Saakashvili Slams Opposition MPs
President Saakashvili lashed out at opposition parliamentarians, who during a July 3 parliamentary debate criticized the manner in which officials had been arrested on corruption charges.
Saakashvili said their behavior had been “abhorrent.”
His remarks follow opposition MPs’ criticism of the recent high profile arrests of officials from the Kutaisi Mayor’s Office. The New Rights party, in particular, said the presence of TV cameras during the arrests was inappropriate.
Live broadcasting of arrests – what has been termed as “televised arrests” – has been a particularly contentious issue since Saakashvili came to power in 2004.
The president, however, was unapologetic. “We are proud of those people, who do this job,” he said.
The criticism of the manner in which the arrests were conducted was taken by Saakashvili as an attack on his anti-corruption drive.
“I want to tell these people,” he said, “We will uncover corrupt officials; we will jail thieves and return money to the people. We came to power on this promise.”
He said the people would be, and indeed had been in the Tbilisi City Council election, the judge of the matter. “People responded properly,” he said, to those who had made “much noise in the parliament regarding the struggle against corruption.”
“The representatives of those political parties are almost nonexistent here [in City Hall],” he said.
“I think it will be so as long as they fail to understand that they have a responsibility to the public, rather than to any clan, family or other type of solidarity.”
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