Voice of Democracy
Published by Kazakhstan 21st Century Foundation · Washington, D.C. · Jule 7, 2004

CHUTZPA, KAZAK STYLE --If you're a Central Asian dictator under investigation in several countries for corruption and widely condemned for your abysmal human rights record, there’s only one way to get a favorable mention in a reputable Western newspaper: buy an ad. That's just what Kazakh strongman Nursultan Nazarbayev did this week in the Washington Post. Usually the comics are printed in the back of the Post’s Style section, but on Tuesday a portion of them made their way on to the bottom half of page A-15 in the form of an advertisement that cost the Kazakh government thousands of dollars; that’s pocket change for a man the U.S. Justice Department says has taken tens of millions in bribes in exchange for oil leases in his country. Federal prosecutors are threatening to indict Nazarbayev on corruption charges, including money laundering and bribery. Folks over at the State Department must have gotten a good laugh out of the Kazakh ad; their annual Human Rights Report consistently condemns Nazarbayev's government for widespread abuses. Even the Washington Post, after pocketing his money, had to feel a bit guilty in light of Nazarbayev's often violent repression of his country's media and the jailing of journalists who offend him; it has been the source of harsh international condemnation. Nazarbayev’s ad writers were only able to find two obscure congressmen to praise him; missing were the many other more prominent members of the House of Representatives and Senate who have been highly critical, including Senators John McCain, Joseph Lieberman, Patrick Leahy and Mitch McConnell, and Representatives Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Tom Lantos, Henry Hyde, John Lewis, Jan Schakowsky, Chris Smith and Steny Hoyer -- all senior members of the congressional leadership. This wasn't the first time Nazarbayev, one of the world's wealthiest rulers, has resorted to paying for a favorable mention in the Washington Post, and it won't be the last, since it's about the only way to get real newspapers to publish some nice -- albeit inaccurate -- words about the corrupt dictator. http://www.washingtonpost.com

SAYING IT DOESN'T MAKE IT SO -- Now appearing in the fiction section of your local bookseller and the rejects pile at the public library is a short piece of fantasy titled "Democracy - Kazakh Style," published by a Kazakh government affiliate calling itself the Caspian Information Center (CIC). It faults the U.S. State Department for adopting a definition for democracy that it deems unrealistic, and it says Kazakhstan should be judged according to its own standard. Set the bar where the Nazarbayev regime wants it, and even North Korea would qualify, but it takes more than the testimony of a dictator's mouthpiece to make a country a democracy. If there were a truth in labeling law for country names, Kazakhstan might be called the Corrupt Repressive Dictatorship of Nazarbayevstan. The CIC's point is "judge us by where we are today compared to where we used to be," but the trouble with that is many foreign observers contend Nazarbayev is turning Kazakhstan back toward Stalinism after notable progress a decade ago; meanwhile other former Soviet republics -- such as Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and even Russia itself -- genuinely have made great democratic strides. Kazakhstan is regressing, not progressing, according to various international organizations. The paper's authors concede Kazakhstan under Nazarbayev does not "conform to Washington's view of the correct route to liberal democracy," but the country is following its own path and by its own definition it has taken "major steps" and "progress is occurring." Of course, North Korea, Syria and Belarus say the same thing. http://www.caspianinfo.org/index.php

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