In politics perception is just as powerful as fact, and the perception that the new regime is overstepping its authority is threatening to overshadow the progress made over the past year. On October 27 Zurab Tchiaberashvili, the mayor of Tbilisi, called a press conference after receiving a gift from Zurab Adamia, the head of a district in Tbilisi. The conference was aired live on television as Tchiaberashvili accused Adamia of bribery and fired him. Speaking before all the heads of districts, the mayor directed a question to Adamia while brandishing a watch rumored to cost over a thousand dollars. “I am asking you how can a head of a district, with a monthly salary of 150 lari ($82) present me with this watch, which costs $1500?” Tchiaberashvili then promised sweeping reform throughout the administrations of the Tbilisi districts before ending the press conference. On air, in front of the mayor, Adamia was not given an opportunity to address the allegation. The mayor did not stay to answer questions, instead merely tossed the watch in Adamia’s general direction and left the room.

Theatrics notwithstanding, the conference gave the government a welcome opportunity to prove the need for tough measures against corruption still exists. Almost daily, briefs are published in local media announcing the arrest of some figure, whether a judge in Rustavi charged with taking $10,000 or police officers taking bribes instead of issuing tickets. A few days before Adamia was fired for giving the mayor a watch, Saakashvili appeared on television, pleading with the Georgian people to help him fight corruption, saying he was just one man among a population of several million. He pledged to raise salaries at Tbilisi’s airport, but a few weeks later customs officials at another check point, along the border between Georgia and Azerbaijan, were arrested during a raid by the financial police for taking bribes.

During the first few months after Saakashvili’s phenomenal 96% vote victory in January, there were but a few whispers of concern about the new government’s heavy-handed tactics against figures widely considered corrupt. The arrests of high-profile businessmen such as Eduard Shevardnadze’s son-in-law Gia Jokhtaberidze were met with public support, as was the fact his wife paid the country’s budget $15 million before he was released. According to VOA News, the money was to be used to pay teachers’ salaries and pensions.

According to Transparency International, Georgia ranked among the most corrupt countries surveyed for the 2004 report, placing it above neighboring Azerbaijan but worse off than Russia, Armenia or Turkey. In a press release issued by Transparency on January 29, the organization outlined priorities for the new president in order to fight corruption. Peter Eigen, its chairman is quoted as saying that “the future stability of Georgia is dependent on making the fight against corruption priority number one.”

But over the past few months, an increasing number of political experts and international observers are accusing Saakashvili and his government of operating outside the rule of law and using their tough stance against corruption to mask a program of payback against political opponents. As early as February, reports published on Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s web site quoted Walter Schwimmer, the visiting Council of Europe Secretary General, when he warned the new government during a trip to Georgia on February 18: “The struggle against corruption should not exceed the limits of the law,” he said.

In a widely published open letter to President Saakashvili this October, several prominent civil leaders addressed their concerns, urging the president to rethink policies that undermine civil liberties. Civil.ge, an Internet journal, interviewed one of the fourteen authors, legal expert and activist Davit Usupashvili, on November 1. Usupashvili, one of the authors of the country’s current constitution, spoke out against the way the government is fighting corruption and commenting on the lack of due process during these arrests, saying that most of the cases are not even fully investigated.

In the case of Adamia, although he was not given the opportunity to voice his side of the story during the press conference, he did speak to journalists afterward, denying the fact that the watch was worth so much money.

Although Usupashvili and other experts are painting a dark picture of the path Saakashvili and his government is taking, he has not lost total confidence. “…the authorities still have the chance to change these processes for the better and restore their image, both inside and outside the country.”