Voice of Democracy
Published by Kazakhstan 21st Century Foundation · Washington, D.C. Mar. 4, 2002

MAYBE HE'S JUST BORING -- The Kazakh people are singularly unimpressed by their new prime minister, according to a poll this week by the Kazakh Association of Sociologists and Political Scientists. Barely 17% are pleased with the appointment of Imangali Tasmagambetov, nearly 28% say they are not and 34% just don't give a damn. What's it all mean? It indicates a loss of trust in government and a lack of interest in politics as a result of the increasing corruption and decreasing economic opportunity under the Nazarbayev regime, according to the newspaper "Argumenty i Fakty Kazakhstan." http://www.rferl.org/bd/ka/

BOYS AND THEIR TOYS -- When you're the dictator, you can have all the toys you want. Free. Just let the poor saps who pay taxes pick up the tab. So Nursultan Nazarbayev got a shiny new Lear jet to play with. Just one problem, though. He wanted to put it down at the airport at little-known Akmola. Trouble is, reports The Guardian, the field "wasn't really up to anything more than an old crop-duster landing on its dusty runway." The dictator's aides weren't about to tell him no, so they "immediately ordered that the runway be resurfaced" and stood there sweating as His Royal Decadence "touched down with the asphalt still drying in the cool Kazakh wind." http://www.guardianunlimited.co.uk/

A SEA OF CORRUPTION -- The Caspian Sea may sit on top of a great lake of oil but its shores are awash in corruption. That is the conclusion of the American special envoy to the region, Amb. Steven Mann. He is frustrated with the "corruption and lack of legal guarantees that have increasingly hindered the development" of the region, reports the Associated Press and the Caspian News Agency. Amb. Mann told a two-day international conference in Moscow this week that the problem centers around disputes among the Russians, Azerbaijanis and Kazakhs over how to divide the sea into national sectors, the Iranian demand for a 20% share and Turkmeni indecision. http://www.ap.org

FLYING UNDER FALSE COLORS -- The new Aq Zhol Party is a sham, charged a member of Parliament. It was not formed by members of the opposition, as claimed, but was actually set up clandestinely by President Nazarbayev's cronies in an attempt to split the opposition into competing elements, according to Mazhilis deputy Tolen Toqtasynov. He told reporters that Nazarbayev has bought off some opposition figures by giving them posts in the new cabinet in an attempt to undermine the new parties from within. http://www.rferl.org/bd/ka/

CULT OF PERSONALITY - If President Saparmurat Niyazov's ego gets any bigger he's going to have to leave Turkmenistan and find a bigger country or possibly his own planet. The Daily Telegraph says the cult is "turning into a religion after the Central Asian despot's spokesman hailed him as 'a prophet' and praised his 'divine abilities.'" Whatever the dictator's faults may be, modesty certainly is not among them. His picture decorates every public building and just about everything has been named for him except a social disease, and the next step appears to be exalting him as a heaven sent prophet. Sycophantic staffers, trembling toadies and fawning flatterers feed the voracious ego of the newly proclaimed "Great President." His spokesman has praised the "divine gift and divine abilities" of "the prophet Saparmurat." As word of this revelation spread around the globe, there was a worldwide run on pharmacies for extra strength Pepto-Bismol. http://www.dailytelegraph.co.uk/

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