Concern for education or a PR-campaign?

However, not all the oppositionists are ready to act as the authorities tell them to. One of Saakashvili's main opponents, leader of Democratic Movement - United Georgia Nino Burjanadze will hardly agree to that even after a business trip to Europe and the USA. Salome Zurabishvili, as well as Guguli Magradze, seems to be in the ranks of those who are called the radicals. They have already played supporting roles in the days of the current power, having later stuck to the opposition, and the only way they have got is either to risk it all, or to lose everything.

Together with Saakashvili, Burjanadze made the Rose Revolution; she twice held the office of the acting president and gave up the post of the speaker of parliament. Zurabishvili headed the coutry's MIA, having signed a historical agreement on withdrawing the Russian bases from the territory of Georgia.

Earlier, Guguli Magradze was a person of influence in the parliament. The press reported Magradze's being close to the president's family. Her transition to the opposition became a surprise. Right after the break-up of the meeting in November 2007, she was one of the first to leave the pro-presidential United National Movement, having ventured to confront the authorities. Later, she established a party of her own, generally withholding any harsh statements. Together with the traditionalists and the Svoboda (Freedom) party headed by Konstantin Gamsakhurdia she came out with an initiative of establishing the People's Public Assembly that was to become an alternative to the parliament.

Despite the three-month confrontation, the laws are passed not by the People's Public Assembly but by the parliament, the majority of which belongs to the ruling United National Movement. So far, none of the oppositional initiatives has been realized. The ruling majority keeps silent as to Magradze's nomination for the deputy minister's post. At her press-conference, Magradze did not announce her oppositional alternative program in the field of education. Zurabishvili, at least, has spoken about the liberation of political prisoners, while Magradze's intentions are yet unclear. By the way, according to the analysts, the opposition is losing score because of the absence of a clearly-stated program.

And the truth is that the field of education requires much attention. For a long time, the educational administration has been headed by Kakha Lomaya, who is currently occupying the post of Georgia's special representative to UN.

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