Читать книгу Kazakhstan's Assassinated Democracy - Yerzhan Psy.D. Dosmukhamedov - Страница 10

Alma-Ata Info (Kazakhstan)

20 November 2008

On the eve of his birthday, Dr. Dosmukhamedov, Chairman of the Atameken Party, was interviewed by the newspaper Alma-Ata Info.

Dr. Dosmukhamedov, congratulations on your birthday - we wish you all the best. Your birthday coincides with major changes internationally, doesn't it?

Thank you. Let me express my sincere gratitude to you for giving me an opportunity to thank all my compatriots for their support and solidarity.

We have witnessed a tectonic shift that has had a strong moral effect on all humankind. The election of Barack Obama is a national victory for the American people, confirming the words of Winston Churchill that democracy is not the most perfect, but the most effective form of social organization ever conceived by humans. This was also a victory of morality over the cynicism of those people who have fallen far short of successfully governing the world's leading nation, and who have turned the historic influence, authority and the political and military machine of the United States into an instrument of cruel world supremacy.

Mankind is tired of double standards, interminable warfare and rivers of innocent human blood being shed as the result of a small cadre of officials with limited intelligence, who have fallen far short of successfully governing a great power. The latest elections were a protest. And, thank God, the procedures laid down by the founding fathers and forefathers of the American nation and democracy have worked both for the benefit of the country and the whole of mankind. It would be naive to think that now everything will change overnight. There will be resistance to this paradigm shift, both inside the federal government of the U.S.A. and in international organizations. Nevertheless a break-through has taken place. An opportunity has arisen. everybody understands that, even those people like the President of Iran. Despite a barrage of criticism by his inner circle of narrow-minded religious fanatics, he summoned up all his willpower, restrained his pride and sent a letter to the newly elected President of the U.S.A. Like the rest of the world, he had to acknowledge that American democracy worked effectively, and resolved to use the occasion as an opportunity to further the future interests of his country.

And what does this all mean for Kazakhstan?

Our country has entered a stage of deep crisis in all parameters: political, moral, economic and in foreign politics. even if there is a series of "ostrich decrees", displaying a head-in-the-sand attitude aimed at dealing with the existing problems, life will not improve. The economy will not gain anything from it. Trust in the government will not be restored.

No formal systems of the central government are functioning. Within the ruling elite, a centrifugal process is fully underway, betraying splits into clans, tribes and zhuzes (conglomerates of the Kazakh tribes). Heads of clans, tribes and zhuzes are being elected. In society, ordinary people pursue informal ways of resolving situations and problems that arise. Corruption is clear confirmation of a deep conflict between formal and informal institutions. Tension inside the ruling elite will not cease, even if the propaganda machine shows the wonderful physical shape of the head of the country on TV ten times a day. Ambitions are only flaring up. even if President Nursultan Nazarbayev, resembling God, declares: "Let there be light!" or "People, buy real estate!", investment activity will not stabilize.

Nothing will change even if the President - acquainted with the dubious merits of people like [Adilbeck] Zhaksybekov, [Kairat] Kelimbetov and [Bulat] Utemuratov - still decides, out of despair, to let these odious politicians (who have led the country to chaos and collapse) participate in government. Their only talent lies in intrigue and exerting a gracelessly crude influence on the situation. even if they execute ten more journalists and bully editors and starving, discontented students and villagers, or conduct another show trial or witch hunt, they will only provide a catalyst for hostility followed by their brutal response, which will lead down a one-way road to an out-of-control social explosion.

Even if they forced one of the elite to leave the country, and tomorrow a second one, peace would not come. On the contrary, a new stage of war has begun in which the petty spiders quickly strive to grow fat on cash, as the ship of state slowly sinks to the bottom. even if they are removed after satiating themselves, the whole process will start from the beginning again in a vicious cycle. In a word, the international crisis has exposed and accelerated the internal one in Kazakhstan - leading to a fork in the road, as Senator Biden wrote in his message to President Nazarbayev last year in token support of our party.

It is clear from the last interview with Akezhan Kazhegeldin that he is planning an alliance with Rakhat Aliyev and that there are behind-the-scenes negotiations with the government. Have your numbers grown?

I have never been on the team of either Rakhat Aliyev or Akezhan Kazhegeldin. If the Kazakh justice system had been ultimately objective in its investigations and judgements regarding the culpability of Aliyev, I would have admitted it with understanding, since I am a lawyer. If a person is a killer or a gangster he should suffer a just punishment. As long as millions of people are not convinced that the judgement is just and objective, there are moral reasons to acknowledge Rakhat Aliyev's contribution to derailing the ugly, Kazakh political-power machine. I will never cross the line and join the team of people who have killed, tortured, betrayed and taken away other people's businesses and lives.

