Burjanadze’s ambitious comeback at Steady State

Burjanadze’s ambitious comeback

July 15th, 2008 by jibs

Nino Burjanadze, the former Saakashvili’s frontline guru and the parliament speaker is back into the Georgian politics after a brief retirement motivated by a power sharing bust up with the ex-boss Saakashvili.

Burjanadze established a foundation that in theory aims to help the Georgian democracy develop, thrive, prosper, propel and vive. In short, she seeks to re-establish her presence and articulate her motivations in a way that would be more meaningful than being some else’s spokesperson or a secretary.

A bit harsh, but let’s face it: although once a leader of the Rose Revolution 4 years ago, Nino Burjanadze has repeatedly failed to gain ground within the authorities’ power echelons.

Although a soft spoken intellectual and an able debater, Burjanadze has failed overall to make a personal impact. Take this for example: [let’s pretend the parliamentary elections in Georgia were carried out without major violations]: Burjanadze left the ruling party just before the parliamentary elections and still her former party gained more than 80% as a result!

Once the “iron lady”, Burjanadze seeks to use her “foundation” to squeeze into big politics in the future. She even went as far as saying that “Georgians cannot be happy with the level of democracy in Georgia”, almost forgetting that she herself was the co-creator of the same democracy she criticizes now.

But, to be fair, changes in politics come from the most unexpected places: take the former defense minister Irakli Okruashvili — an avid National Movement member in the past and now turned critic of his former boss Saakashvili — is an example of how things can turn upside-down.

Most probably, Georgia’s western friends need to see a viable political opposition there. The entire political standoff over the last few months has shown many shortcomings in the once “beacon of democracy” — and more importantly, it has made it obvious that there is lack of a viable alternative to Saakashvili’s government. [For why, refer to the oppositions’ chronicles of screw ups and extraordinary anti-team work throughout the months’ long crisis].

So, this is the niche the “wanna-be iron lady” wishes to occupy. Best of luck to her. Although, before she even unveiled her gradual roadmap towards re-grabbing some power bits and pieces, a curious event was reported in the press: for her service to “the Georgian people”, Saakashvili personally signed an order to award Nino with property valued at several million $$$.

The future wanna-be opposition leader gladly accepted the gift, pretending there was absolutely nothing wrong with taking a practical bribe and a future prospect for controversy (if needed, of course). [kviris palitra, July 11].

So, yeah, best of luck to her… Maybe Burjanadze’s foundation can contribute to development of democracy in Georgia more effectively than she did during her tenure as the second person in the government.