The demise of Eduard Shevardnadze is sanguine food for thought for ideologues who believe that democracy has ended History, writes Gamal Nkrumah People's power made news again this week with the unanticipated resignation of the Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze. There was a time when people's power toppled dictators like Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines in 1986 and Romania's Nicolae Ceausescu in 1989. Now it seems people's power has no time for democrats either. A one-time vociferous democrat who oversaw the dismemberment of the former Soviet Union, Shevardnadze was an iconic figure whose fall from political grace has had repercussions internationally. His 12-year tenure as president of Georgia ended in political disaster. It sounded the alarm bells for dictators in the former Soviet Union republics and elsewhere who refuse to give up their grip on power. He was, after all, a seasoned politician. Nevertheless, Shevardnadze was perhaps unaware that he had matured into a rather old buffer. Still, Shevardnadze bowed out gracefully. He had the presence of mind to know when to quit before it was too late. He even offered to help in any capacity the new government, if they so desired. An anti-corruption campaign catapulted Eduard Shevardnadze from his Georgian backwater to the corridors of power in Moscow. Ironically, it was a sustained anti-corruption campaign by his opponents that in the end of an impressive political career unseated the Georgian leader. Born in the western Georgian region of Lanchkhuti, Shevardnadze was schooled in Marxist doctrine and was a member of the Komsmol, or Communist Youth League. He joined the Soviet Communist Party in 1948 and quickly rose through the ranks of the party. He became a member of the then all-powerful Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU). The day after he was nominated to the chief political and executive committee of the CPSU, he was named the minister of foreign affairs of the Soviet Union; a position that he used to build close ties with Western leaders and to network with political establishment groups in the West. It was a shrewd investment. Shevardnadze was hand-picked by Western powers to lead the newly-independent Georgia in 1992. A major recipient of US aid with $1 billion flowing in the past decade, Georgia is strategically located astride important oil pipelines running from Central Asian oil wells to Black Sea ports in Turkey, Georgia and Russia. Soon being earmarked, Shevardnadze's position was consolidated in a referendum in which he won a landslide victory scooping 90 per cent of the vote. He soon ran into serious difficulties on the home front. Separatists in the autonomous republic of Abkhazia in northwestern Georgia captured the strategic port of Sukhumi, Abkhazia's capital in 1993. Shevardnadze, the democrat, was forced to seek alliances that were less and less democratic. He tried to win over the Georgian army and his dangerous reliance for political survival on the army did not go unnoticed in the West. His support in the West dwindled accordingly. Shevardnadze, in a desperate bid to quell the Abkhaz rebellion sought closer ties with Russia. Unfortunately, these ties enraged his more nationalistic compatriots. His political opponents made much political capital out of his reliance on Moscow. Georgian opposition forces bitterly objected to the military cooperation treaty with Russia signed by Shevardnadze in 1994. Shevardnadze survived several assassination attempts in August 1995, and again in February 1998. The opposition to his increasingly autocratic rule intensified. His main headache was the nationalist Georgian opposition parties and not the separatist forces. He faced charges of corruption and mismanagement. The Black Sea nation had been in political turmoil since the 2 November parliamentary elections in which Shevardnadze's party was declared winner. Officially, Shevardnadze's "For A New Georgia" won 21 per cent of the vote. Opposition groups cried foul and took to the streets. The opposition insisted that he hand over power. He resisted at first, but was later forced to give in to opposition demands. He finally stepped down as president of Georgia this week after opposition groups organised huge demonstrations in the capital Tbilisi, with tens of thousands of people marching on the parliament. In desperation, Shevardnadze declared a state of emergency and refused to budge. However, the Georgian army, which had in the past proved to be the staunchest supporter of Shevardnadze, indicated that it would not back him unreservedly. With the realisation that he no longer enjoyed the unqualified support of the army, Shevardnadze conceded defeat. "I have never betrayed my people and I am stating now, too, that it is probably better for the president to resign, so all this can end peacefully and there is no bloodshed and no casualties." But Shevardnadze, 75, was not considered as a true democrat among several of Georgia's opposition groups. He was regarded with suspicion by his detractors. His supporters felt that he ruled under very difficult circumstances that necessitated his resort at times to different forms of the totalitarian government he so vehemently condemned in the final days of the Soviet regime. His critics see him as an opportunist. Shevardnadze put on a brave face, but it was clear that the game was over for the aged politician. The change in Tbilisi, at least, occurred without shedding any blood. Even though Georgia has become increasingly dependent on US aid and development assistance, Russia still wields tremendous influence. Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov spent two days mediating between Shevardnadze and Georgian opposition leaders. He finally managed to broker a deal. Parliamentary speaker Nino Burdzhanadze is currently acting as interim president. "The country must now get back to its usual rhythm of life," Ms Burdzhanadze said in a televised address to the people of Georgia. US Secretary of State Colin Powell issued a statement which stressed Washington's support of maintaining the integrity of Georgia's democracy and the upholding of constitutional rule. "The US and the international community stand ready to support the new government in holding free and fair parliamentary elections in the future," the State Department statement read. Post-Soviet Georgia followed a pattern similar to that adopted in many of the other republics that broke off from the former Soviet Union: the conspicuous disappearance of nascent democracy proclaimed loudly immediately after the demise of the Soviet system, and its replacement by despotism. Pro-democracy leaders soon assumed absolute power. From Belarus to Azerbaijan, Ukraine to Kazakhstan, democracy failed the people. The political establishments in these countries inflicted brutal ravages upon their people. Perhaps they attempted to do too much against a background of civil war and strife. Shevardnadze survived three assassination attempts on his life, but what brought the political crisis to a head was criticism that he rigged the latest parliamentary elections. Saakashvili's National Movement came second with 18 per cent of the vote. The left-wing Labour Party trailed in third place with 12 per cent, while the Democratic Party scored only 8.8 per cent of the vote. Protests escalated into demands for an immediate resignation. The opposition is led by the fiery US-educated lawyer Mikhail Saakashvili. A former head of the Tbilisi city council and a former minister of justice, Saakashvili is young and ambitious. The last Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev vehemently defended his former associate's record. "He is not a coward and probably understood that the moment had come to make this step so that Georgia would not break up. I think he was right," Gorbachev said.
