Nothing personal Champ, but...

"The Champ" with his wife

I love him! I do. He is the greatest wrestler we had in the last decades. He won many times the champion's title in Mongolian traditional wrestling. He was also the World Champion in Amateur sumo wrestling. So he is a famous figure in Mongolia. He became later a politician, representing the former communist party, currently called Mongolian People's Party (MPP).  He is an MP now.

MPP decided to let him run for President's  office and so he is the one of the  two opponents against whom the  current President Elbegdorj, the candidate  from the Democratic Party (DP), runs now.  The other candidate is a female who is nominated from the offspring party of MPP named Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party (MPRP), chaired by N.Enkhbayar who was sentenced to 2.6 years in prison for misusing his position of power when he was the President of Mongolia.

Bat-erdene is his name, but people in Mongolia refer to him always as "The Champ". Read more on him at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Badmaanyambuugiin_Bat-Erdene

My personal opinion is that he is running for the office not in the right time. Not that he cannot do the job, but the ones behind him won't let him do his job or do things rightly. I mean the political party where he "belongs" to. Right now MPP is furious about taking revenge for the defeat they had to swallow in recent elections. (Presidential election in 2009, Parliament's election in 2012, election of local governance in 2012)
So they (MPP) are really pissed off and will do whatever it takes, to win this Presidential election.
From their perspective, they made a right decision to nominate "the Champ" as candidate because like I said  there is not a single Mongol who doesn't know "The Champ" and does not respect him. Not a single soul!
In that case many would vote for him just because he is so popular!

The thing is that many people think that one should give the new government a chance to prove itself and that is there should be a like-minded team in order to work as a team. A team consists of the Government with the Prime Minister as the leader, the Parliament where DP is the majority with its coalition partners, and the President who supports the current power. Only then, a policy can go through and a plan can be worked out. If one of these three is from the opposition, there would be lot of  stall,  blocking, delay etc., which would eventually  slow down the progress and the whole country would suffer from it. Nobody wins.

But MPP thinks that they would win if they do so. Why? Because that way they can make it harder for the new Government to do its job and make look it bad. It does not matter if the country is not going forward or stay the same; the bad the better. The result? People will be disappointed and change their mind, and choose MPP next time. That is what they have in mind right now and they would have nominated even a sheep if the sheep   was so famous that everybody would vote for it.  So MPP is just using  "The Champ" for his prestige and influence.

Anyways, I hope that our people learned the lesson from the past 20 plus years when MPP ruled and promised always that they let us live in paradise if only they were given the chance. After all those years we stayed the same, living in hell instead of heaven. So think hard and don't repeat the mistake. I have personally nothing against "The Champ", in contrary, but like I said, it is so sad that he is being victimized by this party.
Sad, sad situation. But what we can do? So, let's have a team of "Three  Musketeers" who says, "All for one, one for all!", and let them do their job to make us happy!

Some pictures of our famous man, "The Champ", for you to enjoy!

Champ on the left, in Mongolian traditional wrestling championship 1998 (with Sumyabazar)

Representing Mongolia in the Olympics

"The Champ" ,left, with another champ (Usukhbayar)

"The Champ" won another  Championship (on the shoulders), while the current President is waiting to take a picture of him (red arrow). Back at that time current President Elbegdorj was a journalist and both were caught here together.

Believing in Buddha

The Champ in the middle (left Sumyabazar, right Asashoryu-the famous Sumo champion)

Largest Mongolian wrestling tournament with 6002 participants. It was organized by the Mongolian National Wrestling Federation (Mongolia) and was held in the capital city in 2011. "The Champ" was among them.

There he is, looking at you! (on the right)

"The Champ" in combat uniform since he was the chief of the Police athletes

During a Naadam festival at the stadium

"The Champ" became the World Amateur Sumo champion defeating this 550 pound guy from the USA

"The Champ"(right) having lunch with Asashoryu, the Sumo champion

"The Champ" is all dressed up for the event

"The Champ" and his horse

In Khentii province where "The Champ"  is born

Having some serious talks

Campaigning in the countryside

Meeting with Kazakhs, the minority in Mongolia, during his campaign (dressed up in Kazakh costume)

Speaking with a Buryat oldie at the countryside

Taking picture