KZBlog

Usually I keep my focus on Kazakhstan, but this is a big one. The President-for-life, Saparmurat Niyazov, died Wednesday night of heart failure at age 66. As is well-known, he was an authoritarian leader given to fulfilling whims and crushing dissent. Although there were rumors that his heart was weak, his health was considered top-secret. Thus it isn’t clear if there was a contigency plan or what now follows. Opposition parties are illegal and he goes through Ministers and high officials like flatbread–every failure is accompanied by the sacking of a government official who is then blacklisted. As had been noted, there is no one left to succeed him. Having stripped the educational system, and included study of his “great book” the Rukhnama, a history of the Turkmen people interespersed with sayings and poetry, as a major part of any curriculum, the problem of finding competent successors will last for generations.

There also issues such as what will happen to all the Turkmen gas, and contracts with foreign companies to extract that gas, or foriegn nations to issue that gas. The lessons of dictatorship are all too clear now. Once you give a man too much power, you give the post too much power for anyone to step into.

As for the next step, according to Zonak.kz, on the 26th of December, 2 days after the burial of Niyazov, the State Security Commiteee will convene an emergency meeting of the People’s Council (consisting of top management), which will organize presidential elections.

The New York Times notes that the situation appears calm, but New Years decorations are being taken down–presuambly as inappropriate for mourning.

RFE/RL notes, regarding Niyazov’s bizarre mega-projects:

Amid the megalomania, Niyazov took care to channel some of the export revenues from his country’s abundant natural gas reserves to populist initiatives, providing ordinary people with free salt, electricity, and gas.

But much of the profit went to fund projects as lavish as they were bizarre, from the construction of a winter wonderland to the creation of a vast artificial lake. Meanwhile, accounts seeped out painting a dire picture of rampant corruption, a failing health-care system, and education subordinated to one man’s cult of personality

If you love irony: the official statement is here

The statement, which was released by the State Security Council, the Cabinet and parliament, says that Niyazov, who ruled Turkmenistan for 21 years, was “the creator” of Turkmenistan’s independence and sovereignty.

“The glorious years during which the Great Serdar ruled the Turkmen people confirmed his heavenly faculty to foresee and his ability to determine priorities. like banning chewing gum, gold teeth, building an ice palace in the desert…. His unique abilities in the art of leading the nation revealed his talent as a diplomat and a wise and humane person,”who closed all the hospitals in the country outside the capital so everyone would have that much more reason to come to Ashghabat and gaze at the giant statue of Turkmenbashi the statement says.

“The objectives he set served the interests of the people, while the large-scale projects that were implemented were in harmony with the national spirit of the Turkmen people and were accepted by every ethnic Turkmen and all other people living in Turkmenistan cause they had a chance to vote and express their opinions on them without fear of reprisal,” it says.

“Saparmurat Turkmenbashi treated representatives of all ethnicities and ethnic groups who live in Turkmenistan with equal respect but outlawed opera, ballet, most pop music as being non-Turkmen. He established the principle of equality, unity and mutual trust in the country,” the statement says.

“The people of Turkmenistan will continue to pursue the political course of Saparmurat Turkmenbashi at this difficult moment Oh, another mad wanker will take the throne then? If he hasn’t already cowed everyone into a perpetual state of fear. The people of Turkmenistan are committed to the principles of Turkmenistan’s national statehood the Great Serdar laid in the foundation of Turkmenistan’s independence,” it says.