Kyrgyzstan’s politicians don't like hearing their country compared to Africa. When international election consultants proposed dipping each voter’s thumb in temporary, indelible ink last year – to prevent multiple voting and ballot fraud – election officials dismissed the idea as “something they do in Africa.”
So the latest Failed States Index released on June 20 by The Fund for Peace, a Washington-based NGO, is sure to elicit some horror from the country’s criticism-averse leadership. Kyrgyzstan ranked the most unstable state in the former Soviet Union.
High in the “warning” category, Kyrgyzstan ranked 31 worldwide -- where 1 is the worst -- right alongside some of Africa’s most notorious basket cases, such as Sierra Leone. One of the countries that slipped most in this year’s study, Kyrgyzstan even scored worse than Tajikistan (39), a ranking certain to depress analysts who have been writing that country’s obituary for years.
The index ranks 177 countries based on political, economic and social factors that signal the risk of instability. Indicators include 12 broad categories such as Uneven Development, Group Grievances and Human Rights.
In 2009, Kyrgyzstan scored 42; in 2010, it slipped to 45. Back in 2005, the first year of the study, the country ranked 65.
Following an uprising that toppled President Kurmanbek Bakiyev last April, a bout of ethnic violence last summer, and the ongoing persecution of ethnic minorities, it is perhaps unsurprising that Kyrgyzstan scored particularly low in the “state legitimacy” ranking (tying with Nigeria). And a low score in the “factionalized elites” category won’t astonish anyone following the fighting in parliament.
David Trilling is Eurasianet’s managing editor.
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