Is there any hope?

What is going on in Mongolia? Usual picture. Some tiny demonstrations and arrests of those who spoke ill of the Government. One of the publicly well-known persons named Ch.Munkhbayar has been arrested and locked up. He has been very critical of the Government's policies, especially of those related to China. 

Ridiculously he was prisoned on charges of spying against China! Never heard of a country which charges own citizen for spying against a third country. And this charge is not even legitimate. Another funny excuse from the former communists to shut up one of its opponents. Remind my reader that the former communist party is currently in power in Mongolia, thanks to the last fraud election results. 

This party, named Mongolian People's Party (they removed the word "Revolutionary" from its official name) has been ruling for over 20 years since 1992, but things gotten worse. They can't run a country. They claim to have become a Social-democratic party now, but you know, you better never trust the communists. 

What we need is a system change! Parliamentary form of Government does not suit us! We need to change it and choose the presidential form of Government. 

I think the choice depends on the culture, tradition and lifestyle of the people, whether to choose the parliamentary or the presidential form of government. Mongols are nomadic people in origin and tend to like to have more a sole leader as the "boss" than a group as ruler. We like to see a responsible leader who's head can be "cut off"  if things go wrong.  In parliamentary system there is no such a leader who can be held accountable in the end.

Our current system of governance (parliamentary form of government) has been used by ill-fated people who got into the Parliament at any cost, to enrich themselves and take advantage of  it only for their own good. The downside of this system- no one can be held responsible and accountable- has been used to avoid any charges yet do whatever they please to make profit, using their positions and influence on executive branch.

I believe that the parliamentary form of government is more suited to people who have a sedentary culture and a tradition to make decisions   collectively than being ruled by one leader. 

The question is only whether or not our  political parties (over 30 now) are willing to do it. The answer is no. They all swear that the current parliamentary form needs to be "improved" and "democratized". So there is no hope. The only hope is that the people understand it and fight for it. They need to flood the streets and demand that change. 

The question is, again, if the people can do it. By tradition our people have no experiences or knowledge of how to fill  streets.  It is about being consistent and accept sacrifices.  I think all this is too strange and foreign to us.  So there is no hope, again. Sad.

   

Mongolia is divided on Ukraine

Today's topic is Ukraine. Russia is attacking it's neighbor- Ukraine. The whole world is condemning the aggressor. Dictator-countries like North Korea, Syria, Eritrea and Belarus stand with the Russian. 141 countries voted against Russia at the UN. 

Russia says, they defend those Russians in Ukraine whom the Kyiv  regime treated as second class citizens and even killed many of them. There might be some truth in that claim, but the way Russia is handling it, is wrong. Totally wrong.

It's like Mongolia is attacking China with an excuse that minority ethnic Mongolians living in China suffer the same faith and treated the same way by the Han Chinese, like Russians living in Ukraine.  One of the minority groups in China- Mongolians have been treated so badly in their home territories. They have been jailed for speaking out, forcefully moved from their places, discriminated against and lastly, striped of rights to be taught some classes in their own language in schools. 

If Mongolia interferes and enters China to defend and protect Mongols living in China, China would not like it, and all hell will break loose. Mongolia is not capable of doing it anyway, someone might laugh. It is not about being capable of or not, it's about principles. Mongolia has no right to be involved in this issue.

Or another example:  Let's assume that Mongolia's Government  treats  the Kazakh minority so bad that they revolt. They even want to be independent and ask for help from neighboring Kazakhstan. And what should Kazakhstan do? Aid the revolting Kazakhs, or even enter Mongolia to conduct some "special operations"?  Hell, no! 

In both examples above, the victims are the minorities (Mongols, Kazakhs) who are happening to live in countries where the majority nationalities are different (culture, lifestyle, language etc) than those minorities. The same applies to those Russians living in Ukraine, to whom came Russian army to "protect and defend". 

In all these cases, this is a "domestic" issue, and any foreign country has no business to be involved in this matter. That is the principle, and it should be respected and followed by any power, no matter how big or small that power is. 

This suppression and discrimination problem should be addressed by any means other than a war or military conflict. The UN and other international bodies are invented for that, but one should admit that unfortunately they don't have the power as we wish, to fix such problems and keep the world in peace. 

Even so, big powers should refrain from using their "muscles" but instead must use their "brains". Russia's action is a  very bad model for "small fishes" and other powers. 

Now, let's talk about how this war affects Mongolia as a country and how Mongolians perceive it.  In general, this war affects us badly. As a country, we are "sanctioned" too. Why? We are a landlocked country, with only two neighbors: in south with China and in north with Russia. If Russia is sanctioned, any land and air connections with the West are cut off because everything goes   over Russian territories. Plus, Russians impose restrictions on products and foods exports to Mongolia. So, we have "sanctions" from both the West and the Russian Federation. What is left is China.

If Mongolians show support for Ukraine and condemn the war, Russia may become upset and stop supplying with energy and petroleum products. That would be the main concern, especially for those who support Russian action, although our official position on Ukraine-Russia issue has been neutral, with being one of the 35 countries abstained from UN vote on Ukraine. So, Mongolian citizens are divided.

Those who support Russia say that we should stand with Russia because Russia is our guarantee for independence, and because Russia insisted that Mongolia should be independent after WW2, persuaded the other powers to accept it. Especially, when China wanted to "keep" Mongolia (even though pre-PRC and non-Chinese empire was collapsed) claiming that Mongolia "belonged" to China. (Mongolia was never a part of China except they occupied for a short time in 1920's). 

There is a truth in there that Russia (or Soviet Union, to be precise) was the only power to speak for our independence, and we should be thankful for that, no matter what their intentions were.

Maybe they wanted a "buffer-state" between them and China and did not want to border with China directly in the south, who knows. Since then, Soviet Union and Mongolian People's Republic were close partners, and many Mongolians still have very deep sympathy towards Russians. 

The other part of Mongolians condemn Russia's action, and claiming that today's Russia is not the same we know back then, like Soviet Union. Russia has changed, we say. They are not friendly to us anymore , as they used to, even though there has been regime changes in both countries since 1990. Russia has become more "bully", so to speak. And that is proved by their action against Ukrainians who actually are their "relatives" by root with almost same culture and language! 

Anyways, that was a short view of how it looks like in Mongolia during this complicated times when the whole world seems to be affected as well by this Ukraine-Russia war. Hopefully, it ends soon and everything goes back to normal. Hope that Russia's President  Putin thinks twice before every decision  he makes. It is sad that Russia has ruined its reputation and made so many "enemies". Being isolated and feeling hostility from the world are not promising and healthy signs which will hurt Russia in the long run.    I don't think that Russian citizens would want  to have a "Robinson Crusoe type" of lifestyle in the future.