Systematic influence of patrons jeopardize political parties
Alot of people, especially young people, join political parties to work for politicians, and many business owners contribute substantially to political parties to buy favors or to secure appointments for themselves, or to land government positions for their affiliates. Their funds flow through election campaigns unregulated.
Raising money for an election campaign is not difficult for some political parties in Mongolia, especially the ruling Mongolian People’s Party (MPP), the Democratic Party (DP) and the Mongolian People’s Revolutionary Party (MPRP). In theory, a political party is an organized group of people, often with common views, but in Mongolia it is the opposite because today Mongolians see a political party as an institution or a powerful non-government organization that give its patrons government positions.
It is commonly known that some families hold memberships of different political parties and it is a common phenomenon in Mongolia to see families with links to multiple parties, which shows that people join political parties to defend their private interests, and they might never have joined a party to develop the country.
Let me share some examples, Member of Parliament B. Saranchimeg is a crucial member of MPP, but her younger brother B. Narankhuu is a lawmaker representing DP in Parliament and one of the key donors of DP; Minister of Mining and Heavy Industry D. Sumiyabazar was elected into Parliament from MPP twice, but his brother and retired sumo wrestler D. Dagvadorj has already become a key member of DP; and older brother of lawmaker J. Batzandan who represents DP in Parliament is J. Bat Erdene, the state secretary of the Ministry of Roads and Transportation and a senior member of MPP. There are countless examples like them.
Former President Ts. Elbegdorj put forward a proposal to make amendments to the Law on Political Party to Parliament, but lawmakers have not reviewed the amendments to this day because the proposed amendments received heavy opposition.
In an interview with Eagle Television, O. Chuluunbileg, an advisor to former President Ts. Elbegdorj, noted that the amendments’ author wanted to allocate particular budgets from the state budget for political parties to change the current corrupt system and put political parties away from influences of political and business groups, but many opposed this idea during open discussions of the amendments because they believe that the public cannot afford to allocate money from the meager state budget for political parties, this is why the proposal was dropped.
The proposed amendments have included some provisions that funds and requires that fundraising processes of political parties to be clear and transparent to the public, but those provisions won’t help resolve today’s problems as the current Law on Political Party cannot shed light onto dirty businesses the fund political campaigns. The existing system of nepotism and patron influence is very beneficial to rich people with good connections, but it is too complicated for regular people.
After winning majority in Parliament, the ruling political party always dismisses state officials to replace them with their supporters. Parliament adopted amendments to the Law on State Officials to stop mass dismissals of state officials after a parliamentary election, but there is no guarantee that lawmakers and the ruling party will adhere to the new law as the implementation of laws is very poor in Mongolia.
Often when rich people and their relatives get into good governmental offices, they are unqualified for their jobs. Instead of serving the public, they spend their limited time in office blaming their predecessors for current difficulties or speaking on behalf of populist groups and studying opportunities for profit by granting state tenders to their secret partners.
During a TV interview, former lawmaker Sh. Saikhansambuu noted that it is commonly known that newly elected government officials find their ways into public service to see a return on the money they spent backing political parties. In fact, they have no aspirations to serve the public, and only focus on continuing their political careers to steal more money from state-funded projects.
The former lawmaker said, “In 2000, the price to become a deputy minister of Cabinet was 200 million MNT,” which means that there was a system to raise money for campaign finance by selling government positions before a parliamentary election in Mongolia nearly 20 years ago and as people suspect that major political parties might have offered key government positions to rich people before an election, the “60 billion MNT case” is not new in Mongolia.
The General Audit Office demands political parties to make their political finances transparent to the public, but parties release fabricated reports. If there was an independent monitoring institution studying political party funding, the parties could try to make their fundraising processes clear.
Some observers say that the proposed amendments to the Law on Political Party makes no progress in political party funding, and to improve this law, first of all, the proposed amendments should be linked with the Law on Elections and the Constitution, both of which have been proposed to be amended.
They believe that lawmakers must tie laws on political party and elections together under the Constitution to close loopholes and address challenging issues regarding political parties and elections.
If lawmakers make premature decisions on the amendments to these laws, Mongolia’s system of nepotism and patron influence that hurts the nation’s development will resume.
...If lawmakers make premature decisions on the amendments to these laws, Mongolia’s system of nepotism and patron influence that hurts the nation’s development will resume...