most independent radio station, Radio Liberty. I hope that thanks to your platform our voice - which is being silenced and isolated by the Kazakh authorities - will nevertheless be heard in Kazakhstan. Thank you very much for that.
We thank you, Dr Dosmukhamedov, for this interview.
Interviewed by Sultan-Han Akkuuly
WILL POWER IN KAZAKHSTAN SOBER UP IN TIME?
Alma-Ata Info (Kazakhstan)
20 November 2008
On the eve of his birthday, Dr. Dosmukhamedov, Chairman of the Atameken Party, was interviewed by the newspaper Alma-Ata Info.
Dr. Dosmukhamedov, congratulations on your birthday - we wish you all the best. Your birthday coincides with major changes internationally, doesn't it?
Thank you. Let me express my sincere gratitude to you for giving me an opportunity to thank all my compatriots for their support and solidarity.
We have witnessed a tectonic shift that has had a strong moral effect on all humankind. The election of Barack Obama is a national victory for the American people, confirming the words of Winston Churchill that democracy is not the most perfect, but the most effective form of social organization ever conceived by humans. This was also a victory of morality over the cynicism of those people who have fallen far short of successfully governing the world's leading nation, and who have turned the historic influence, authority and the political and military machine of the United States into an instrument of cruel world supremacy.
Mankind is tired of double standards, interminable warfare and rivers of innocent human blood being shed as the result of a small cadre of officials with limited intelligence, who have fallen far short of successfully governing a great power. The latest elections were a protest. And, thank God, the procedures laid down by the founding fathers and forefathers of the American nation and democracy have worked both for the benefit of the country and the whole of mankind. It would be naive to think that now everything will change overnight. There will be resistance to this paradigm shift, both inside the federal government of the U.S.A. and in international organizations. Nevertheless a break-through has taken place. An opportunity has arisen. everybody understands that, even those people like the President of Iran. Despite a barrage of criticism by his inner circle of narrow-minded religious fanatics, he summoned up all his willpower, restrained his pride and sent a letter to the newly elected President of the U.S.A. Like the rest of the world, he had to acknowledge that American democracy worked effectively, and resolved to use the occasion as an opportunity to further the future interests of his country.
And what does this all mean for Kazakhstan?
Our country has entered a stage of deep crisis in all parameters: political, moral, economic and in foreign politics. even if there is a series of "ostrich decrees", displaying a head-in-the-sand attitude aimed at dealing with the existing problems, life will not improve. The economy will not gain anything from it. Trust in the government will not be restored.
No formal systems of the central government are functioning. Within the ruling elite, a centrifugal process is fully underway, betraying splits into clans, tribes and zhuzes (conglomerates of the Kazakh tribes). Heads of clans, tribes and zhuzes are being elected. In society, ordinary people pursue informal ways of resolving situations and problems that arise. Corruption is clear confirmation of a deep conflict between formal and informal institutions. Tension inside the ruling elite will not cease, even if the propaganda machine shows the wonderful physical shape of the head of the country on TV ten times a day. Ambitions are only flaring up. even if President Nursultan Nazarbayev, resembling God, declares: "Let there be light!" or "People, buy real estate!", investment activity will not stabilize.
Nothing will change even if the President - acquainted with the dubious merits of people like [Adilbeck] Zhaksybekov, [Kairat] Kelimbetov and [Bulat] Utemuratov - still decides, out of despair, to let these odious politicians (who have led the country to chaos and collapse) participate in government. Their only talent lies in intrigue and exerting a gracelessly crude influence on the situation. even if they execute ten more journalists and bully editors and starving, discontented students and villagers, or conduct another show trial or witch hunt, they will only provide a catalyst for hostility followed by their brutal response, which will lead down a one-way road to an out-of-control social explosion.
Even if they forced one of the elite to leave the country, and tomorrow a second one, peace would not come. On the contrary, a new stage of war has begun in which the petty spiders quickly strive to grow fat on cash, as the ship of state slowly sinks to the bottom. even if they are removed after satiating themselves, the whole process will start from the beginning again in a vicious cycle. In a word, the international crisis has exposed and accelerated the internal one in Kazakhstan - leading to a fork in the road, as Senator Biden wrote in his message to President Nazarbayev last year in token support of our party.
It is clear from the last interview with Akezhan Kazhegeldin that he is planning an alliance with Rakhat Aliyev and that there are behind-the-scenes negotiations with the government. Have your numbers grown?
I have never been on the team of either Rakhat Aliyev or Akezhan Kazhegeldin. If the Kazakh justice system had been ultimately objective in its investigations and judgements regarding the culpability of Aliyev, I would have admitted it with understanding, since I am a lawyer. If a person is a killer or a gangster he should suffer a just punishment. As long as millions of people are not convinced that the judgement is just and objective, there are moral reasons to acknowledge Rakhat Aliyev's contribution to derailing the ugly, Kazakh political-power machine. I will never cross the line and join the team of people who have killed, tortured, betrayed and taken away other people's businesses and lives.
What or whose betrayal are you talking about?
I have repeatedly said in the past: I do not think that politics is necessarily an amoral or dirty business. On the contrary, there should be a moral pivot at its base: that is, the interests of millions of citizens whose fates, and those of their children, depend on decisions made by politicians. An infected tree cannot produce healthy fruit. In the same manner, a person with a contemptible soul cannot render a decision full of love and sympathy for ordinary people. He may claim the role of a useful and modern official, but he is a disposable instrument. This is in the best-case scenario. Maybe this is why wise military leaders let traitors live till the moment when they open the fortress gates to their betrayed fellow tribesmen.
After that, their heads were cut off. They understood that having betrayed the most sacred trust in the hour of need, the traitor would never become moral again because nobody could rely on him.
Several months ago Michael Laubsch, executive Director of Eurasian Transition Group, a leading European non-profit organization, met Alnur Musayev, ex-chief of the National Security Committee, in Vienna. I participated in this meeting. General Musayev honestly admitted - as he had earlier stated to journalists of The Times -that Akezhan Kazhegeldin had received a considerable sum of money from the government Administration in Kazakhstan. Then, Amangeldy Shabdarbayev [presently Chairman of the Kazakh National Security Committee] was responsible for the money transfer operation. By the way, when Laubsch asked when that secret transaction of buying and selling silence took place, he received a clear answer explaining, as Mr. Laubsch ironically remarked, the beginning of Kazhegeldin's long and persistent silence. In the current context, it probably explains the new awakening of activity.
And what are we supposed to do?
Until the situation hits rock bottom, the President has to have his final say. Frankly speaking, I am not sure that he has the ability to execute
