http://www.kommersant.com/page.asp?id=558068
Cost of Revolutions // The price of the question At first sight the dangerous split of power in Kyrgyzstan may appear as a price the country has to pay for illegitimate actions of political powers, which did not know how to reach their goals in a legal way. This seems to be the dominating theme of most comments spoken by people, who have been especially distressed over the "illegitimate methods," used during velvet revolutions on post Soviet territory in the recent months. The same sentiment can be felt in the address of overthrown and deeply offended President Akaev, which had appeared from nobody knows where, and which compared the illegal actions of the opposition to his own actions, apparently imagined as the model of responsibility and loyalty to the letter and the spirit of the law. Askar Akaev withheld his opinion regarding the legality of actions of a president, who preferred to dissolve in the boundless expanses of the CIS, leaving his country in a critical state. The situation, when a country has two quasi presidents (one, Akaev, being a president, but not really a president already, and the other, Bakiev, not being a real president, yet kind of a president), and two parliaments, arguing with one another regarding which one of them is more "legitimate," is tragicomic. However, the responsibility for this absurd and undoubtedly unstable situation for the country should not be placed on those, who came and at one moment shattered the well-working power mechanism, which had been operated for years. Old power has always been legitimate in Kyrgyzstan as well as in Georgia and in Ukraine, although the legitimacy was purely formal. In reality, in the conditions of general falsification of elections at semi democracies of the former Soviet Union, the "legitimate power" cannot be considered as legally elected, and therefore legitimate, because it is not the result of declaration of electorate's will, but rather the product of the will of those in authority, as well as election committees, who have perfectly mastered the alchemy of elections. It is the height of hypocrisy in the name of constitution to use the mechanisms it describes in order to establish one's own reign, illegitimate in essence, unlimited by time or any other factors. Those who desire to overthrow such power by legal means, stumble against a wall and lose, because in reality they are not opposed by concrete political opponents, but by the government which stands behind their backs. And it is impossible to win against such government, without using "illegitimate" actions, like it was done at Kiev Independence Square, or Bishkek Ala-Too Square. The vacuum of power, currently experienced by Kyrgyzstan, is not a punishment for adventurism of the opposition. This is the punishment for semi democracies, which neither proved the rights and freedoms, guaranteed by democracy, nor the order, usually maintained by dictatorships at the cost of people's blood. And if the velvet is accidentally burned or stained by blood, it still won't be the fault of the new revolutionaries. by Segey Strokan, columnist Russian Article as of Mar. 28, 2005 ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Take a look at donorschoose.org, an excellent charitable web site for anyone who cares about public education! http://us.click.yahoo.com/_OLuKD/8WnJAA/cUmLAA/TySplB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: [email protected] Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods, techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
