Post-communist Mongolia hasn't changed a bit, politically and ideologically compared to the communist-era Mongolia. Unfortunately. Since 1990 it has a lot of time passed, enough for a better change, but no improvement at all. People say, South Korea has managed to become one of the top economies just in under 30 years! Or the Arab countries! How they turned a desert land to a paradise, using their natural resources? It depends all on how they run their country. Many post-communist countries don't do well as they wish. There is no magic recipe for all. Every country's situation is different, the way of life, tradition, custom, mindset etc.
As for Mongolians, being nomads for thousands of years, it was hard to change the scenario and to try a different way of life. They used to listen to a leader who they believe can lead them the right way. Even tough they like being as independent, they would obey a strong leader and follow unconditionally. We saw this in Mongolia's history when the Great king Chinggis Khaan (aka Genghis khan) led Mongolians to triumph in 13th century.
Today we have to adapt a new way of how to live, or run the country, after we tried to reach the paradise called communism as Karl Marx and Lenin promised us, for 70 years. We dreamed 70 years until we collapsed. The generation, educated and brainwashed during that period is still alive and powerful, to hinder any new ideas. After communism collapsed, a new term called democracy was introduced and the majority believed that we finally got on the right track. But it doesn't seem to be the ideal one as we expected. One must admit that the latter has lots of pluses compared to the previous one.
70 years of communism, plus 30 years of democracy equals 100 years of "commudemo". What a waste of time! The result? Look at us now! Every third one is labeled as poor. Statistically. People say, actual percentage of poor people is higher that the statistic. I am one of them. I drive a junk car of Japanese origin and I use a used old laptop. I have an old TV set brought from South Korea, found on the street. Maybe I am not the extreme poor one because I own a laptop and an old car, but that is only thanks to help from other family members, I could keep myself let's say at a "moderate" level.
MPP flag (Copy of French flag with red and blue stripes switched the sides)
Ironically, the current ruler is the Mongolian People's Party (MPP), the former communist party called Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party (MPRP)-the only political party back in the communist era, which actually ruled most of the time since 1990 when we voted for democracy (many political parties, human rights, privatization, free speech etc). So basically, the wolf found a sheep skin and covered himself with it, pretending to be a sheep. And we saw it as sheep, too! (They removed the word "revolutionary" from their party name 'cause they didn't want to look like communists)
Besides MPP, there is one major party called Mongolian Democratic Party (MDP) which was "lucky" to defeat MPP just ones in the past elections. So MPP is the ruling wolf in sheep's skin. Forget about the other over 30 political parties in Mongolia, we can call them as preschool establishments. Our wolf has revealed himself to us in many situations. No matter how hard they pretend, communist way of running the country is the only way they know.
One example: To solve the traffic jam in the capital city, they decided to limit the number of license plates in the city to 730 thousand. No new number will be given over that limitation. They want to hold the number of cars in check. They force us not to drive one day in a week based on license plate (LP) number ending digit. If your LP number ends with 5, you are not allowed to drive on Fridays. Sometimes they put in force a much tougher rule which allows you to drive only 3 days in a week, excluding weekends. This ruling is called "Even and odd number driving", which means you drive only on odd days (Mon, Wed, Fri) because you LP number ends with 5 (Odd number). In order to be fair, they regulate it so that even numbers can drive 3 times week, in that case you "suddenly" drive on even weekdays, even if your LP license plate number's last digit is 5. :)
Wolf in sheep's skin
This one example shows that wolves in sheep's skin can not and do not know how to run a country. MPP's youth organization is called SDY Mongolia (Social-Democrat Youth) and that is where young wolves are being prepared as successors, communists to be precise. Their office is located in the headquarters building of MPP and they have a website. If you visit it at www.sdy.mn , you'll be surprised. I don't know whether it is a Mongolian youth organization or an US one. Maybe they don't care about the Mongolian youth but like to work abroad to take care of San Francisco youth?
Weird, isn't it?
Anyways, let's continue with thoughts about what should be done in order to get rid of wolves and get on the right track. Yes, times have changed and so we are not talking about a supreme leader or King, but we need a society where responsibilities are met and laws are followed. Parliamentary system did not work out and that is proven in the past 30 years. It is not because Parliamentary government form is bad, but because it does not suit us. For a while anyway. We are not ready or prepared to use this system, yet.
What suits us is the Presidential system. We want somebody, not a party or the majority in the Parliament to run the country. We want one Head, not many heads who then disappear and pointing fingers in all directions when we demand accountability. We want to see clearly who is responsible for what and this system grants a separation of powers which is exactly what we need. The Parliamentary system has a loophole which have been successfully used by our wolves to get unimaginable personal gain in the past. New-Mongols got so rich to fly oversees (US) to buy a gift, a fancy car to be precise, for his friend's son's birthday! Imagine that.
I am not hopeful that this year's Parliamentary election will bring a change. Former communists will win again because they have lots of money to buy votes. And none of the political parties, big and small, want to change the current system, parliamentary system, because they know that it is very useful to get rich once they get chosen by the people. And MPP has made sure that the Constitution cannot be touched for some years, which means this system won't be changed for a while. They did it through an amendment to the Constitution. They play with the Constitution whenever is a change needed and whatever they want to change.
So, any system change in the Constitution seems like a dream. Don't know when this dream will come true. Until then we have to live with it, unless something magical happens. Sigh.
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