Was Georgia’s ‘Rose Revolution’ as Rosily Democratic as It Seemed?

TBILISI, Georgia – The short drive from the airport to the center of Tbilisi offers the first glimpse of how much has changed in Georgia since the Rose Revolution.Not long ago, this road was a minefield of deep potholes lined with unsightly gray apartment blocks. Today, the highway is smooth and clean, and the facades of the buildings have been painted in fresh pastel blues, pinks, and oranges – part of a civic polishing program that has touched many parts of the capital.This is where President Bush’s motorcade passed during his overnight stopover in Tbilisi in May, and if the president had seen the route only a few months before his visit, he would have been stunned by the transformation.About three months after Mr. Bush told a boisterous crowd of 150,000 on Tbilisi’s Freedom Square that other nations “have been inspired by your example and they take hope in your success,” posters inviting Georgians to “Come Meet President Bush” are still plastered along the city’s main drag, Rustaveli Avenue.“His visit was morally very important for Georgia,” a spokesman for President Saakashvili, Gela Charkviani, said. “It showed that Georgia is important for the United States, and it gave the people of Georgia a sense of significance.”Mr. Bush’s visit, the first by an American president to this mountainous country of 4 million, cemented Georgia’s place as the model for democratic reform in the former Soviet Union. The massive street protests that peacefully overthrew the former president, Eduard Shevardnadze, 20 months ago in Georgia inspired similar uprisings in Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan and encouraged democratic movements from Belarus to Azerbaijan.From the moment he was elected president with a stunning 96% of the vote, Mr. Saakashvili, a 37-year-old New York-educated lawyer, has been under intense pressure to deliver on promises of reform. He has moved quickly, attacking corruption, quadrupling the state budget and doubling pensions, modernizing the police and the military, accelerating the sale of state assets, and bringing one of Georgia’s three rebellious regions, Ajaria, under state control. His most popular reform has been the disbanding of Georgia’s notoriously corrupt traffic police, once the most hated institutions in the country. With higher pay and better training, today Georgia’s traffic police force is the most trusted institution in the country.Tough issues remain. The statuses of Georgia’s two other separatist enclaves – Abkhazia and South Ossetia – are unresolved and could still spark renewed civil war. And while economic growth is expected to reach nearly 8% this year, Georgia remains mired in deep poverty.“It hasn’t been easy. There are so many things to do,” Mr. Charkviani said. “But this government has acted courageously and accomplished many things.”But Mr. Saakashvili is not without his critics. Opponents, including some who worked with him during the revolution, are warning that the president is not the democrat he pretends to be. And the weeks since Mr. Bush’s visit have seen a number of incidents that opposition leaders say should worry Mr. Saakashvili’s supporters in the West.“Many of us who were in favor of the revolution, who stood on Rustaveli and demanded change, are extremely disappointed,” the leader of the Republican Party, David Usupashvili, said. The party has six seats in Georgia’s 225-member parliament and split from Mr. Saakashvili’s National Movement in June 2004. “We believed we were fighting for more democracy, more freedom, more human rights, and the rule of law. But what we are seeing instead is that the situation is not only not improving, in some cases it’s getting worse.”Early in his term, Mr. Saakashvili introduced constitutional changes that concentrated more power in the hands of the president, including the ability to dissolve parliament. He also introduced new election rules making it more difficult for smaller parties to win seats in city councils and local governments.The government has defended the moves to strengthen authority as necessary.“Democracy has to be strong, because if democracy is weak, it will not survive,” Mr. Charkviani said. “There is a limit, a line you cannot cross, and this government will never do it because these people are not only committed to democracy, they are obsessed with it.”But critics said the authorities and their supporters recently crossed that line by showing a willingness to use force against opponents.On June 30, street protests broke out in Tbilisi over the jailing of two prominent Georgian wrestlers on blackmailing charges. After trashing the courtroom where the decision was made, several dozen of the wrestlers’ supporters took to the streets, where opposition members joined them. Authorities sent riot police and soldiers armed with automatic rifles to disperse the protesters, and violent scuffles broke out. Opposition members reported seeing police beat protesters with truncheons.Less than a week later, a political talk show on the Mze, or Sun, network that aired critical coverage of the protests was shut down after coming under fire from prominent supporters of Mr. Saakashvili. Opposition members say there is growing fear and self-censorship among journalists worried about angering the administration.“MPs are living in fear of having parliament dissolved if they displease the president. Journalists are worried about losing their jobs. This is becoming a country like Saudi Arabia,” the head of the youth wing of the New Right Party, the largest opposition grouping in parliament with 17 seats, Giorgi Mosidze, said.On July 14, a Republican Party member of parliament, Valeri Gelashvili, was stopped in his silver SUV by armed assailants and beaten in Tbilisi. Mr. Gelashvili, who suffered a broken jaw and severe damage to his face, has been a vocal critic of Mr. Saakashvili since leaving pro-government forces to join the Republicans two months ago. It was the second serious beating of an opposition MP this year.Authorities have promised to investigate the attack and say allegations of government involvement are absurd, but the opposition remains convinced the assault was politically motivated.Opposition parties recently announced they would be joining forces in regional elections and parliamentary by-elections this fall in an effort to draw support away from Mr. Saakashvili. But with polls showing less than 10% support for any single opposition group, they have little hope of gaining ground.And despite the recent incidents, support for Mr. Saakashvili remains strong on the streets of Tbilisi. In interviews along Rustaveli Avenue, many Georgians said they can already see improvements in their lives.“The president’s reforms have been very positive. Everyone around me can feel the new wave of this revolution,” a 32-year-old playwright, Otar Pertakhia, said. “There is still much to be done, but we trust our new leaders and we have to give them time.”

Was Georgia’s ‘Rose Revolution’ as Rosily Democratic as It Seemed?

Was Georgia’s ‘Rose Revolution’ as Rosily Democratic as It Seemed?

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