The other day I realized once again that pluralism exists in Kyrgyzstan. Professional PR, though, doesn’t. There are even no adequate PR specialists that could serve high officials. So, on the one hand, there are reasons to cheer the freedom of expression in Kyrgyzstan, on the other-there is an urge to deplore the lack of professionals everywhere. As an example I want to discuss the quality of the work of the presidential press service.

The most recent public event where the head of the state chose to take part is the round table, officially organized for discussing the constitutional reform in Kyrgyzstan. It was initially supposed that Kurmanbek Bakiev will take part in the round table to enlighten its participants on his vision of the constitutional reform, though nothing went as smooth as it was initially planned. The panel turned into the round of castigation for the president. Civil society activists were extremely hard on Kurmanbek Bakiev, publicly blaming him for all unfulfilled promises, political lapses and incompetence. Some even hinted at the fact that the people of Kyrgyzstan don’t necessarily need to wait for 5 years to get another president.

The whole discussion was broadcast on TV. I personally had a mixture of admiration and surprise while watching the “castigation show” on TV. I discovered in myself two personalities, battling with each other. The first one was an advocate of the freedom of speech and expression, cheering the fact that every word of denouncement aimed at the president of the country was broadcast with no edits, the second person, though, was a surprised citizen of the debunked country, wondering whether anywhere else such an act of lashing an acting head of the state is possible. I started thinking about some examples and came across the images of Putin and Nazarbaev. “No way”, - I though,- “that they could have afforded such a luxury of being publicly lashed by anyone”

It should be noted, by the way, that the round table on the constitutional reform became an exemplary in terms of the “ruthlessness” of civil society activists towards the president. Bakiev was pointed as dozens of his mistakes; it was also claimed that the presidential administration keeps fooling the head of the state, not providing his with real facts and figures, regarding the situation in the country. Only rarely was Bakiev given a floor to parry. Trying to come up with some counterarguments the head of the state was humble and rather indecisive. The state secretary, sitting next to him, was hardly able ( or may be was just unwilling) to rescue his boss.
Glancing at the duo, I immediately recalled one recent discussion about the PR campaign that the Kyrgyz president lost to his opponents…

There is a rumor that many CIS presidents often rely on spin-doctors from abroad when it comes to the quality PR. It is stated to be rather expensive. It is probably safe to state that Kurmanbek Bakiev chose to save state resources and to rely on local stuff in this case. Obviously the technique of picking up relatives and relatives of the relatives was in progress here. Professionalism, as always in state services, was not considered as a necessary factor. The results are visible now.

The round table, we are talking about here, was yet another proving ground for the presidential press service. The stuff profoundly failed to do so many obvious things. They failed to check the agenda and to empower the president with possible predictions on the content of verbal attacks of the opponents, they didn’t take care of the procedure in order to enable Bakiev to be fully engaged into 2 hours of Q&A, etc. But the funniest lapse was probably a presidential body guard, sitting write behind the president. For 2 hours the guy was in all TV cameras, yawning during Bakiev’s speeches and remarks.
Instead the press service of the head of the state wrote an opening statement for the president. All the rest was up to Bakiev to figure out.

During the round table Raya Kadirova, one of the NGO activists, pointed out at the fact that Bakiev’s administration intentionally misled him that contributed to the failure of negotiations with the members of the united opposition. She stated: “Mr.President your administration deceives you.” Bakiev was confused and had nothing to say.

I immediately recalled one saying. “The King was let down by his subordibates”,-flashed in my mind. I though, it would be extremely sad as this time we, indeed, ourselves, elected this king.