I could not believe my years and eyes, sitting in front of my TV and watching one of the local political shows on Channel Two, during which my favorite political observer, analyst and commentator Ramaz Sakvarelidze — a certified psychologist into the bargain — unabashedly and pronouncedly stated that the Georgian government has long been suffering from an utter absence of intellect. Wow! I have never heard before such a precise description of our governing style. The author of this daring but fairly balanced description has definitely hit the bull’s eye! The description deserves our attention because it sounds true and was presented to our public with a huge pain in the heart – I noticed that pain in his manner of speaking and the doleful expression in his eyes.
It seems to me that the man is clearly concerned about the rightness, accuracy and practicality of the series of decisions of Georgia’s governments in the last quarter of a century. I have a reason to believe that Ramaz is right, and I can express my belief via several rhetoric questions which might have commonplace and trivial sounding, although they burn my tongue when uttered: Why has Georgia made so many bad and unforgivable mistakes, starting from the days when the Soviet Union had started shaking from crucial political earthquakes of the eighties and nineties of the last century in the former USSR? Why our governments found themselves incapable of reacting adequately to the realities of those times? Why were they blinded to predict the nearest future? Every incoming and outgoing government of this country — and there was quite a number of them — was loaded with their own bungles which the next one was ‘correcting’ using their own blunders and faults. Wouldn’t all this mean that our governments have suffered a bad case of intellectual frailty? Would this not mean that we should finally put our lives in the hands of politically sharpened professionals who will base their recommendations on the efforts of political experts and scientific intellectuals, capable of making optimal decisions at every vital historical moment in the nation’s life, when the fates of our wonderful people are at stake and need care of those chosen experts and politicians? Intellectual governing may not be an accidental process. Intellectual governing would probably include: education, qualification, experience, character, sense of leadership, honesty, patriotism, fearlessness, maturity, patience, optimal-decision-making skill, stable mental health, nice nature, understanding the plight of others, ability to listen and a chance to be listened to. Governing intellect will not accompany us from the womb of our mothers – it has to be trained and honed step by step. Governing intellect needs time to be translated into deeds, not just words. ‘Words’ is easy to master – you can do it at an early age of political growth. ‘Deeds’ is more difficult to perform. It will need time to be matured for. And the governing intellect will put our mouth and deeds together. In my extremely modest understanding, the governing intellect has to be nursed right from the youth, not when it is too late to muster it. Absence of intellect in governing might someday translate into a serious national fiasco, and collapse will follow as a result. We can no longer afford governing without intellect. It must be a given in our everyday life. I felt an iron nerve and heard a benevolent indignation in the words of our famous political expert Ramaz Sakvarelidze the other day. He probably has already forgotten what he had said in one of his frequent TV appearances, but he said what we need to remember for good and have enough courage to accept it for future consideration.