Sat, 29 Jul 2000

Personality cults in C. Asia are a mixed bag

By Frank Nienhuysen

MUNICH (DPA): Life can be good in impoverished Central Asia, provided, that is, one occupies a high post, preferably that of president. Kazakhstan's head of state Nursultan Nazarbaev, for example, can steal bread to his heart's content, ignore speed limits in his limousine and, if that were not enough, diddle his insurance company to boot.

How does he get away with it? No problem, if you're the president of sprawling Kazakhstan. At the end of last week, Nazarbaev had his rubber-stamp legislature pass a Bill that exempts him from prosecution for any crime -- with the exception of high treason -- for the rest of his natural life. It doesn't end there either.

Even when he leaves office, Nazarbaev, whose term does not expire until 2006 anyway, will retain his seat on the country's powerful Security Council and the right to address Parliament and the Cabinet.

Nazarbaev's colleague in neighboring Turkmenistan, Saparmurad Niazov, has it even better. At the end of December his compliant Parliament named him president-for-life and thus the most autocratic of all Central Asia's potentates.

Turkmenistan undoubtedly boasts the grandest personality cult around its president, with giant portraits of Niazov gracing virtually every important location in the country. That, though, is mere symbolism. Since the breakup of the Soviet Union, the president has held all the reins of power in his hands.

That also applies to the other presidents in the region: Nazarbaev in Kazakhstan, Islam Karimov in Uzbekistan, Imamali Rakhmonov in Tajikistan and Askar Akaev in Kyrgyzstan.

While the constitutions of these states at first sight are all democratic -- allowing parliaments, parties and the election of presidents -- their true nature is rather different.

This became clear, if proof were needed, in January when the only other candidate standing for the presidency in Uzbekistan voted for the incumbent. The most important opposition figures had already been eliminated from the contest and the media is in any case firmly in Karimov's grip.

"The presidents are trumped-up figures, while the parliaments are stuffed full of loyal deputies with no powers of their own. They serve only to concur," says Uwe Halbach of the Cologne Institute for Oriental Studies.

"A parliamentary opposition in the Western sense exists in none of the Central Asian countries." And therefore, no real democratization.

To be sure, the extensive powers enjoyed by the region's presidents are part of a traditional system of fealty to local warlords which typified civilizations here long before the Soviet Union absorbed them.

On the other hand, "during the recent transition periods, the presidents have mostly provided a guarantee for stability and security," says Halbach.

"They see anything else as too risky." Which is why the Turkmen people are bound to play along with the latest cult surrounding Niazov. The president's newest move is to name his mother "Heroine of the Nation". Good for her -- except she died in 1948.