Saakashvili's Red Queen Plan for Reforms

It might have been advice the Red Queen herself would have proposed. As did the Queen to Alice in Lewis Carroll's "Through the Looking Glass," Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili essentially advised his ruling United National Movement party on June 15 that they can run fast to stay in the same place, but need "to run at least twice as fast as that" to "get somewhere else."

Given the threats faced by the country, Georgia is not a place where reforms can merely stroll along, Saakashvili lectured party members at a Batumi gathering.

"We have no moral right to slow down the reforms we have launched," Saakashvili said. Without being "very successful," he claimed, "there will be no Georgia."

Singapore appears to serve as the model for this race against the clock. By emulating Singapore’s experience, Saakashvili continued, Georgia could not only solve its economic woes, but resolve problems with Russia, which continues to occupy two rooms in “our apartment.”

Singapore has in the past solved its problems with China by conducting sweeping reforms and becoming an attractive, developed place, he said, Georgia, Saakashvili pledged, will solve its problems with Russia in the same way.