with Russia, he is the top story on Georgia’s pro-government national TV channels. Yes, they pour opprobrium on him, and label him a collaborator, but it dramatically increases his prominence, and means that his message is far liklier to get through to the ten percent of the Georgian popultion who–in spite of everything–remain sympathetic to Russia. The governemnt have their bogeyman to scare the voters with, Noghaideli gets his face on the news.

Of course, it’s not just Noghaideli who takes part in this game with the government, the same is true of most of what is called the ‘radical opposition’. For these politicians, having the government take a swipe at them is a badge of honour–a validation, without it, there is precious little to separate them from the smelly man in the metro who mutters about the end of the world. Tilting at the government’s windmill is the only thing that keeps many of these quixotic ‘politicians’ going.

There is one more aspect of this unholy alliance that is deeply troubling. With the authoritarians in the governemnt and the radicals in the opposition both making political hay out of portraying everything as a a black/white, good/evil dychotomy, the reasonable people in the middle (and the vast majority of Georgians too) are left out in the cold. Liberals in the ruling party pose a constant and incipient danger to those who want to cling on to every ounce of power they have secured, while moderate and reasonable opposition forces might threaten to completely wipe the radicals off the electoral map.  In this situation, sensible, rational and beneficial debate is being suffocated by rowdy and infantile shouting.

Irakli Alasania–once the great white hope of the opposition–is a case in point. He is running for Mayor of Tbilisi, a job widely seen as the springboard for the presidency. However, he cannot hope to win unless most other opposition parties endorse him as their candidate too. According to most polls, Alasania is the only person who could really challenge Tbilisi’s hardline pro-government Mayor Gigi Ugulava, but rather than risk being consigned to the dustbin (or perhaps the loony-bin) of Georgia’s political history, the assembled small fry of the opposition–each commanding their own one to two percent–have decided to split the vote instead.  By handing the victory on a plate to staunch hardliner and possible president-in-waiting Ugulava, both sets of radials win.

But as we learned from Kurt and Courtney, Ike and Tina, and Amy Winehouse and whats-his-name, such mutually abusive couplings inevitably end in disaster–it’s high time that the authoritarians in the government and the radicals in the opposition spent some time apart.