A Little Bit of History Repeating?

Yesterday the E-mail List of the Youth Association Kel-Kel sent out a short press release issued by the Kyrgyz Human Rights watchdog ‘Kylym Shamy’. In it the organization informs about an incident that occurred at Moscow airport. Human Rights activist Aziza Abdirasulova, head of ‘Kylym Shamy’ was arrested at the airport after border guards found a bullet in her hand luggage. The circumstances of this alleged discovery are more than suspicious as becomes clear from the press release. Abdirasulova, who recently became more public by openly criticizing the government and president Bakiev for false elections in July, was not allowed to witness the search of her luggage, ordered to step away, while the Russian officials several times went through her things. Only in the end, after scanning the bag again and again, they somehow ‘found’ the mysterious bullet.

‘Kylym Shamy’ calls this incident a provocation and rightly asks, how Abdirasulova could leave Warsaw airport, if the bullet was already in her bag? The statement ends with the conclusion that this case poses more questions than is providing answers.

Neues aus Tash-Kumyr

Tash-Kumyr ist eine kleine Stadt in der Dzhalal-abadskaja Oblast im Süden der Republik Kyrgyzstan. Als Bewohner einer Stadt steht den Bürgern Tash-Kumyrs das Recht zu, in Wahlen die Abgeordneten eines Stadtrats zu wählen, der sich dann in kleinen, unbedeutenden Angelegenheiten mit dem Oberhaupt der Exekutivstrukturen streiten darf. So zumindest das formale Setting. Häufig benutzen Abgeordnete lokaler Räte, auch Kenesh genannt, ihre Stellung, um ihre persönlichen Angelegenheiten zu bereinigen. Im vorliegenden Text wird die Perspektive gewechselt und in den Vordergrund tritt der Unglaube angesichts eines Wahlvolks, dass wählt, um jemandem zum Verantwortlichen der gegenwärtigen Umstände machen zu können. Allein die Regelung persönlicher Probleme steht bei den Wählern auch noch auf der Agenda; das Interesse an der Sanktionierung exekutiver Willkürhandlungen hingegen oder aber die Einsetzung allgemein verbindlicher Regeln scheint noch weit entfernt und dem durchschnittlichen Wähler in Tash Kumyr wesensfremd.

Neue Ausgabe der iz3w – Schwerpunkt Zentralasien

Die Ausgabe der iz3w für August und September beschäftigt sich schwerpunktmäßig mit dem postsowjetischen Zentralasien. In acht Artikeln werden die drängendsten Fragen zu Themen wie Energiesicherheit, Internationale Beziehungen, ‘nation and state building’, Umweltpolitik und Religion angegangen. Mehr Informationen findet man hier.

Ulan Melisbek and the New Media

Ulan Melisbek was appointed head of the Kyrgyz License Service in October last year. Having returned home from abroad he was quick in familiarizing with Bakiev’s handling of power relations in post-revolutionary Kyrgyzstan. Although criticizing Bakiev for his political course on various blogs, Internet forums and the Internet News site www.gazeta.kg, he found ways to adapt to the new environment once he was back in Kyrgyzstan (from the States). He justified his change of mind by explaining that he had been cut off from objective information while abroad. When returning to his ‘rodina’ he found that Bakiev took much responsibility in changing the country’s course (to the better of course). Assuming the office at the License Service he promised to work solely for the welfare of the Kyrgyz State (and its people), not meddling in (dirty) politics.

Several months later Melisbek, this young promising guy from California, is in the middle of a scandal that threatens to force him out of his position. The scandal is not worth mentioning in regard to its roots in extensive corruption which seems to growingly subdue all of Bakiev’s state apparatus to its destructive logic. It is also absolutely not clear who actually is the guilty one in this episode and to be blamed. The whole thing is, however, new in its staging and the way it was constructed as a political question subject to public debate.

From the very beginning Ulan Melisbek caused harm to his reputation as a representative of a new, unspoiled (meaning: non-sovietized) generation by exaggeratedly adulating the powers-that-be and himself. Comments made on an interview he gave to gazeta.kg show the amount of suspicion Melisbek raised when constantly referring to himself as the savior for the still sovietized Kyrgyz bureaucracy. In a comment one reader expresses his reservations:

„… во 1-х хочу поздравить нашего патриота, молодец, если сам всего достиг! но прочитав я много чего опосаюсь: у всех горят глаза, как только приходят на новое место,как у нас в народе говорят „кыйратывием“,но такой темперамент имеет статус как быстро вспыхнуть да и так же погаснуть, слишком самоуверенно говорит наш патриот.могут и палку в колесо-как принято к сожалению. [...] но не смотря на свои высказывание все таки хочется поддержать этого молодого специалиста,все таки человек к-рый побывал в других странах имеет более обширное мировозрение,но как приподнесет себя -время покажет.“

Website of the Project ‘Preserving Kyrgyzstan’s History’ launched

Sam Tranum is assistant professor in the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication at the American University – Central Asia in Bishkek. Organizing a seminar on Historical Journalism he managed to gather a group of students and motivated them to engage into a very fascinating project. The idea was to interview elderly people in Kyrgyzstan and collect their stories as long as they are able to tell them. The result is a collection of more than 30 interviews conducted by 17 students.

The project promises to grow even further with a website launched to present the results and to connect all those who are  interested in the preservation of stories from the (Soviet) past. A first list of publications and projects on oral history in Central Asia is presented and asks to be extended …

Here’s the link to the project’s website.