GEO / RUS       12+

Manana Nachkebia: September will be Hard for Government

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Opposition cancelled the protest actions after 4 month and postponed the active actions for the autumn. Part of the society considers that this was an opposition's weakness. But the other part thinks that the opposition will raise a question of Sakashvili's being as a president with doubled vigor. Leader of the "New Rights" Manana Nachkebia believes that the main weakness of the opposition is ineffectiveness. She said that the opposition could do much more. She said that opposition lacks the coordination because of existing different opinions inside the opposition. But she as well said that the 4-month's effort of opposition yields some results: government tried to make some constitutional reforms and its readiness to negotiate with opposition is as well an advantage.


About such issues the news agency GHN talked with Manana Nachkhebia, leader of "New Rights".


- Mrs. Manana opposition cased the protest actions in front of the Parliament. Was the 4-month protest action successful?


Actions of the government today is presupposed with the fact that thy have seen that opposition can exploit the protest potential accumulated in people. Maybe someone will say that despite of protest actions Saakashvili still holds its position. But we can say in response that this is not anymore that Mikhail Saakashvili, who was at the protest actions, he is totally unveiled. Consequently the attempts of the constitutional reform followed, Bills which today entered the Parliament all this steps are directed to the de-escalation of the situation. They are calling to the negotiations as well.
The problem is that the government is not democratic in its nature and it cannot undertake truly democratic steps. It is always false. It believes that it takes right steps but these steps will never be right, following its nature. I think that the visit of Biden and his short resume about the country showed that USA and the West considers that Georgia is not yet developed as a democratic country. I can give some examples. The legal reform, media, elections system, the people in Georgia have not possibility to take a true, exact information; that the rose Revolution is not yet accomplished and will be accomplished when the democracy will be in the country. All this mean that the West is not considering Georgia as a democratic country. We can make a conclusion. The West is financing the country for the development of democracy. During the Biden's meeting with the non parliamentary opposition it was clear that US will not reconcile with the absence of democracy in Georgia. So we are waiting for the very serious steps from the government. I am sure that Mikhail Saakashvili will be obliged to take serious reforms.


- It is often said that opposition did not met public's demands and looses a rating. Is it so in fact?
We recently obtained a research material. According to it the opposition did not loose the rating. In any event in connection with the Alliance it is not the case. Maybe some opposition parties suffered, but not the Alliance. The government as well looses its rating. What can be considered as a victory or defeat of any side?

I am not considering that in this controversy anybody could win or loose. We cannot say that the opposition was defeated and government won, or contrary. I think that the opposition did its best. We were united all this time and this was the main for our success. I think that in a situation when the government did not resign after 150 thousand and 200 thousand people's protest rallies and even after the loosing of rating the only way which remains is a revolution. But we are not the people to make it. Unlike Mikhail Saakashvili we will not take unconstitutional steps. Because we know this will lead inevitably to the civil unrest. We are responsible before the country, but this does not mean that the opposition is defeated. Contrary this means that opposition has a very strong position.


-What was the weak side of the opposition which hindered the success?

- Lack of organizing was a weakness of opposition. We took much effort to unite. It is very difficult to unite so much different political parties, opinions and so on. This took a considerable time. In such situation a high level of order was necessary. We could attract people from regions, we could better organize the street meetings, arrange PR and so on. We could not make strong messages over the TV stations to population. The TV stations "Caucasia" and "Maestro" have balanced the unequal situation. They tried to make public the real information unlike the televisions which are ruled by government. We could not even use the possibilities of these two TV stations, because they are broadcasting only over Tbilisi. This undoubtedly was a main disadvantage of the opposition.
Biden underlined that without democratic changes not West, neither USA will cooperate with Georgia. This is clear. During the meeting with non parliamentary opposition his remarks about democracy denote that US demands a maximal effort from Georgian government. The ultimate goal of our fight is that Georgia must become a democratic country. So if Saakashvili will take steps towards democracy this will be inevitably the victory of opposition.


-What can you say about Biden's visit?


- I think this visit was very important for Georgia. Moreover, when Russia occupied our country, annexed it. Once more was declared an open support and upholding for Georgia from USA. Once again was underlined that USA supports territorial integrity of Georgia. Once again USA said that it will not recognize independence of secessionist regions. Very important was as well his declaration about energy security and about democracy. But we should not overestimate the visit; we should wait for the results. I think that in case the government will be wise enough we can use this support for our advantage. I am optimistic about US support, but I am not going to overestimate it. I am waiting when the Georgian-US Charter will be implemented in practice.