Saakashvili commends school leavers on 'patriotic step'

On Monday evening President Mikheil Saakashvili met with the top hundred school graduates who excelled at their school-leaving examinations. Encouraging the youth to take responsibility for their country, the President disapproved those who scold the Government and opposition and neglect their duties towards their country at the same time. Emphasizing that neither his residence nor the parades belong to him, the President explained to the graduates that everything that has been created in the country encourages the Georgian society to overcome any existing problem.

Talking of the great cultural heritage of ancient Georgia, Saakashvili explained that the internal wars among the small kingdoms have been the main stumbling block for Georgia’s growth into a strong country like France or Italy and compared the recent situation with the middle age revolutions. “There’s nothing new in coming to Tbilisi under someone’s order in an attempt to withdraw the Government for some money and then rush to the enemies asking for a shelter through Tskhinvali,” he stated.

Welcoming the new generation which would change “the rules of the game” the President made parallels between the latest developments at Rustaveli Avenue and the past centuries and highlighted that the “group of betrayers” sharing the same “programme” failed in “betraying the country individually without the European language of diplomacy.” “If 5% of people in Georgia would have really trusted in the newspaper articles and TV reports, the current Government would have been withdrawn a long time ago,” the President said explaining that all such reports are false.

Emphasizing that particular states plan to use the Georgian system of examination for their graduates, Saakashvili stressed that Russia had copied everything from Georgia but published the exam papers with the correct answers through the internet before the examination date. “That’s the exact difference between corrupt and non-corrupt states,” he said before mentioning a failed attempt of bribing a high ranking official of the Ministry of Education and Science of Georgia. “How can you not realise that no bribes are effective with this Government! But it was exactly in this country when people used to make money on other’s ignorance,” he stated.

The President highlighted that people who used to be accepted at the universities through illegal methods damaged particular fields in Georgia in 1970s while the “best Georgians” [including himself] used to run away from the country as they didn’t have an opportunity to get the university education. “People with an old fashioned bureaucratic mentality are fighting against the creation of “new Georgia” even nowadays but it doesn’t at all depend on generations but rather mentality, because my most devoted supporters are 60-80 year-old people,” Saakashvili explained.

The President positively evaluated the test results and noted that he is satisfied with the results that the vast majority of students showed. Most of the 50 000 school-leavers from 1520 state and public schools will receive golden and silver medals for their success. Congratulating the graduates on their success, Saakashvili awarded each of them with personal computers. “These are not only my words but the computers have also proved your intelligence with your highest scores at the school-leaving exams which used to be previously opposed by street rallies in the centre of Tbilisi,” Saakashvili said referring to the pupils demanding the abolition of the newly introduced school-leavers’ exams in November, 2010.

Talking of the importance of the eight subjects on which the pupils have taken exams the President praised the graduates for their “first great patriotic step”. “Each epoch has its particular demands for the relevant generations. You were born in the independent Georgia and there is nothing more patriotic you can do for your country than get the proper education and prove how gifted people live in our country,” Saakashvili said encouraging the youth to merit in development of their country through education and self-development. “Good knowledge is a very beneficial tool and those who study well will have a better life,” the President concluded.

Stressing that responsibility cannot be equal for everyone, the political analyst Ramaz Sakvarelidze agreed with the idea that all the citizens should be responsible towards their country. “The recent rallies have been launched exactly for this reason but if we only call them “a simple dispute” it would mean that we have no democracy,” Sakvarelidze told The Messenger stressing that the democratization process includes protest rallies as a legal form of expression.

“But each time there had been such rallies in Georgia their followers were accused of being either Russian spies or the cause of a new Georgian dispute,” the analyst said worrying that the Georgian President refuses to see the Government’s faults. “But the fact that Saakashvili is constantly returning to May 26th events indicates his great worries for what he has done,” Sakvarelidze stated.