How Chisinau residents will remember Mayor General of 2003 – 2007. Info-Prim Neo analysis, part IV

This is the last part of a series of analyses by Info-Prim Neo on the performance of the leaving administration of the capital of Moldova. The previous three parts that are available in the archives of the website www.info-prim.md (of April 30 - http://www.info-prim.md/?a=10&nD=2007/04/30&ay=7923, of May 2 - http://www.info-prim.md/?a=10&nD=2007/05/02&ay=7950 and of May 3 - http://www.info-prim.md/?a=10&nD=2007/05/03&ay=7973 ) have presented viewpoints on the political and social-economic situation in which the deliberative public authority – the Chisinau Municipal Council – has worked during its last term. Below we will try to sketch out the common and specific features of the Chisinau public executive authorities of the same period – the Mayor General of Chisinau with his apparatus called the Chisinau City Hall. It should be noted that under the legislation in operation, the City Hall is not a distinct administrative authority itself. [The Interim Mayoralty as permanent state of administration in the capital] Over the past four years since the last local elections, four persons in a row held the post of Mayor General of Chisinau. This is an unfavorable thing for any community, especially for a capital city. Though the respective persons were different and represented directly or indirectly different political organizations, different visions and models of administration, different methods of coming to power, we can speak about a feature that is characteristic of the whole period. This feature is the Interim Mayoralty, as spirit of things and way of administration. [The Interim Mayoralty No.1] The frame of Interim Mayoralty was typical of the two-years in power of the generally elected Mayor [Serafim Urecheanu]. It seems that the ‘Referee’ of the political game in Chisinau, which we referred to in one of the previous parts, and the ‘Administrator’ of the political stadium “the Republic of Moldova”, in the same person, could not forgive the Mayor for his victory over the candidate supported openly by the ‘Referee’ or ‘Administrator’ in the 2003 elections. The pressure exerted on the Mayor in the respective period had a permanent and profound character. All the possible levers were used when exerting pressure so that the Mayor had no possibility of maneuvering or carrying out strategic activities, no time for actual work and no resources to fulfill the electoral promises. During almost the entire period, the Mayor was under pressure as he was monthly or even weekly summoned to appear in court as witness or defendant. Investigators were coming to the Mayor every week or even several times a week during the last period. You never knew if they would come out alone or with the Mayor in handcuffs. A van cramped not with ordinary policemen but with representatives of special forces ready to act, sometimes with masks on their faces, could be seen in the yard of the City Hall or several tens of meters away, staying there whole days and weeks. This time also you could not know if they would seize the archives of a certain municipal service together with its head or the elected Mayor. Then the press began to use the collocation ‘black Friday’ because the arrests were made on Friday evening. The general public does not yet precisely know why the Mayor was not arrested. We do not think that the group of the Dniester combatants that voluntarily took over the function of bodyguards of the City Hall, watching over round the clock for several months, played a part in all this. Also, we do not either think that it was the input of one of the several journalists that were ready to guard the City Hall while waiting for the denouement. The investigator that dealt with the case, Grigore Gorea of the Center for Combating Corruption and Economic Crime, had his own version. He said then and later, after he served months in prison himself, that he was ordered to arrest the Mayor at any cost, but he could not find legal grounds. There were also other versions. The social-economic pressure exerted especially by the government agencies by restricting the municipal budget was daily accompanied by the media pressure. There were gathered all the video cameras, microphones and pens of the media holding that was serving the power and was affiliated to it in a move to show to the people that the situation in Chisinau was very bad, as if the situation in other settlements of the country was better. Many members of the press guild made their honorariums, but also their public career at the expense of Mayor No.1, instead of being grateful to him, as they ought to. If, of course, we can speak about honor here, inclusively because no one of the colleagues would ever “dig a pit for themselves”. The aforementioned events determined the Mayor No.1 to have a certain behavior. In matters that concerned only him, he manifested himself as a rather good player on the municipal political arena and even on the “Republican Stadium”, managing to put up resistance to the criticism leveled against him. It seems that the adjective “good manager” which was used to commend him, but also to criticize him, was not very exaggerated. He knew well the situation in the municipality, including in the settlements bordering the capital. He had a good sense of humor and a prompt reaction in the exchange of replies. He did not learn to read texts written beforehand. The linguistic parasites such as ‘permaMent’ damaged his image in the upper circles. We cannot pronounce on the accusations of corruption brought against him, given that these were not proven after more than two years. We can say with certainty that he gave a lot of freedom to the municipal press, which he founded. But he did almost nothing to fortify its status, including legally and economically. That is why it was annihilated. We consider that he was the kind of administrator that leaves the big problems to get size. He dealt with them only when they could not be avoided anymore. Some people say this was an inborn wisdom because many things came to solve themselves. Others say this was indecisiveness, also inborn, because sometimes it was too late to start to solve the problems. He did not renew his team for a long time. He did not even make rotations at the same level to “bring some fresh air” in the