1. The “loyal opposition” will likely not be an issue at this stage, as long as the winning side is willing to listen to dissenting views and accepting the best ideas of all sides. At this stage, we need a national government of the best of all. If the large majority government dismisses the opposition as irrelevant, it will be to the detriment of our nation.
2. Katchaznouni, in his Open Letter to Z already warned of this. In it, he said that the ARF mistook the government for their party because they dominated the national assembly. He said that the decisions were taken inside the party for the benefit of the party, instead of inside parliament for the benefit of the country. What that led to was grave mistakes for not listening to the others and to the opposition. I was stressing this fact that this is a lesson from our history which we must heed to.
3. I said that the main objective should be creating and implementing nation building policies. Not about winning or scoring points. Serj Sarkisian had put forward a slogan of 4 million by 2040 about a year ago, and to my knowledge that is an objective pursued by Pashinyan too (to be verified on the official website of the ministry of Labor and Social Affairs). Now this requires a massive re-immigration of Diaspora Armenians, not one hundred exemplary ones which keep getting written about in the media, nor even a thousand, but in the hundreds of thousands or possibly a million people. To do this, serious policy initiatives must be designed and implemented.
4. For example, if Armenia wants to be a retirement haven for Armenian retirees around the globe (who would like to live comfortably their golden age and stretch their retirement funds in Armenia) then it must start building an infrastructure of elderly care and professional health programs that can manage that, including efficient, rapid and world-class medical care for these people, because this is the first thing that will be on their mind when they settle in Armenia. This is at one end of the spectrum of the demographics.
5. But retirees come to die. They do not form families and they do not reproduce, so the 4 million would rapidly be reduced again in a decade or two. If, on the other hand, Armenia wants to encourage young men and women of family making age, then it must start building family friendly policies, work on building a network of world class educational institutions for the children of these families, provide affordable housing across all the territory of Armenia, and provide meaningful and rewarding job opportunities for these young couples. Also, since no parent wants their children to go off and die in wars (or to have that threat hanging over their heads), this policy is also ultimately related to resolving the Artsakh issue once and for all. Once again, the issue becomes one of designing and implementing specific policies that enable the realization of national goals.
6. These are the issues around which must rally all Armenians, in Armenia and around the globe. Our best minds must put forward our best ideas to allow us to build our nation from scratch.
1. The “loyal opposition” will likely not be an issue at this stage, as long as the winning side is willing to listen to dissenting views and accepting the best ideas of all sides. At this stage, we need a national government of the best of all. If the large majority government dismisses the opposition as irrelevant, it will be to the detriment of our nation.
2. Katchaznouni, in his Open Letter to Z already warned of this. In it, he said that the ARF mistook the government for their party because they dominated the national assembly. He said that the decisions were taken inside the party for the benefit of the party, instead of inside parliament for the benefit of the country. What that led to was grave mistakes for not listening to the others and to the opposition. I was stressing this fact that this is a lesson from our history which we must heed to.
3. I said that the main objective should be creating and implementing nation building policies. Not about winning or scoring points. Serj Sarkisian had put forward a slogan of 4 million by 2040 about a year ago, and to my knowledge that is an objective pursued by Pashinyan too (to be verified on the official website of the ministry of Labor and Social Affairs). Now this requires a massive re-immigration of Diaspora Armenians, not one hundred exemplary ones which keep getting written about in the media, nor even a thousand, but in the hundreds of thousands or possibly a million people. To do this, serious policy initiatives must be designed and implemented.
4. For example, if Armenia wants to be a retirement haven for Armenian retirees around the globe (who would like to live comfortably their golden age and stretch their retirement funds in Armenia) then it must start building an infrastructure of elderly care and professional health programs that can manage that, including efficient, rapid and world-class medical care for these people, because this is the first thing that will be on their mind when they settle in Armenia. This is at one end of the spectrum of the demographics.
5. But retirees come to die. They do not form families and they do not reproduce, so the 4 million would rapidly be reduced again in a decade or two. If, on the other hand, Armenia wants to encourage young men and women of family making age, then it must start building family friendly policies, work on building a network of world class educational institutions for the children of these families, provide affordable housing across all the territory of Armenia, and provide meaningful and rewarding job opportunities for these young couples. Also, since no parent wants their children to go off and die in wars (or to have that threat hanging over their heads), this policy is also ultimately related to resolving the Artsakh issue once and for all. Once again, the issue becomes one of designing and implementing specific policies that enable the realization of national goals.
6. These are the issues around which must rally all Armenians, in Armenia and around the globe. Our best minds must put forward our best ideas to allow us to build our nation from scratch.