On a bright winter’s day in Bishkek, a group of children play in the front yard of the Shining Path shelter, a home to orphans and young people from broken backgrounds. “Take the guests to mother,” a nurse instructs Daniyar, 6, who is swinging on the monkey bars.
A seemingly innocuous suggestion to allocate time and space for Kyrgyz MPs to observe Islam’s traditional Friday prayers has produced a furor with implications for mosque-state separation. Opponents say the measure threatens to erode the concept of secularism enshrined in Kyrgyzstan’s constitution.
A looming trial in Kyrgyzstan could bring a sense of closure to the friends and relatives of those who died in April amid the collapse of former president Kurmanbek Bakiyev’s administration. But critics contend the process could do more harm than good for the still-fragile Central Asian state.
Blurred by smoke and putrid steam, eagles and flocks of ravens hover overhead and swoop down to feast on colonies of rats. On the ground, a solitary pig roots through household debris, its snout buried in discarded plastic and rotting cardboard.
A new website offers an alternative to the humdrum personality-driven politics on Central Asia’s rocky “Island of Democracy.”
On September 27, the Dutch environmental NGO Milieukontakt International launched vybirai.org. The site offers visitors easy-to-use tools to compare political parties’ promises before Kyrgyzstan’s October 10 parliamentary polls.
According to Wouter Pronk, the project’s senior manager, the site was modelled on previous Milieukontakt initiatives that allowed voters to make green choices by contrasting the environmental policies of parties in European countries. Kyrgyzstan’s vybirai.org – meaning choose.org in Russian – differs in that it focuses on all aspects of a party’s campaign pledges, from education and the economy to foreign policy.
Though a noble attempt, the site is unlikely to foster a change in the way campaigns are conducted, at least this time around.
At a launch event, Pronk admitted there were faults with the initiative, but said that Milieukontakt and local partner organizations had “proceeded from the assumption that parties take their manifesto promises seriously.” The comment produced a ripple of laughter among the assembled.
Omurbek Babanov, leader of Kyrgyzstan’s nascent Respublika Party, used a knack for dealmaking during the early post-Soviet era to turn himself into one of Kyrgyzstan’s richest citizens. Now, he is trying to apply his savvy touch to politics.
Fraught with financial uncertainty and yet led by wealthy elites, Kyrgyzstan’s football teams and tournaments provide a window into the country’s political and social struggles.
