How Chisinau residents will remember the Chisinau Municipal Council of 2003-2007. Analysis by Info-Prim Neo, Part III
https://www.ipn.md/index.php/en/how-chisinau-residents-will-remember-the-chisinau-municipal-council-of-7965_964569.html
The first two parts of Info-Prim Neo’s analysis on the performance of the Chisinau Municipal Council during its last term were published by the agency on April 30 (CMC of 2003-2007 as Instrument for Settling Old Scores) and, respectively, on May 2 (A CMC that Cannot Economically Organize the City and Improve the Life of Ordinary People). They referred especially to the role of the parliamentary groups representing the political organizations that took power at local level and administer the capital – the Party of Communists of Moldova (PCRM) and the Christian Democrat People’s Party (PPCD). They are the ones to be commended or criticized for the things that happened over the past four years to a great extent. The Third Part concerns the performance of the Opposition forces in the CMC during the same period.
As in sports, the winner (government) in politics plays the game but its possibilities are limited by the rival (opposition). The classical variant of the formula applies only to the cases in which the ‘referee’ is honest-minded. The referee’s behavior does not form the central part of the present analysis, but the Opposition forces in the CMC had to be more alert to the game of the rival team and to the referee’s actions, especially when the referee was biased, playing also the part of an active forward of the host-team, equipped much better than any other player on the field.
In our opinion, the respective forces did not carry out their tasks because they were...
[An anemic, disorganized and disoriented political Opposition]
The adjective “anemic” does not come from the AMN because otherwise the abbreviation of the Our Moldova Alliance Party, which is represented in the CMC, would be ANM. This is wordplay, but it has relevance to many things that happened during the past four years.
The AMN group entered the CMC the second in terms of size, having a human, maybe also financial and administrative potential that was distinctly superior to the one of the political adversaries from the PCRM that had several votes more. But the AMN group did not know how to make use of its privileged position. It was not able to mobilize its members, who did not attend even meetings on important issues. It did not know how to impose itself as an attractive center for other political organizations and unaffiliated councilors with whom it could form a safe majority. It did not intuit the danger that was coming from the organized voting machine of the PCRM and did not predict the danger of a coalition of “the big machine” of the PCRM with “the smaller machine” of the PPCD, which is equally rigid. All this in the conditions in which, at a certain stage, the PPCD obtained, first of all from the AMN, posts that it did not deserve if taking into account the share of the party in the CMC: one post of deputy mayor out of the four existing and one post of district representative out of the five existing.
The Democratic Chisinau Block, which was initially emerging from all the non-communist components of the CMC, was disbanded both by the separatist actions of the PPCD and by the non-professionalism with which the AMN group treated the process. Moreover, the AMN councilors treated unreasonably and arrogantly their opponents from the PCRM, many of whom initially were coming to the meetings frightened and not understanding where they were and what was discussed, dressed in secondhand clothes. When some of these started to attend the meetings in white clothes, it was already too late.
The more elevated councilors of the AMN, but also the non-Communist councilors were perfect teachers for the PCRM councilors with less knowledge in political hypocrisy. These persons were the initiators and promoters of the normal non-financing of the municipal mass media under different “scientific” pretext. By such actions they were imposing their ambitions of controllers of the press guild. They had kept the municipal press in economic check for years. The future killers of the municipal press, the only one with pluralistic message in the space that is not controlled by the Communist government, understood quickly and very well the lesson. The respectable “democrat” councilors offered a finger to the government coalition but this devoured their hands and themselves in the end; them in political sense and the press in direct sense.
Then came the “woodman” and drove away the armies that were playing a political war in “the forest of the CMC”, or, in our case, the referee of the political game. The members of the AMN group scattered as partridges, as if they were expecting this to happen. Maybe this is how they understood the rules of the politics and business, maybe they let themselves blackmailed, maybe this is a normal reaction of some normal people when they are pressed by the forces of order and control, or maybe because some of them knew what the detention is like.
It seems that only the AMN group did not have a predetermined aim in the CMC and the wish to accomplish it; it did not have a coordination center and decision makers outside. This is an impression, though the national leader AMN was in close proximity but kept under a permanent and profound stress. In such a situation, the AMN group had two possible options: to mobilize and put up resistance or to dissolve itself. The majority has chosen the second way.
In conclusion, AMN, the nucleus of the Opposition in the CMC, could not learn the lesson taught by the political opponents, whose force mainly resides in the unity of the ranks.
The lack of capacity and political intuition can be imputed not only to the AMN group, but to all the forces in the CMC, which declare themselves openly as being in opposition to the government coalition or do not what to be identified with it.
During the initial period, the representatives of the Social Democratic Party – Social Liberal Party Block and of the movement Ravnopravie considered their positions strong with only one vote. It looked as if they wanted to sell their vote to anyone that wanted to buy it, but at the highest price possible. Those several councilors that left the groups, inclusively the PCRM group, could not found a stable position, some of them leaning towards the democratic segment, while the others were inclined to go back to the Communists. Meanwhile, several unaffiliated councilors constituted a so-called Social-Democratic group, but this group could not achieve its aims by the end of the term-in-office, giving also the impression that it is a creation of the government coalition, if judging by the vote expressed in matters of principle. Towards the end of the term, all the other forces lost their identity and importance as each voting on the matters was predictable and favorable to the PCRM – PPCD group.
Nevertheless, there is an exception as regards the identity. We refer to the group of the Social Action Block (BAS), which was recently formed from councilors that left their groups or were excluded from them. BAS is now the second in the CMC in terms of the number of votes, has a good intellectual potential, an active and combative democratic message. It knows to cooperate with other forces of the same group stamp, first of all with the elements from the AMN that are still active. The bad side of the things is that being unable to influence the voting, volens-nolens BAS and the remains from the AMN, by participation in discussions, exchange of retorts, also plays the role of democratic and legal environment for the actions of the government officials, when these have a non-democratic and illegal character. We do not think that they can be forced to give up their active position or membership, as a member of the Observers Council of Teleradio-Moldova Company did recently in similar conditions. Maybe the arsenal of political procedures used should be diversified.
[Every evil has its good side or always the same mistake]
It could happen that the overthrowing of the Democrats from the helm of the CMC and of the capital in general would be of good use to them, while the serious stress and humiliations to which they were subjected could mobilize them to professional actions from political viewpoint and to the consolidation of the ranks. At least at the end of the term, in the CMC there emerged a number of leaders from the AMN and BAS groups that know what they want, know how to convince, know technologies and almost know how and what to do to achieve their aim.
This is a safe path that was checked by PCRM, which revived exclusively through the unity of ranks and technological abilities. The behavior of its representatives suggests, as it looks, that they did not forgive and do not forget the frustrations experienced during the last decade of the last century, when they found themselves pushed out of the political life, and, respectively, out of the power and privileges offered by it. It seems that the PPCD experienced the same frustrations. With all its almost perfect technologies, the party could never count on more than 7% of the vote. The fall in the share means political death or lack of chances to come to power. Once obtaining power, both of the parties would not yield it up, especially in the capital.
Or maybe everything will further depend on the conformism degree of the democrats that self-declared themselves such in an advantageous political situation?
[The last part of Info-Prim Neo analysis on the performance of the current local public administration in Chisinau will be titled “How Chisinau residents will remember the mayor general of 2003 – 2007”]