Why Are They Fighting in Kyrgyzstan?

The last few days I have been hearing a buzz about "the opposition" having taken over the former Soviet country of Kyrgyzstan. Tonight I tried to find out why. Nobody much is telling why, exactly, but I found a few links you might find useful. Here are a few snippets:

For a bystander, life in Kyrgyzstan appears to be a chain of never-ending financial acts of gratitude for everyday civil services. We need to be grateful to doctors (if we want to stay alive after their interventions), to the educators of our kids, to judges and policemen. And of course to a variety of bureaucrats for the work they do, which is, by the way, already rewarded by taxpayers' gratitude.

According to a survey conducted by the Center for the Study of Public Opinion in Kyrgyzstan, people "normally" show their gratitude by offering money to customs control system (93 percent of respondents), police (90 percent) and the courts and judiciary (66 percent). Among the most corrupt organization were customs, tax inspection (92 percent), militia and departments of internal affairs (90 percent) and the state auto inspection (89 percent). Thus it's indeed safe to conclude that the majority of the population is pessimistic about the Kyrgyz government's ambition to bring corruption to its knees.

(from: Global Integrity)

[President] Akayev, who ruled the country since its independence, was ousted following a dispute which grew out of parliamentary elections Feb. 27 and subsequent runoffs, according to The Associated Press. The revolt was also fueled by deep-rooted poverty and allegations of corruption against Akayev and his family, AP reported.

... and ...

"They told my dad and husband to get out of their Kyrgyz land because Jewish and Russian people will not be allowed to stay," she said of the men who broke into her parents’ ground-floor apartment during the March upheaval. "More people over there are starting to think that if you are not Kyrgyz, then you don’t have a right to be there," she said. Efunia, who traveled home in summer 2002 and has since been visited by her father, believes Islamic extremists are fueling much of the unrest. "Me and my family are scared of this — we do not want to live in constant fear," she said.

In her homeland, the Kyrgyz is the largest ethnic group at some 65 percent of the population, followed by 14 percent Uzbek, 12.5 percent Russian and the rest other nationalities. The religious breakdown is 75 percent Muslim, 20 percent Russian Orthodox and 5 percent other, including Jewish.

Southern Oregon Mail-Tribune via NCSJ.org

"It's not the opposition that has seized power, it's the people who have taken power. The people. They have been fighting for so long against corruption, against that [Akayev] family," Shambetov said.

Kyrgyz politics depend as much on clan ties as on ideology, and opposition figures have no unified program beyond calls for more democracy, an end to poverty and corruption, and a desire to oust Akayev, who has been in power in the former Soviet republic since independence was declared in 1991.

There is no sign that the opposition would change Kyrgyzstan's policy toward Russia or the West – and unlike in successful recent anti-government protests in Georgia and Ukraine, foreign policy has not been an issue. But any change would have impact, since both the US and Russia have cooperated with Akayev and have military bases near Bishkek.

There is also no sign the opposition would be more amenable to Islamic fundamentalist influence than Akayev's government has been.

Jerusalem Post via NCSJ.org


So: you have a decade of increasing outrage over government corruption, especially in the President and his family. You have a disputed election. You have a bunch of poor young people ready to pop off. Then somebody casts the first stone. Before you know it, some used-to-be-unknown person, possibly the equivalent of the Tea Party chairman of BFE, Pennsylvania, USA, is in the White House and the President is out of the country.

This could be an internally Good Thing, or it could degenerate the way the Russians' and Iranians' revolutions did. Only time will tell.