IN NEED OF CONSISTENT STRONG POLITICAL SYSTEM
Mongolia has passed the 27th year mark since its transmission to democracy after the collapse of Socialism, and Central Asian states which were parts of the Soviet Union have also passed their 26th anniversaries of independences.
Mongolian politicians and researchers usually compared Mongolia with Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan as there are many similarities between Mongolia and them -- same political history of 70 years under Socialism, nomadic lifestyle, parts of the Mongol Empire, similar economic structure based on mining industry and agriculture, and economic capabilities.
Former Prime Minister M.Enkhsaikhan said during a parliamentary session for the formation of M.Enkhbold’s Cabinet in January 2006, “The world’s attention turns to Mongolia to invest in its mining sector due to our mining boom, but Kyrgyz high ranking government officials are advising us to be careful about implementing cooperation projects with international mining corporations and form a great deal that puts national interests first as Kyrgyzstan did not get more profit from their collaborative mining projects with foreigners.”
Unfortunately, Mongolia learned nothing from Kyrgyzstan’s mining policy errors, and only few people are reaping profits from the mining sector, which doesn’t support the nation’s economic development.
The problem is that as Mongolia doesn’t have a consistent strong political system, governments subject to arbitrary policies for their tenures. That is why governments don’t execute long-term development strategy and policy.
Previous governments put forward many development goals for the next 10 or 20 years, but in reality these goals are never put into practice due to arbitrary policies.
Mongolia wants to play a significant role in regional and global arenas, especially to bring investments from its two neighbors and its “third” neighbor countries, but wanting is not enough to achieve.
During a parliamentary session in 2006, thenMP B.Batbayar pointed out, “We need to learn from Kazakhstan’s development experience as the country has carried out remarkable transformation in the political, economic and social development in only two decades since its independence in 1991.”
Ts.Nyamdorj, then-Speaker of Parliament and the current Justice Minister, responded, “We don’t need to learn from Kazakhstan, we will reach more development than Kazakhs in few years’ time.”
Today, many Mongolians are thinking about making it through the month as opposed to dreaming about developing the country. Meanwhile, the President of Kazakhstan proposed the Strategy-2050 in 2012 that aims to make the country one of the top 30 developed countries of the world by 2050.
The government of Mongolia aims to be elected as a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) in 2022. Mongolia ran for this seat three times before, but the country did not win a seat.
Many researchers studying international relations and affairs say that Mongolia is unable to become a non-permanent member of UNSC in the near future as the country doesn’t make any efforts, but in 2010, the government of Kazakhstan declared its candidacy for the November 2016 United Nations General Assembly elections for a non-permanent seat on UNSC, and was elected UNSC non-permanent member from 2017 to 2018, making significant contribution to more effective multilateral diplomacy through improved regional and international security; leadership with proven capacity for strategic relations; principles of trust, transparency and tolerance; and human rights to the Security Council.
Mongolian high-ranking government officials are saying that the government will negotiate with China and Russia to implement road and transport megaprojects in connection with China’s Belt and Road Initiative and Russian cooperation mechanisms implemented through the Eurasian Economic Union, but we are not playing a leadership role like Kazakhstan, which already negotiated with China to implement a huge transport megaproject under the Belt and Road Initiative that will connect Asia with Europe.
Kazakhstan has vast natural resources such as oil, gas, uranium, coal, iron and gold, and to develop their country, they are taking advantage of their opportunities by collaborating with regional and international partners. Meanwhile, Mongolians learned not to expect their lives to improve because of politicians in this past three decades.
Recently, people across Mongolia begun saying that the nation will not find its appropriate development path without changing the existing political system, which means Mongolia urgently needs a strong political system like the Chinese, Russian and Kazakh ones.
Kazakhstan is already on its development path and China has already ridden its train towards development before our very eyes, while Mongolian politicians fight for power among each other.