Top Five Most Unpopular Ministers according to Poll of humanrights.ge

Salome Achba

According to the internet survey of Human Rights Center internet magazine humanrights.ge, top 5 most unpopular Ministers are: Vano Merabishvili, Dimitri Shashkin, Bacho Akhalaia, Khatuna Kalmakhelidze and Bakur Kvezereli.

“If you had competence which Minister from the current government of Georgia would you have fired?” 100 visitors had answered this question by May 15th. The list of top five most unpopular ministers is such:

1) Minister of Internal Affairs – Vano Merabishvili – 17.8 %

2) Minister of Education – Dimitri Shashkin – 11.6 %

3) Minister of Defense – Bacho Akhalaia – 11.4 %

4) Minister of Agriculture – Bakur Kvezereli – 8.6 %         

5) Minister of Economics – Vera Kobalia – 8.2 %

46 more people participated in the survey after May 15th. Their votes changed the picture just a little. Vano Merabishvili “Big Brother” is still heading the list (19.9 % of the inquired would dismiss him from his post if they had competence.) The Minister of Education Dimitri Shashkin transferred to the third place (11.6%) and exchanged places with Bacho Akhalaia (13.7%). Vera Kobalia left the list. The Minister of Corrections and Legal Assistance of Georgia Khatuna Kalmakhelidze replaced her with 8.9 %. The Minister of Agriculture Bakur Kvezereli remained on the 5th position (8.9 %).

You can see the final results of the poll in the archive of surveys at humanrights.ge.  Only 1.4% of the inquired wished to fire the following officials: Vice Premier Giorgi Baramidze, Minister of Foreign Affairs Grigol Vashadze, Minister of Regional Development Ramaz Nikolaishvili, Minister of Health Andria Urushadze, Minister of Culture Nika Rurua, State Minister in Issues of Diaspora Papuna Davitaia.

We contacted the leader of the Republican Party Levan Berdzenishvili and the member of parliamentary majority Temur Tsurtsumia for the comments and the assessment of the work of the Ministers. The comments were received on May 15th. The article was ready to be published when the protest rallies started in the country. However, because of the May 26th developments we refrained from publishing the article as the poll picture changed. However, we considered that the assessments of the opposition and government representatives are still relevant and interesting for public, especially considering that the 4 Ministers still head the list.

Levan Berdzenishvili, member of Republican Party: Vano Merabishvili is a head of the Ministry that entirely contradicts the essence of democracy. In the democratic countries the defense and police functions are not combined in this way and the Ministry does not represent a mechanism for public pressure. After Vano Merabishvili became the head of the structure, the Ministry of Internal Affairs turned into the monster. Vano Merabishvili is not popular because his agency is more associated with the violence and injustice than justice. Also, I would like to note that Merabishvili has a good skill of management and that little world of evil represented by the Ministry of Internal Affairs was built by him and it is rather firm. That is why I do not think he is insignificant figure.

Dimitri Shashkin is absolutely irrelevant for the role granted to him in the government. He cannot be the Minister of Education not because he has a foreign last name, but because I think that the person who first worked in the MIA, then in the NGO sector and lastly in the prisons is not the right candidate for the Education Minister. He implements the reforms, is very energetic but his reforms are contra productive. Under Shashkin’s management the students forgot what they knew. The work of Education Minister must be assessed according to the knowledge of students. The education level of students is inadmissibly low as you know. Thus, I think Shashkin is the worst Minister of Education that we ever had.

Bacho Akhalaia should not be in the government at all consequent from his personal characteristics. I think that the family of Akhalaias – father and two sons – has no place in Georgian politics. I cannot tell you how to assess our military potential during Akhalaia’s leadership. We all know what was before and I do not think anything changed under him. The current Defense Ministry is one of the most closed Ministries. We do not know what is going there. We do not even know how many reservists we have, how much is spent on them. Everything related to Bacho Akhalaia and his works is absolutely closed.

I think Vera Kobalia absolutely contradicts not only the post of Minister but a rank of the head of any agency of the Ministry. She is non-qualified and non-serious Minister. Of course, she is the most beautiful person in the stuff of Ministers but I do not think the beauty should be sufficient for appointing Ministers. Vera Kobalia can be compared only to Shashkin by non-competence – she has absolutely no idea of what she is doing.

I cannot tell you much about Bakur Kvezereli. We live in the agricultural country and Kvezereli should be the most active figure. The agriculture is announced to be the priority in the country. However, I am not aware of this sphere and cannot tell you how well Kvezereli complies with the post that he is holding. I do not think Kvezereli should have been included in the top list of the worst Ministers considering that Khatuna Kalmakhelidze and others are omitted who not only are bad Ministers but they should be tried according to the law.

I would add the Prime-Minister to this list as he is heading the stuff. Nika Giluari is number one incompetent.

Temur Tsurtsumia:“The ones who conducted this survey should be examined”

Temur Tsurtsumia, the member of Parliamentary majority: I represent the team of these Ministers. I doubt that they are unpopular in Georgia. I check different sources and talk to people. I cannot imagine that Vano Merabishvili is heading the list of the most unpopular Ministers. 80% of the Georgian population thinks that he is a successful Minister.

I do not think it would be correct to assess the work of the Ministers whose team I belong to. Each Ministry and each Minister performs huge work.

However, I would like to emphasize – this is the first case when I heard that Vano Merabishvili is the most unpopular Minister. The one conducted this survey should be examined.

The impeachment issue of several Ministers was raised in the Parliament a while ago and I did not support it as the opposition could not present the serious arguments regarding this issue.

P.S. On May 26th after the severe disruption of the protest in front of Parliament, humanrights.ge contacted Temur Tsurtsumia again. We asked whether he still positively evaluated the work of the MIA Minister Vano Merabishvili.

Temur Tsurtsumia: “I told you back then and I am repeating that this survey is weird – it is unimaginable that Vano Merabishvili could head this list. Every survey that was ever conducted shows that Vano Merabishvili was always a popular and successful Minister.

- Do you still think that Vano Merabishvili should be the most successful Minister?

- Nothing has changed since the May 26th developments regarding the assessment of Vano Merabishvili’s work.