What or whose betrayal are you talking about?

I have repeatedly said in the past: I do not think that politics is necessarily an amoral or dirty business. On the contrary, there should be a moral pivot at its base: that is, the interests of millions of citizens whose fates, and those of their children, depend on decisions made by politicians. An infected tree cannot produce healthy fruit. In the same manner, a person with a contemptible soul cannot render a decision full of love and sympathy for ordinary people. He may claim the role of a useful and modern official, but he is a disposable instrument. This is in the best-case scenario. Maybe this is why wise military leaders let traitors live till the moment when they open the fortress gates to their betrayed fellow tribesmen.

After that, their heads were cut off. They understood that having betrayed the most sacred trust in the hour of need, the traitor would never become moral again because nobody could rely on him.

Several months ago Michael Laubsch, executive Director of Eurasian Transition Group, a leading European non-profit organization, met Alnur Musayev, ex-chief of the National Security Committee, in Vienna. I participated in this meeting. General Musayev honestly admitted - as he had earlier stated to journalists of The Times -that Akezhan Kazhegeldin had received a considerable sum of money from the government Administration in Kazakhstan. Then, Amangeldy Shabdarbayev [presently Chairman of the Kazakh National Security Committee] was responsible for the money transfer operation. By the way, when Laubsch asked when that secret transaction of buying and selling silence took place, he received a clear answer explaining, as Mr. Laubsch ironically remarked, the beginning of Kazhegeldin's long and persistent silence. In the current context, it probably explains the new awakening of activity.

And what are we supposed to do?

Until the situation hits rock bottom, the President has to have his final say. Frankly speaking, I am not sure that he has the ability to execute any honourable action. But now a historical moment has come when he can prove through his decisive actions that he is truly a virtuous and historic figure committed to helping his nation.

It is finally time to stop letting crooks tackle the tough tactics of policy-making, and to prevent them from conducting multi-level negotiations, effectively to escape from his own deep-seated fears and historic responsibility. Nursultan Nazarbayev has to overcome himself first of all. Then it will not be necessary to go to Mecca periodically and beg to the Kaaba for forgiveness for the lives of people who were killed in underground mines (privatized with his permission) by foreigners who do not care about European labour standards, or of journalists, politicians and respectable generals killed in the demolition of democratic institutions. Saddam Hussein also went to Mecca, and it turned out that Slobodan Milosevic and Radovan Karadzic kept icons. People need to serve God, not Satan, and not resort to absolution only during their vacations. But first and foremost, they need to be God's permanent instrument. The Hadiths teach that above all else this applies to rulers. Therefore, we need a program of national reconciliation and revival with the help of our leaders, because the immorality of the power that is is the source of all misfortunes.

How do you see this program?

First, it is necessary to conduct a national referendum concerning the status of the first President of the country. Only the people themselves have the right to evaluate and acknowledge the services of the first head of the country. Taking into account the chaos connected with collapse of the U.S.S.R., and lack of experience in nation-building and ways to eliminate speculators, the first President was under great pressure and temptations, as any mortal person would be. There were mistakes and people who provoked them by exploiting institutional underdevelopment. There was natural fear and blackmail. This can be forgiven only through the wisdom and indulgence of the people. We should guarantee personal security to the first President.

Then the shame of the first Kazakhgate, and the second and inevitably the third one, which were and will be obstacles not only personally for Nursultan Nazarbayev as a President and a human being, but for our entire country, will be overcome. Kazakhgate is a reality. No negotiations with the participants in the process will make it disappear. Only the forgiveness of the people will cause it to cease.

Second, it is necessary to start a full-scale dismantling of the system of presidential government. establishing a monarchy is not a solution, but a catalyst for the break-up of the country into factional zhuzes. Under a monarchy, the behind-the-scenes war within the elite transforms into a civil war. We urgently need to restore a single-chamber parliamentary system. Then we will be able to transfer all the accumulated and uncontrollable tension within the elite into the civilized walls of Parliament and open it up to the general public. Then the post of President will cease to be the Holy Grail that Kazakh knights - with various-calibre intellects of all kinds - are currently striving in vain to reach, and the pursuit of the cursed diamond will no longer steal away their lives.

