Georgian Leader on Precarious Pedestal
MOSCOW — As Georgian President-elect Mikheil Saakashvili prepares to take power, the fervent support of vast numbers of citizens counting on him to change their lives may be both a blessing and a curse.
They are people like Nino Kharlampidi, a bus station worker who joined last fall's nonviolent "Rose Revolution" led by the dashing young "Misha," a Western-educated lawyer known for fiery rhetoric and a boyish smile. Fireworks lighted the sky in the capital, Tbilisi, on the November night that longtime President Eduard A. Shevardnadze resigned in the face of the protests, and the 50-year-old Kharlampidi was among those who danced on the street in front of parliament.
"I danced for joy," she said. "Because Misha is the leader, we expect things will get better. I love Misha very much. I love everything about him. He's very strong. He's very strict. He's very trustworthy. He's a person who loves the Georgian people."
Such sentiments translated into a stunning electoral victory for Saakashvili in Jan. 4 presidential balloting in the beautiful but poverty-stricken former Soviet republic. Official returns showed the charismatic pro-Western reformer winning 96% of the vote against five rivals. That level of support is rarely seen in a free election anywhere in the world, but foreign monitors have said they believed the election was honest.
Expectations may now be so high that they can only be crushed.
"Until now, he achieved everything," said Alexander Rondeli, president of the Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International Studies. "Now he faces the most difficult task of his life. To make many people happy is not easy."
Saakashvili, 36, built his enormous popularity on political skills, risk-taking and a reputation as a fighter against corruption in this nation of 5 million perched between the Black Sea and the Caucasus Mountains.
"This is your victory. I have not won the election. You, my people, you have won the election," he told cheering supporters on election night. His inauguration is set for Jan. 25.
"His oratorical style is quite emotional, hot-tempered and populist," said Ghia Nodia, director of the Caucasian Institute for Peace, Democracy and Development, a Tbilisi think tank. "But I personally think that all Mikheil Saakashvili's populism in his speeches is very carefully calculated. He knows exactly what he is doing. And he knows that in order to be popular in Georgia today, he needs to adhere to this style of talking in public."
