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Stop blaming the government for Imedi’s hoax television program. Blame yourselves.

Tbilisi | Imedi TV’s spoof invasion story caused a lot of panic and subsequent anger, but precious little in the way of accountability. No one has been fired, and instead of looking for someone’s head, the president has actually commended the programme, saying it came close to what might actually happen in reality.

But then again, this is Georgia, and expecting that the buck would actually stop somewhere is a little naive. What political head rolled, for instance, when Sandro Girgvliani was murdered?

And indeed, given that the programme is nothing new in terms of manipulative media propaganda, why should we be surprised anyway? We’ve seen things like this before. Remember Khurcha? A UN report following the incident – which involved a busload of Gali residents on their way to vote in Zugdidi being fired upon with small arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades – found that the whole escapade had been staged, presumably to heighten tension and fear among people in western Georgia, who would then presumably vote for the National Movement – the party that talked tough on national security.

Of course, Georgian politicians are no better nor worse than those elsewhere. Lloyd George, the then British prime minister, for example, – knowing in advance that there was an unusually high concentration of German submarines operating off the south west coast of Ireland – effectively allowed the Lusitania to be sunk in 1915 by failing to alert the Americans. The lives of 1,198 passengers were expendable, a price that had to be paid for American entry into World War I on Britain’s side. The old Welsh Wizard failed to mention this to President Wilson at the time.

Machiavellianism, then, is something common to all politicians, wired into their DNA. The extent to which they are prepared to go to further their ends is only restricted by the extent to which the public is prepared to allow them to go. In early twentieth century Britain, the public was rather lax, willing to condone all manner of misdemeanours. They were also largely ignorant, with a free press still in its infancy, and most people naively trustful of authority. Accountability was for the birds.

Now, however, if a British politician is caught with his secretary under his table, he is forced to resign. Fleet Street, however vulgar and crass it may be, ensures that politicians are held accountable for even the most minor indiscretion.
Political literacy – and importantly, media freedom and sophistication – are, however, rare commodities in twenty-first century Georgia, and so Imedi TV’s little bit of fun at our expense – involving panic and even the death of two people following heart attacks – has gone, and presumably will go, unpunished.

As The Jam song goes: “The public gets what the public wants, and the public wants what the public gets.” If there is shame or guilt to be apportioned anywhere, it is not with our politicians – they will after all do what they are allowed to do by us – but rather it is with us. We allow them to do this to us.

Martin Naughton is a freelance writer and a longtime Tbilisi resident. The opinions reflected in the article are his own.

Corrected: Reader ‘des’ correctly pointed out that the song quote was indeed from The Jam, and not The Who, as was originally posted.

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