'Politics - a Strife of Interests Masquerading as a Contest of Principles'

A solitary man has managed to rock the Bulgarian institutional boat in the past few days, and the repercussions of his actions will surely have long-term effects on the stability of the country’s political system.

Some days ago, Bulgarian MP Mario Tagarinski, from the then 10-strong conservative Order, Law and Justice (RZS) party, resigned and caused some panic by promptly disappearing for several hours.

Fortunately for him, he soon resurfaced safe and well. But Tagarinski has so far said nothing about his sudden resignation, other than to confirm it had fully complied with the rules and serving conditions of the RZS party to which he had so recently belonged.

He may be keeping quiet, but he's about the only one. RZS party boss, Yane Yanev, was immediately reported as saying that his colleague "had been 'bought' in order to deal the conservative party a blow because it had recently raised alarm about the emergence of a new 'coalition' between the GERB party and Socialist President Georgi Parvanov".

An RZS party declaration said: "We believe that Tagarinski is only an instrument of the prepared political repression against the group of RZS. It is obvious that our group hinders the work of those who want to preserve the 20-year post-communist status quo," the party declaration read.

Whether that is true or not, official political reaction has been swift, even frenetic. The party has been dissolved, as it no longer has the minimum requirement of 10 parliamentary representatives. All those MPs may remain as independents, but they have lost some of the rights accorded to full party groups.

Their allowances and rights to plenary session access are curtailed, and they have been removed from membership of various parliamentary committees. Yanev, for example, has been replaced overnight as the head of the crucial Anti-Corruption, Conflict of Interests and Parliamentary Ethics Committee.

Within one week, then, a small but high-profile Bulgarian political party has been wiped out. Questions remain as to whether the new independent MPs will continue their unconditional support of the GERB ruling party, as RZS had pledged for an initial six-month period.

In all this frenzy of activity and recrimination, one factor stands out – and it is not in any way a party-political point, but one of simple public accountability.

The headline of this article is a partial quotation from American journalist and writer, Ambrose Bierce. The full quotation reads: "Politics: a strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. The conduct of public affairs for private advantage."

With the present lack of explanation for Tagarinski's actions, one can only indulge in fruitless speculation. But, one is entitled also to muse on the general and universal responsibility of any politician, in any democracy, towards the people who put him (or her) into a position of public trust. Yes, it's the voter, once again, who bothered to turn out for his / her personal moment of democratic participation, to mark a preferred candidate’s name with an X.

All too often, it seems, politicians the world over seem to quickly develop a sense of superiority, to build a shell of invincibility around themselves and their cronies, to turn their backs on the voters who put them there in the first place, to play their party games, whether openly in parliament, or in cloak-and-dagger episodes away from the public spotlight.

Take, for instance, the saga of Britain’s politicians and their expense allowances. It's a scandal that has run for months, but there are still new revelations. That wonder-boy David Cameron, widely expected to win the next UK election for the Conservative party, made a parliamentary speech on May 10 2009, condemning the entire cross-party fiddling of expenses.

"We have to acknowledge just how bad this is," he said. "The public are really angry and we have to start by saying, 'Look, this system that we have, that we used, that we operated, that we took part in – it was wrong and we are sorry about that'."

The very next day, the Telegraph, the UK newspaper that had first exposed the entire story, published details of Cameron's expenses. These showed, among other significant items, that he had claimed a total of GBP 82 450 on his second home allowance over a period of five years.

Who had made the rules? Well, the UK parliamentarians themselves. Accountable to the British public, where the average annual salary is GBP 26 000? Hardly.

At the time of writing this, another UK newspaper report reveals that, in the latest publication of MPs' expenses, Quentin Davies, a government defense minister, submitted claims that included a GBP 20 000 invoice for repairs to the roof and bell tower of his 18th century mansion. Well, how nice!

The complaint is not about rampant greed as such, but once again about the ways in which politicians so often forget they only get their well-paid jobs and perks because of the people who actually believed in them, who hoped (at least) that their point of view might prevail, or at least be represented, in a so-called democracy.

But, if you really want to be revolted by the supreme arrogance and lack of accountability of certain politicians, then how about the current revelations by a British MP, Adam Holloway, that Tony Blair took the British nation illegally to war in Iraq on the basis of a dossier containing a "sexed-up" account of an intelligence report that claimed Saddam Hussein could launch weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) at 45 minutes’ notice.

It seems, from evidence now given to the ongoing Chilcot enquiry into the conduct of the Iraq war, that the testimony had originally come from an Iraqi taxi-driver who was trying to recall a conversation he had overheard two years previously. We have all witnessed the situation that emerged from that abuse of trust.

So, to return to Bulgaria: if the (now) independent Bulgarian Member of Parliament, Mario Tagarinski, would care to explain to the public exactly what has been going on for so many days, whether he jumped or was pushed, then we might all breathe a sigh of relief, and get on with hoping for a fairer, more accountable and responsible society.

Otherwise, we could be stuck with another view, expressed by Larry Hardiman: "The word politics is derived from the word poly, meaning many, and the word ticks, meaning bloodsucking parasites."

We need your support so Novinite.com can keep delivering news and information about Bulgaria! Thank you!