1st October 2022 10 years of development in Georgia

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I found myself to be elated this morning when I first saw the banners for the 10 year anniversary of Georgia’s 2012 election popping up on my Facebook and Twitter newsfeeds. I remember the election of Obama as the first black President in 2008 and the emotion on the faces of the Americans following the election live in the Tbilisi Courtyard. At that time I was the Amcham President and had been invited by the embassy to participate in watching the election live. I was serving in the British military when Margaret Thatcher became the first female Prime Minister and won the election in 1979. In all these cases, in America, Great Britain and Georgia there was a palpable sense of change, of energy, of hope renewed.

Many people in Georgia have confronted me over the years, oftentimes agressively, about my desire to support the changes that started on 1st October 2012. They are clearly confused, some dismayed many furious that I refuse to be quiet about what I see as the existential danger of a return to the period when I first came to Georgia in February 2004 as the General Director of Magticom, a mobile phone operator whose local investor had been falsely imprisoned. Before parachuting into the role, my American boss and mentor Mark Haaf had called my mobile phone and I answered from the car.

“David, what we discussed as a worst case has happed.” Mark said. “Gia is in jail and the Government are trying to take over the company. There are armed police in the building every day. Will you take the job of General Director?

“Yes.” I replied. “When do we do this?”

“Tomorrow, the airline ticked to Tbilisi in your name is waiting in the office, but I have to tell you, this is the worst I have ever seen, be ready”.

“But Mark, what about the job I am doing now, who will tell the shareholders here?” I asked.

“MetroMedia will, just get here, we will announce tomorrow”.

The next 6 years as General Director of Magticom, and also as the elected President of Amcham from 2008 to 2012, were amongst the most satisfying of my career, as we fought to survive, stop Magticom from being stolen by UNM and associated criminals, whist continuing to build out a mobile network that would ultimately play a crucial role in both the 2008 invasion by Russia and the 2012 election that replaced a fully corrupted government with a democratic “coalition”. It was a time of fear for almost all business owners, as UNM systematically arrested innocent businessmen from their homes in the middle of the night, put them in terrifying jails and released them only on payment of fines or the transfer of the ownership of their business to crimals. As the President of Amcham, I saw strong men of 100 kilos fall to 60 in weeks. I held the hands of their weeping wives. I swore to avenge this injustice.

In 2008, ?as Russian tanks moved toward Tbilisi, I was in the darkened control room of Magticom with our engineers as they fought to keep the network operational. We had been ordered by the Government in the afternoon to evacuate the building in Tbilisi Saburtalo region. Mark called at midnight from New York.

“David you have to get the guys and leave now, stand down!” He shouted.

“No!” I replied. “We are not leaving, Magticom is the only network left operational, if the Georgians lose communications they are done. The entire Georgian Army and Governement are using out network, nothing else is working”

We ended the conversation with me cancelling the call and, I assumed, my career. The network stayed live, the tanks went back and I continued as the Magticom General Director.

4 years later, this network was to again play a crucial role in Georgia's development and the democratic replacement of the corrupt UNM Government. Since 2007 when armed riot police attacked the main opposition TV company, Imedi TV, and destroyed its equipment, free speech in Georgia was massively curtailed. I personally was called in late one Friday night to the Minister of the Economy for being quoted by Business Week as saying that the the Government should stop arresting innocent businessmen. The main TV station, Rustavi 2, was the mouthpiece of the corrupt President and all effective media dissent was cancelled. But the people now had Magticom sim cards, and the youth had grown up with Bali cards and all you can eat night time messaging. Weeks before the 2012 election, a viral video of male prisoners being raped with brooms by Saakashvili’s torturers went viral. The Government suppressed the TV, but could not control Magticom’s data network which now stretched from the Black Sea to Azerbaijan and touched every business, house, town and village in the country. The truth had found it outlet, as the truth always does in the end.?

I had, like so many others at that time, hoped that UNM would quicky atrophy and die to be replaced by a new, democratic opposition, but a policy called “cohabitation” promoted by Western diplomats gave UNM space and time to manoeuvre. They used the billions of dollars stolen from the people to regroup and most importantly, they allocated resource to lobbyist in Washington and Brussels. Their masterstroke at this time, was to corrupt the most influential NGOs, including Transparency International, Open Society, and the election monitors. Like a virus with no obvious symptoms, this took place silently and the infection is still in place. At the heart of the NGO sector, is a rotten core consuming vast amounts and donor funding and slowly and methodically pushing faked reports and proganda into the corridors of power of the European Union.

Today, any 3rd Sector employee or board director who voices dissent at the actions of any corrupt NGO will be cancelled and ejected from the NGO. This is the truth, it is documented, and it represents an existential threat to Georgia’s ambition to become a member of the European Union. This inconvenient fact is known by the diplomatic community, the donors and the other NGOs, but it is a truth that cannot be spoken, for who would cast the first stone? Who would say, we have made mistakes? Who would apologise to the people of Georgia, who according to CRRC research for NDI, trust the Government and the police more that NGOs.

I and 2 friends in 2017, built a transparent NGO called the European Business Association to help achieve a dream that doing business in Georgia would be the same as doing business in Europe. We had no grants, no mentors and no roof. Like Georgia it was surrounded by enemies, but like Georgia it survived and prospered against the odds. We faced an attack from existing NGOs with 24 hours of registration, we were blocked from forums, foundations and funding. But the EBA is funded by its members, has its own extensive social media network and since last year it is funded by USAID and the European Union. EBA has a successful youth group, strong advocacy capacities and a bright future.? It is from this success, on this wonderful day, that I take pride in saying to all who will hear that I live and work in the most beautiful country in the World, Georgia, whose wonderful people deserve not only peace and independence, but to be accepted into their rightful place of members of the European Union.

Thank you for reading my thoughts, if you have any comments, please write them.

David Lee