We need to protect the right to protest
Some people protested against fuel price increases and claimed that they will keep protesting until the price of fuel per a liter reaches 1,500 MNT, but when representatives of these protestors met with Prime Minister U.Khurelsukh at the State Palace, they spoke differently from what they claimed during their march against fuel price increases.
“We will be with you, you should be strong, our protest and your reforms are similar, 20,000 people are supporting you, and we are ready to be important pieces of your sword and javelin, and we will beat your enemies,” they told the prime minister, which sounded ridiculous for many people.
People are curious about why these men who demanded the prime minister to disband his Cabinet over fuel price increases forgot the main purpose of their marches a few days earlier after meeting the prime minister.
The public is speculative about why these protestors stopped their march after few days. Did they get bought out after gaining the trust of many Mongolian people who joined the march to make a ditterence?
...Few people seeking political interests turned the main idea of the right to protest into something that is negative...
Mongolians used to see many protests and demonstration during spring, but today it happens every season, even in winter.
Few days ago, some people started protesting against the small and medium-sized enterprises loan misappropriation and we saw that during their marches, a lot of people were holding signs, which looked uniform and produced at a hefty cost. It was evident that the protestors had spent a sizable amount on their banners.
The public wonders about who sponsored these marches, and rumors that people only join marches for money in recent years spread amongst the public, which seem to be true for the most part. Most people believe today that there is money behind marches.
There are rumors that the opposition party and some political parties funded doctors and public school teachers’ salary demands.
During the beginning of the 1990s and democratic transition after the collapse of socialism, Mongolians joined marches without money and they used their right to freedom of expression voluntarily, but today the public is growing wary and skeptical of the true nature of some marches.
There are many people seeking political interests from the marches and they are masterminding groups and unions by taking advantage of marches to manipulate the public.
We saw cars and effigies set on fire, naked protest, people shaving their heads, hunger strikes, and people setting themselves on fire in front of others as a form of protest.
The right to protest is the fundamental right for human rights and democratic society, but people cannot abuse this right, which will undermine the function and purpose of such activities.
Few people seeking political interests turned the main idea of the right to protest, which is a key part of democracy, into something that is negative.
After benefiting from protests, those manipulating the public forget the people that demonstrated to obtain political or state power, which is usually their main goal.
We have not forgotten that five innocent people were killed during the riot took place on July 1, 2008, which resulted from the 2008 parliamentary elections.
It is commonly known where the people who led the 2008 riot are, and they are not in a jail or under the ground. They already entered politics and some of them captured high-ranking state positions.
We need to protect our “great” right to protest and we cannot afford to let few scheming individuals to pull wool over our eyes and let them play us like pawns.
Everybody criticizes air pollution threatening Ulaanbaatar residents and violations of children’s rights, but not many join such marches today for fear of being used in a political game.
If we joined demonstrations for challenges facing us today, such as air pollution or child violence, policy-makers would have to listen to our voices and they would be forced to make more efforts to address air pollution in Ulaanbaatar and protect children’s rights across the country.
If we sit idly simply because there are some malicious people profiting from public protests and do not stand against looming issues such as air pollution or child violence, those funding protests and demonstrations will keep controlling our right to protest for their personal gains.