'No Boyko Borisov Day'? What's the Point in This Society?

Novinite Insider » EDITORIAL | Author: Ivan Dikov |July 4, 2011, Monday // 12:53
Bulgaria: 'No Boyko Borisov Day'? What's the Point in This Society?

An interesting initiative of Bulgarian Facebook users has caught public attention – in just one week 30 000 Bulgarians rallied behind an event entitled "A Day without Boyko Borisov", the Bulgarian Prime Minister.

The No Boyko Borisov Day is scheduled for July 5, 2011 – the same day when two years ago Borisov's party GERB, or, rather, Borisov himself won Bulgaria's parliamentary elections that brought to power the current Cabinet amidst high hopes for many and lurking misgivings for some.

The Facebook users in question appear outraged that in the past two years Bulgaria's Prime Minister Boyko Borisov has been all over the media – day and night – any time you turn on a TV he is cutting ribbons, competing in sports events, slamming the previous government for being corrupt and incompetent, or painting Bulgaria's bright future thanks to the highways his Cabinet will build.

The "No Boyko Borisov Day" participants seem angered by both Borisov's powerful PR style, and the subservience of the Bulgarian media, which for the most part appear highly uncritical of Borisov, even if they happen to criticize his ministers or his party. The No Boyko Borisov Day description has even likened the current Bulgarian PM to Albanian Cold War dictator Enver Hoxha. The authors of the initiative claim it is not politically motivated – an allegation that Borisov, who is really not fond of being criticized – clearly doesn't believe.

The general concerns of the Facebook users who decided to black Borisov out of their minds for a day are valid. Their problem, however, is that they are actually achieving the opposite result – Borisov will get even greater media attention thanks to their initiative that is technically supposed to defy him.

Their – and Bulgaria's – much greater problem is very different, however. It is the failure to grasp that in a democratic society an obsession with the state and politicians can do little good. The things that matter a lot more are economic and civil entrepreneurship.

The job of the state – whether it is epitomized by Borisov or somebody else – should be to be nothing more that a "necessary evil", i.e. not to hinder progress, and maybe to facilitate it occasionally, if it is all capable of that.

Want fewer and smaller problems? Limit the state, and boost civic responsibility! And don't get obsessed with Boyko Borisov, Sergey Stanishev, Simeon Saxe-Coburg, or Ivan Kostov. The way to dwindle their importance is to exert your efforts to make a real civil society work, rather than to stage campaigns to black them out.

The Americans have this great philosophy that people can either wait for the government (understand politicians, bureaucrats) to do something for them, or they can just get down to it and get it done themselves. This is the one thing Bulgarians must unconditionally copy and paste from the United States of America, instead of obsessing with who's "in power".

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Tags: Boyko Borisov, Prime Minister, Facebook, Day without Boyko Borisov, government, state, 2009 Elections

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