Members of the movement For Reform in front of administration headquarters in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan
Photo: Vasily Shaposhnikov
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Kurmanbek Bakiev Weathers the Kyrgyz Revolution
// The authorities take the initiative back from the opposition
The parliament of Kyrgyzstan passed a new constitution yesterday evening, thus putting an end to the country's extended political crisis. By holding a constitutional reform, President Kurmanbek Bakiev has met the opposition's main demand. At the same time, he succeeded in obtaining important concessions that will almost guarantee that he will stay in office until 2010. Kommersant special correspondent Mikhail Zygar watched the simultaneous celebrations of the revolutionaries and counterrevolutionaries.
The State Workers' Counterrevolution
An earthquake struck Kyrgyzstan yesterday. The tremors were fairly strong, reaching 4 points on the Richter scale.
”People's negative energy was transferred into the Earth,” a woman said on Bishkek's Old Square, in front of the parliament. “When I felt my house shake this morning, I thought, has the opposition really brought us to this? Did God really get mad and decide to punish us?”
People flocked into Old Square with banners reading “The people and Bakiev are one” and chanting the president's name. I asked a group of serious looking women why they had come out to support the president.
“To support the president,” one of the answered evenly.
“Where do you work?”
“It's a secret.”
“What secret?”
“Well why should you know? We came here so there would be no more meetings! We think meetings should be outlawed altogether. Enough meetings! We need to work! Those meetings don't let us or the president work.”
That meeting didn't let a lot of people work. Everyone who was paid with state money – doctors, teachers, railroad conductors, street sweepers, and so – was there, and their bosses took role to make sure of it.
“We are all together!” shouted the meeting leader. “Let's show them all, the whole world, that we are together! Raise your hands everyone, everyone who came to this square today! We are against those who are trying to divide Kyrgyzstan! To divide it into patriots and criminals! We are united! Hurray! And now let's continue our concert program.”
This was the first time that attendance at an antimeeting had exceeded that of the opposition meetings.
The Bourgeois Revolution
On nearby Ala-Too Square, opposition supporters remained. They were set home after their leaders agreed to the draft of the new constitution and made a number of concessions. But that morning the president didn't sign the order allowing the parliament to pass the new constitution. So the sound equipment was hauled out again and the supporters were called in. Their appearance was slower and less organized than at the antimeeting. Most of the opposition leaders are parliament members and big businessmen, so their supporters tend to work in private firms. Opposition press secretary Edil Baisalov read messages sent by attendees of the antimeeting complaining that they were forced to attend under threat of dismissal from their jobs. Soon deserters from the antimeeting began to appear on stage at the meeting.
On previous days, the opposition marched from Ala-Too to the presidential palace, but yesterday a double cordon of military school cadets blocked all roads from the square except the one that led to the antimeeting on Old Square. And it was bigger than their meeting. The opposition leaders were obviously at a loss.
I spoke with senior parliamentarian Dooronbek Sadyrbaev, known in Soviet times as a film director and dissident, in private in a yurt.
“I think we have lost. Yes. The opposition lost,” he said. “The young liberal leaders of our opposition made the same mistake Sartacus did. He didn't want to attack when he had 300,000 people, so he had to attack with 30,000. I tried to convince them that we had to do that as quickly as possible.”
“You were for a coup? For storming the presidential palace?”
“Of course! We had to neutralize Bakiev and Kulov in the first day and not miss the moment. We had to storm the presidential palace and turn them over to a court. Bakiev played for time and our young leaders did not make a decision. But that won't save Bakiev. He won't last to the end of is term.”
The Revolution and Counterrevolution Are One
The parliament waited all day for instructions from the president.
“At first we wanted new parliamentary and presidential elections three months and six months after the new constitution was passed,” parliament member Melis Eshimkanov recounted as he smoked nervously. “But they all wanted to serve out their terms – to 2010. The president and the administration. So we conceded to them. Let them serve their damn terms! Now we are waiting for the president to sign the order.”
A few hours later, the president declared new conditions. Besides the demands the opposition had already accepted, he wanted to be the coauthor of the new constitution, to have the right to approve ministers and appoint judges without consulting with the parliament. The parliament agreed to it. And still the president didn't sign the order.
“He spoke with Putin on the phone Tuesday evening and that gave him new strength,” they said around the parliament.
In the evening, the resident introduced his draft constitution into the parliament. There were tow changes. Impeachment required the approval of three-quarters of the parliament, not two-thirds as previously agreed on, and the president would be able to fire the chairmen of the National Bank and Central Elections Commission and the prosecutor general without parliament's permission. The antimeeting in support of the authorities was declared over at that point.
It took ten minutes to approve the new constitution, even though it was available only in Russian, and not the state Kyrgyz language. Opposition leaders rushed out to their meeting.
“Are you happy?” I asked cochairman of the movement For Reform Almaz Atambaev.
“I am,” he said.
“But you made so many concessions to the president!”
“The unity of the country is more important,” he said.
Mikhail Zygar
All the Article in Russian as of Nov. 09, 2006
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