New Year –New Constitution
Kyrgyzstan, Politics and Society4 Comments
Not that I was very surprised by the announcement that on the day before the end of 2006 yet another constitution was adopted by the Kyrgyz parliament. Common sense was something that Kyrgyz MP’s have not been employing for months. May be, for a change, they decided to do it and voted for the draft of the constitution suggested by the president. The document was crafter to bring legislative chaos to an end.
After all pseudo- patriotic declarations and actions of civil disobedience, that were supposedly aimed at restricting the power of president in the country, oppositional members of parliament went back on their own words as soon as the prospects of dissolving the parliament amidst the political crisis in Kyrgyzstan became real.
There was a feeling during the last several months, that anti -Bakiev deputies were not able to sense the boundaries of pushing their own luck. Once confronted with the reality, oppositional MPs proved to be rather flexible and capable of compromising. The price of this compromise – the seats in the parliament that no one apparently wanted to vacate.
It was very interesting to witness, how different attitudes and political platforms have been changing in the process of wrangling for the new constitution. In November, when all odds were in favor of turbulent and unpredictable opposition, Melis Eshimkanov, Azimbek Beknazarov and other cheerleaders were ,obviously, enjoying the role of the Freedom, guiding the people a-la Delacroix. Though, after the Fortune turned its back upon them, revolutionary zeal has evaporated rather quickly. Melis Eshimkanov, for instance, announced that he was going to leave for Tibet for his holidays to reconsider the meaning of his life.
Bolot Sherniyazov, unfortunately for Kyrgyzstan, chose to stay in the country and, recovering from the aftershock, came up with an idea to rename Kyrgyz republic into Kyrgyz khanate.
Other oppositional MPs decided against being too extravagant and chose to bend every effort to save their parliament seats. The new presidential draft of the constitution, where president Bakiev managed to secure his power, was passed without any questions. It turned out ,that ,choosing between the fight for own principles and the opportunity to retain a status of high- ranking state employee, the members of Kyrgyz parliament didn’t hesitate a second to choose the latter. It is not really important for them now who sets the rules of the game. The main concern is that the game for them is not over.
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[...] Yulia writes on Kyrgyzstan’s new constitutional amendments — ones which reverse very recent changes that weakened the power of the president. She says that faced with abandoning their principles or possibly losing their seats in new elections, parliamentarians eagerly chose the former. Nathan Hamm [...]
Kyrgyzstan’s New Constitution
As many have surely noticed, Kyrgyzstan’s parliament has again amended the constitution. This time, they have opted to give the president back the powers they stripped from him. The opposition claims the amendments are illegal and plans to chall…
Yulia,
Sort of sad, really; I fell on the optimistic side for the original constitutional reforms. Looks like you were right all along though.
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You’re not right about opposition MPs. They opposed the new constitution to the very end. It was the MPs in the middle (former adepts of the Alga, Kyrgyzstan) who acted this (a very humiliating for Kyrgyzstan) way
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