Guest post: Mongolian democracy and its oligarchs

Over the weekend Mongolia will host the seventh ministerial conference of the Community of Democracies, a global caucus of democratic nations formed with the intention of fostering democracy around the world. For Mongolia, holding the chairmanship and hosting the ministerial conference are confirmation of its achievements in democratic development.

The establishment of democracy in Mongolia appears unlikely in hindsight and in comparison with other cases. Following the declaration of the Mongolian People’s Republic in 1924 the country saw no significant political or other resistance movements until the winter of 1989-90. The prevailing interpretation of events that winter was that students carried ideas associated with Mikhail Gorbachev’s glasnost and perestroika policies back to their Mongolian homeland and began pressuring the ruling Mongolian People’s Revolutionary Party (MPRP). Soon thereafter, the MPRP “transmogrified” (according to renowned Inner Asia scholar Morris Rossabi) into a democratic party through a series of leadership changes and legal and constitutional reforms. Only a few months later – in July 1990 – the first multi-party elections were held and, presto, Mongolia became democratic.

Consider the fates of other states that embarked on reform around the same time. Yes, eastern Europe has firmly embraced democracy, though there have been significant stumbles along the way (war in the former Yugoslavia and the Caucasus, various extremist parties, Belarus, etc). Elsewhere in Asia? Democracy was beaten down violently in China in 1989. Vietnam has not embraced political reform. Cambodia’s politics have been tumultuous. Most former Soviet republics in central Asia and the Caucasus have been governed by authoritarian leaders. Russia itself is far from a model democracy in substantive as well as formal terms.

Meanwhile, Mongolia is heading for its sixth presidential election in June this year. As the incumbent, Tsakhia Elbegdorj, welcomes such celebrities of democracy as Nobel Peace Prize laureates Tawakkol Karman and Aung San Suu Kyi to the weekend’s conference, his parliament is embroiled in the kind of scandal and party rivalries that democratic parties get engaged in.

As Elbegdorj runs for re-election, a fellow Democratic Party politician, N Altankhuyag, has been serving as prime minister since last year’s parliamentary election. The DP also has the chairmanship of parliament, held by Z Enkhbold, and thus controls the legislative calendar. E Bat-Uul, also of the DP, is the mayor of Ulan Bator. The DP thus holds the four most powerful offices in Mongolia. Meanwhile, the largest opposition party, the Mongolian People’s Party (successor to the state socialist MPRP) is in disarray and leaderless, as evidenced by its failure to produce a presidential candidate to oppose Elbegdorj.

Despite the seemingly overwhelming power of the DP, there are cracks in its rule. In parliament, it governs in a shaky coalition with the Justice Coalition and the Civil Will Green Party. A DP member of parliament, S Bayartsogt, recently resigned as deputy chairman of parliament after reports that he had an offshore company and a Swiss bank account. The MPP is calling for Bayartsogt’s resignation from his parliamentary seat and an investigation by the Anti-Corruption Agency, and pushing for a no-confidence vote in Prime Minister Altankhuyag.

Some observers, especially in Mongolia, have expressed fears that the country is increasingly led by “oligarchs”. But Mongolia’s business leaders are not Russian-style oligarchs, in part because they represent conglomerates that, in many cases, have become legitimate diversified business groups. Mongolian democracy was lucky in that the country’s resource wealth was not fully recognized until nearly 20 years after the democratic revolution and an initial wave of privatisation in the chaotic 1990s. Except for the still-unresolved case of the murder of democracy activist S Zorig in 1996, Mongolian politics have been free from the violence that seems to mark Russian oligarchs and their disagreements. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, these businessmen have been elected to parliament as legitimately nominated members of their respective parties.

The main concern about the role of businessmen in parliament and cabinet is, of course, that their private interests may trump their obligation to act in the public interest as legislators. This is the fear that motivates the beefed-up anti-corruption and conflict of interest legislation and enforcement in Mongolia. The major parties are complicit in the presence of rich politicians by charging candidates a fee that is used to fund campaign activities. Mongolian democracy is wrestling with one of the challenges – campaign finance – that all democracies seem to face worldwide.

The parties also suffer from a lack of an ideological or political basis. While the DP was in the 1990s seen as a more liberal party, in the European sense of being business-friendly, this distinction has long gone. The MPP has lost all its socialist origins. This lack of an ideological base has not only opened the parties to powerful businessmen, but has also created space for short-term populism in debates about mining policy, for example.

Like other democracies, Mongolia continues to live with institutional short-comings, less-than-stellar politicians and occasional scandals. Given the surprising emergence and durability of democracy in Mongolia, it is entirely appropriate to celebrate this achievement by hosting an international democracy caucus in Ulan Bator.

Julian Dierkes is associate professor at the Institute of Asian Research, University of British Colombia

Comments

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