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Representative Public Assembly remains optimistic

By Gvantsa Gabekhadze
Friday, December 10
The Representative Public Assembly did not die on November 25, on the contrary it was born, members of the assembly stated at its first meeting on December 8, after the manifestation on Rustaveli Avenue on November 25. Several institutes were created during the meeting and it has been announced that on December 21, committees of disobedience will be formed in all districts of Tbilisi.

“The speaker of the Representative Public Assembly Advisory hall will be Gogi Kavtaradze, the institutes of public defender and Public Patrol have also been created. The public defender institute will be chaired by the leader of the solidarity movement for political prisoners, Eka Beselia and Gia Burjanadze of the Public Patrol. The main goal of the formation of the institutes is specification of the Assembly’s action plan, and the final goal is to change the current authorities, “Leader of the Democratic Movement-United Georgia and the Assembly representative, Nino Burjanadze said and added that, “the authorities should be left without the main levers. Those levers are: black money, partial media and terror in society. The disobedience committees should leave the authorities without the levers.”

The meeting was not attended by the opposition movement National Council and media sources speculated that the Council left the representative Public Assembly. However this rumour has been categorically denied by the Council leaders, “ I could not manage to participate in the meeting as on that day another meeting of the group working on election environment improvement was held. The other members also could not participate due to a very simple reason, as I am a special representative of the Council in the Assembly’s initiative group, “one of the leaders of the National Council, Kakha Kukava, said.

Certain opposition factions including our Georgia-Free Democrats, the Republican Party and New Rights do not share the Assembly’s aspirations, as they consider that the main oppositional issue at the present moment is working on changing the election environment in the country.

The Georgian authorities do not take the idea of the Representative public Assembly seriously, “To put it simply, those decisions and statements made by the representative public assembly are ridiculous, “Majority MP, Akaki Minashvili, has stated.

According to analyst Ramaz Sakvarelidze, ”The Representative Public Assembly might hold strikes and street rallies, however, who will go on strike, when, in fact the majority of society is unemployed? Large scale street rallies might start if the authorities impose some restrictions on them. In this regard the authorities’ actions have been really surprising. The increase in the price of water and decisions like this, when you practically leave the people without living means, it is very natural then that they will come out into the streets, “Sakvarelidze told The Messenger.

As Analyst Irakli Sesiashvili told The Messenger, “It has already been several years that the Georgian people have been protesting against the actions of the present authorities. At the present moment there is disappointment among the Georgian people towards some political movements. The reason for such feelings in the people is due to several reasons, one is that the present authorities are carrying out a policy of repression in the country and people are afraid to protest loudly. The second side is that the oppositional leaders could not direct the people’s protest correctly. As for the representatives of Public Assembly, it has a good cause on one hand, that terror in society imposed by the authorities is to be annihilated. On the other hand, oppositional political forces should be consolidated on a positive strategy. “