Dear Fellow citizens, I want to share with you my reflections regarding my presence or not at the inauguration of the new president. I always imagined that I would attend the inaugural ceremony of any new president of Georgia, regardless of the political group he could have come from, regardless of our differences of visions for the country and the obvious contradictions between our values. I thought that Sandra and I would welcome the new president at the entrance hall of the president’s palace like it usually happens in the United States, for example; or in many other democracies. We would guide them inside and hand over the building and the institution of the Presidency. Such a calm handover would be the symbol of the continuity of the state, confirming the spectacular progress of our democracy and, once more, the fact that we are all children of Georgia, at peace with each other. Then, after the ceremony, I would have left the building and would have gone to rest with my family or have a diner with my friends and political allies. It would have been remarkably normal, and it was my dream to end up 10 years of Presidency in this way. Unfortunately, the reality of the transition of power has made this dream impossible to realize. Since last year’s October elections, when my government transferred the power to the new government peacefully, going beyond our constitutional duty by giving to the new majority also security ministries that depended on the President according to the current constitution, when we gave an on-job training to the incoming ministers and handed over several billions of budget surplus, worrying developments have made this dream of normality impossible to realize. We knew one year ago how tense our relations would be with the new government. We did not expected gratitude or magnanimity from the winners of 2012 elections, we were aware that many important projects would be stopped, many reforms reversed and that their policies would be in general very different from ours. But people had spoken and we will always respect the will of the Georgian people, our collective and supreme master. No, our hopes were very limited: we were just hoping that they would respect the constitution, accept the existence of a strong opposition loyal to the institutions, refrain from using judiciary to destroy it and concentrate their energy on the future of our nation instead of focusing constantly on the past.As you know, the absolute contrary has happened. Thousands and thousands of UNM activists have been questioned, more than 100 hundreds of our former officials or active party leaders have been charged, such important figures as Batcho Akhalaya and Vano Merabishvili are in jail, victims of an irrational political witch-hunt that has turned a fantastic opportunity for our democracy – the transfer of power through elections – into a times of uncertainty for our institutions. The very idea of local self-government has been wiped out by the forceful change of local elected authorities under the direct supervision of the new central government. This process, involving judiciary and crowd violence, has illegally reversed the results of the 2010 local elections that had been recognized as free and fair by all international organizations, de facto canceling the institutional difference between central government and local self-government.MPs from the opposition can be physically assaulted and beaten up without reaction. As President, I have many times been attacked by groups instrumentalized by the authorities and cooperating with the police. Nobody has been seriously punished for any attack against elected officials, putting at risk the very idea of the protection of institutions. For these reasons, my attendance at the inauguration is not possible. I cannot see myself playing the game of normality and institutional continuity when the Secretary General of the main opposition party, my former Prime Minister, is in pre-trial detention and therefore cannot be present on my side. President’s inauguration should be the expression of the continuity of the State and a day of unity of the nation around existing institutions. Unfortunately, the government of Georgia has shown many times in the past months and weeks that it rejects the very idea of continuity and that it does not care about the existing institutions. Symbolically, they have removed military parade from the events of the Independence Day, used all possible means to change the constitution and remove the parliament from Kutaisi, and lastly announced that they are going to close the president’s palace as a state office, when very many important state traditions are connected to this building, documents of greatest significance were signed in this building and this is the building visited by more leaders of the states, than through the previous history of Georgia. For the first time in the history of Georgia, we built a palace of the head of the state ,I am repeating, palace and not somebody’s residence as a symbol that we are not an annex or vassals of somebody else, but a perfect state known and respected in whole world. Unfortunately, respect to this symbol is not significant to the new government. I write that with so much regret, because I would have attended the inauguration despite the fact that the government cancelled all the important projects, that I have launched at the end of my Presidency, including the most politically neutral ones. Four year-long difficult negotiations with the US government, which was concluded successfully in Batumi by opening a new American technological institute, which should have been a new future for our educational system was destroyed by our prime minister in a minute. Tbilisi by-pass railway, with hundreds of millions spent in fact on its accomplishment and which would give a new life to our capital, was terminated one day. Also, another great project which was in fact completely terminated is my main pride – Georgian military industry, the establishment of which was the main technological breakthrough for Georgia, just like it happened with the suspension of military fortifications around the capital. These are very regrettable moves that will cost a lot to our country, as well as the new President refusal to use the term of occupation or condemn the Russian aggression of our country, but the government has the constitutional right to reject these projects. What it cannot do constitutionally – and what should not be covered up by a pseudo-normality around the inauguration day - is to use judiciary for political purposes, expose the opposition activists and representatives to unpunished political violence or reverse the results of previous elections. I have always loved and will always love the Georgian people very much, and I am exceedingly grateful to them for giving me an opportunity to serve them for more than nine years as President. I love the Georgian people and naturally I respect their choice. I wish all the best to all my fellow citizens and their elected representatives. I strongly believe that all difficulties are temporary. Just like the river demolishes and ruins everything around during a flood, but then returns to its bed, and just like nothing can force it to flow backwards, so Georgia cannot be forced to return to the past and will soon come back to the model of progress shaped during the past years. These years have established a tradition of building rather than destroying, which will never be forgotten. The main point of hope in all this is our youth, this youth that some have qualified “Misha’s generation”, which will never accept any attempt of turning our homeland into slavery or even into a classical post-soviet nation anymore. I know that the government is worried about each step and each statement I make. I want to tell them too that I wish them success in reversing the economic crisis, in resisting the pressure from Russia and continuing the Euro-Atlantic integration we have so much worked for. It’s our common interest to minimize the damages and escape the worst. I have no intention to hinder them in any form. I wrapped up my consultations with the EU and European Parliament leaders prior to the Vilnius Summit, I am discussing several proposals from leading foreign universities regarding the establishment of a new international scientific center tied with my name. From now on, I am going to be engaged in this and refrain from participating in Georgian daily political life. Nevertheless, I will be always ready to stand by my people at any moment they need me and to serve my beloved nation – Georgia. Mikheil Saakashvili
Posted on: Fri, 15 Nov 2013 21:48:58 +0000
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