municipal administration. He tolerated even those that were damaging his reputation by singing dithyrambs to him, were betraying or intending to betray him. He did not want to believe the joke that he liked to repeat: “There are women that are faithful to their men. There are women that betray their men for several times. But there are no women that cheat on their men once only.” He could not put to good use the potential of the disinterested members of the team that was not really a Team. Some people, including former friends and close persons, describe his leaving from the City Hall as betrayal. They could be right, but this could also be an excuse for their own betrayal. Other people say his departure freed the capital and its residents as the settling of political accounts was over. All these constituted the Interim Mayoralty No. 1. [The Interim Mayoralty No.2] The next Interim Mayor can be identified with the name of [Mihai Furtuna], but only for several days or hours, time during which he was allowed to hold the post. The coalition of the Communists Party of Moldova (PCRM) and of the Christian Democrat People’s Party (PPCD) overthrew him quickly, without bringing some justifications, inclusively after the court found the Chisinau Municipal Council’s decisions on dismissal illegal. As in other cases, the ‘scientific’ justification was offered by members of his own group, AMN (Our Moldova Alliance Party), which was on the brink of dissolution. Some Chisinau residents remember the phrase about “the cat that does not catch mice”, which was assigned to the Mayor No. 2. The AMN boat was sinking and everybody was looking for ways to escape. The Mayor No. 2 was a good, hardworking professional, a good team player and a good “back” player. He knew what he wanted and expressed his ideas clearly so that all the people could understand him. He was a kindhearted man. As the song says: “There is no other kinder man in the world like him...” One of the congratulations on his anniversary ended with the question: “How can a kind man like him fit into a functionary that is as good?” But as it turned out, the good man and the politics, and, as it seems, the good man and the business cannot get on well in the current situation in Moldova. The good man, as a rule, is not a fighter, and, respectively, is not a leader. He left the impression that he was glad when he was not in the center of attention anymore, though he also ‘got’ several legal cases that have been kept in suspension for some time. “There is no other kinder man in the world like him, And for every bad word you say, He works and works all day long...” [The Interim Mayoralty No.3] [Vasile Ursu] governed the capital for a longer period of time, but he behaved like a caliph for an hour. Long before the elections, he said he has already a team that will fight for the next term in office. It seems that he was the only one that did not understand that he was to play the role of a stable cleaner or of a person that looks after horses that will be mounted by someone else. A good technician, with a rich experience accumulated in a natural way during years, while holding different positions. But it turned out that the political burden was too heavy for him. The weight of such a “load” has changed him. He lost the sense of measure and reality, if he had it, including when fulfilling orders. People say that his zeal can be explained by several legal cases opened or that can be reopened anytime. He said what he thought, what he saw and what he heard. It could happen that his discourse at the working meetings of the City Hall, which were attended by tens of functionaries, made up a half or even more of the total time. You can make an opinion about the quality of his speech by accessing the archives of Info-Prim Neo http://info-prim.md/?a=10&nD=2006/08/29&ay=3617 that offers fragments “De la Vasile Ursu cetire...” (“Readings” from Vasile Ursu) presented by the Agency on the occasion of the Mother Tongue Day in 2006. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, the words are untranslatable. He took the role of Mayor No. 3 too seriously and was appointed to another post. [The Interim Mayoralty No.4] Though the name of the Mayor No.4 [Veaceslav Iordan] was mentioned when there were rumors he would replace Vasile Ursu some time earlier, his appointment was a surprise, if not a shock. There were people with much higher posts that could be named to this office, including Prime Minister Vasile Tarlev. His coming to the City Hall, before the elections, was considered in the upper circles as an accomplished act. This script, even if it envisaged the dismissal of the Government and the appointment of a new Executive for being implemented successfully, would have seemed more natural if judging by the importance that the ruling party and the government coalition attaches to the capital, compared with what happened in reality. In comparison with other names, but also without comparison, his is little known. It seems like a vessel closed hermetically, which can be equally full or empty. He looked ridiculously prudent from the very first action he took. He reduced to the minimum the duration and status of the working meetings held on Monday, which have not been modified by any of his predecessors. He transformed them into an official and empty ceremony where the municipal functionaries were to present their reports written long ago. He himself is diligently reading the text of his speech that was written, as it looks, by someone else, without raising his eyes, without taking notes about the reports. For many times the specifications he makes or indications he gives after hearing the reports do not bear a relation to them. He is often associated with the joke about Brejnev, who was insistently calling Indira Gandhi as Margaret Thatcher or vice versa at a high-level meeting. The assistants that ventured to correct him got such an answer: “I see, but this is how it is written”. These are just the appearances, but we know that they are often deceptive. It is also known that Leonid Ilici Brejnev ruled more than almost all the Russian and Soviet tsars. For these and other reasons, the Mayor No. 4 cannot be treated with banter, with indifference or with arrogance, especially during the current election campaign that will serve as object of study for other Info-Prim Neo analysis.