Third, it is necessary not to hold nation-wide elections during the period of national reconciliation. Under officialdom's standard drill of juggling and suppression, the Kazakh bureaucracy is not ready for fair and just elections. Like a ravenous shark driven by its genetic instinct, it will do everything it can to pervert the course of justice, causing a new round of tensions inside the elite and a social conflict. All unregistered parties must be acknowledged and admitted to parliamentary work, and with an independent mass media people will decide for themselves which party they need.

Fourth, the Nur Otan Party should be dissolved - like the Communist Party of the Soviet Union - so that the President can demonstrate the political will to burn bridges with the past and start a qualitatively new stage in the government's dialogue with the public.

Fifth, development of a new constitution of the Republic of Kazakhstan should begin with the participation of representatives from the [Council of Europe's] Venetian Commission under the chairmanship of an international constitutional lawyer not connected with Kazakhstan. The need for particular national characteristics that the presidential Administration will start screaming about tomorrow has absolutely nothing to do with it. The current antidemocratic constitution, having incorporated so-called "national specificity", is the main and sufficient argument in support of this approach.

Sixth, Kazakhstan should start taking genuine and tangible steps towards adopting the European Convention on Human Rights. This will provide international security for the irreversibility and democratic sincerity of the reform.

Seventh, the President - like the Spanish king after the death of the dictator Francisco Franco - should start a dialogue with constructive social forces. What prevents us from imagining that our dictator has died, Mr. Nazarbayev? Perhaps your stubbornness, fears, pride and distrust in 99 per cent of citizens and the international community? Let us, like America, open a new page in the history of Kazakhstan. Prove to everyone that you are not such a hopeless case.

Kazakhstan has to stop discrediting its national elite. The international authority of the country is being damaged heavily. Huge volumes of intellectual, organizational and financial means are spent by the government and all individual representatives of the elite on confrontations and mutual persecution. As a result, only ordinary people suffer.

What is the practical side of implementing such a proposal?

In informal negotiations, respectable Western politicians displayed a full understanding of our problems connected with establishing our statehood, and a sincere desire to favour a fullscale dialogue aimed at relieving economic and social tension and the formation of a more effective means of political organization.

Unlike other parties, the Atameken Party was not financed by the National Security Committee, the Administration of the President or Western secret services. The Atameken Party does not beg for meetings with the government. People of good sense both in the West and Kazakhstan believe in the Atameken Party. That is why the Atameken Party invites President Nazarbayev to come to the U.S.A. before January 20, 2009, and deliver a lecture and statement at Georgetown University in Washington. For some reason it seems to me that the newly-elected U.S. President and Vice-President will accept Atameken's invitation to attend the Kazakh President's lecture, if he is ready to accept the tangible program I just described. Why not? After all, the head of our country was ready to fly halfway across the globe to Washington for the presentation of his book organized by Ambassador [Erlan] Idrisov, well known in London as a lover of tourist trips to football matches at the expense of taxpayers. I ask President Nazarbayev to accept Atameken's invitation and put aside his apologies made by his advisers, who have been profiting from the rising tension over the last two years. National Security Committee analysts, who thoroughly monitor the speeches of all opposition politicians, can produce mounds of evidence confirming the veracity of my statements, and the accuracy of my forecasts and promises. Where will the presumptuous critics and mockers disappear to after that?

And will Rakhat Aliyev and Alnur Musayev be invited to the lecture?

As far as I know, American law-enforcement agencies have not prohibited their entry. Taking into account the fact that they have discredited the regime as much as possible and, as we all have seen, did not even sweat, may I take this opportunity to invite them as well. every new release of information about revels and drinking parties among Kazakhstan's high-ranking officials, and other bizarre ways of making state decisions, bolsters the opinion of leading countries in the international community that the ruling regime is frivolous.

The problem also lies in the fact that every new information release makes an ordinary person who has lost a father, mother or a child think that this regime does not care about its people with their problems because the government has ignored their sufferings for so long - for example, the lack of medicine or money to pay the corrupt public health system or the family members of dead miners.

The sense of justice is given to humans by God. That is why their faith and their wish to accept the legal supremacy of immoral officials is running out. That is why sooner or later people will start to object to the system that scorns their feelings. even during the dark times long ago, if slaves had a feeling of self-esteem and transformed it into concrete resistance, then I am sure that in the 21st century even such intimidated people as the Kazakhs will wake up.

Unfortunately, all dictators are surrounded by bootlickers, Mercedes cars and bayonets, and gradually start to believe in their divine origin and invincibility. Nicolae Ceausescu and Saddam Hussein, for example, even on the threshold of the next world stubbornly continued to remain dictators, though only in their minds. Won't the sobering up of power in Kazakhstan come in time?

Interviewed by Ramazan Yesergepov