Democratic Conditions in Kyrgyzstan?

Last week Member of Parliament Irina Karamushkina from the Social Democratic Party of Kyrgyzstan called on her MP colleagues to conduct a fair vote on the candidates for the Central Election Committee. According to her, last December’s elections showed that citizens’ rights existed only on paper and respect to the law was only rhetorical. Today only the interests of one party were lobbied. Karamushkina wanted to stand up for a vote without manipulation to restore the trust of the population.

That’s nice of her. Though it leaves some questions unanswered. The new members were of course hand-selected and all nominated by the ruling party Ak-Zhol. But that is nothing surprising. Kyrgyzstan lives in a state of affairs, in which most politicians do only speak, because they want to remind the power, that they do exist (and thus offer a price for a possible co-opting). And it sounds always a bit suspicious, if someone criticizes the „vlast“. Why Karamushkina did it? The more so, if nothing else has been heard from the party leadership or other deputies.

Usually oppositional events follow this path of public scrutiny. It is a dilemma: if someone decides to stand up against the power, he or she is automatically confronted with public suspicion. Too often the public observed how politicians from supposed-to-be oppositional forces raised their criticism to declare their readiness (and the price) to be co-opted by the power. Atambaev, Eshimkanov, Suvanaliev, Satybaldiev, Karabekov, … – How to build up public trust, if there is nothing provided by the political system to build trust upon?

Irina Karamushkina’s statement at least caused some funny anecdote. After she had finished her speech, MoP Kubanychbek Zholdoshev from the Ak-Zhol party (he entered the parliament being number 67 (!) at the party list) entered the stage and asked Karamushkina to apologize to Ak-Zhol group. According to him there is no reason to speak of undemocratic conditions in Kyrgyzstan. He thinks that only if all deputies in the Zhogorku Kenesh were from Ak-Zhol party one could not speak of democracy. However, since there are three parties and since the elections were held in accordance with the election code there is nothing and no-one to blame. – Exactly such statements ruin any public trust left in society …

The last speaker was head of communist party Iskhak Masaliev . He asked pardon for … well, he said, he doesn’t know what for. But since some deputies need an apology he thought it wise to ask for it. (Masaliev himself recently started a little campaign against the AUCA, demanding this reputed liberal arts institution to leave the main campus building, which in Soviet times was the seat of the Kyrgyz government; and he questioned the educational standards of the AUCA – well, if he pursues this path, his premature pardoning was made just in time!)