SPIK.KZ ANALYTICAL PORTAL
On April 24-25, the next annual session of the Assembly of the People of Kazakhstan will take place in Astana. On the eve of this event, we decided to talk with experts about why the ANC has become one of the most criticized structures in our country, how its activities should be reformatted and, possibly, changes in powers, functionality, and in general, what needs to be done to ensure interethnic consensus in Kazakhstan society. Today, the director of the Center for Political Research at the Institute of Philosophy, Political Science and Religious Studies of the National Science Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Aidar Amrebaev, shares his thoughts on this matter.
From the bottom up,
the Assembly of the People of Kazakhstan was created by the Presidential Administration, that is, in fact, it is a project of the authorities. Before her, various government agencies were also responsible for this area. I remember that after the events of 1986, the Center for Interethnic Relations was created, which was located in the building of the Central Committee of the Communist Party in Almaty and was developing a model of interethnic harmony. But times are changing, before our eyes the entire system of public administration is being reformatted - from a super-presidential system to a more balanced one with a fairly active influence of civil society. And the ANC cannot remain aloof from this process.
If we are talking about revising its functionality, then it must be changed in such a way that a new meaningful development potential is revealed that would correspond to the dictates of the time. I believe that the Assembly needs to become, first of all, an institution of civil society – both in form and content. That is, all its initiatives must meet public objectives for the harmonization of interethnic relations from the very bottom, and not come down from above as instructions from the authorities.
The devaluation of public trust in the ANC occurred precisely as a result of excessive administrative pressure from the super-presidential government, which viewed it as an ideological tool for manipulating the political process and one of the political technologies for exalting and strengthening the authority of the former president. The ideological narrative of that time was the idea of consolidating the multinational people of Kazakhstan around his figure. Although in practice everything was not so rosy. Real social problems, fault lines in this subtle sphere accumulated in a latent form and were simultaneously obscured...
In other words, transformation of this organization is necessary. It should become an effective channel that, firstly, brings to the attention of the authorities and the general public the problems of national minorities. Secondly, it raises at the highest level the question of the need for a sensitive response of the state to changes in the ethnopolitical palette of the country. Thirdly, it creates an open space for dialogue and cooperation between different ethnic groups. Fourthly, it contributes to the general civic identity of Kazakhstanis. Fifthly, it promotes the ideology of patriotism regarding Kazakhstan as a common home for all citizens. And, sixthly, it puts a reliable barrier in the way of external provocations aimed at “rocking the boat” of our unity and harmony.
The main thing is content, not form.
To do this, the activities of the Assembly must be debureaucratized, deformalized and focused on those areas where there is a threat to our state system from the point of view of interethnic relations. For example, in light of today’s turbulent processes in Eurasia, the issues of combating separatism, the threat of a split in society into “ethnic enclaves,” ethnic radicalism, hybrid technologies to destabilize the situation in the country, etc. are relevant.
Optimization of the ANC should also affect its structure and representation in government bodies. As you know, changes have already occurred, related, for example, to quotas for members of the Assembly in parliament. I think it would be advisable to strengthen this public organization by providing government grants in regions with dense populations of national minorities, diasporas, where various social disparities exist and where experts predict an increase in tension between representatives of different ethnic groups. In addition, government support for expert and analytical activities is very important, since the social well-being of national minorities requires constant monitoring.
It seems to me that there is no need to maintain branches of the Assembly in all regions on a bureaucratic basis. After all, in our country, ethnic groups are distributed unevenly: there are regions with an almost homogeneous national composition of the population, and others with a diverse population and, therefore, with the potential for interethnic tension. Consequently, the activities of the ANC should be focused on those of them where there are relevant problems.
Another important aspect in the work of the Assembly should be an analysis of the quality and representation of ethnic groups in government bodies, the business environment, and the level of their political activity in general. Since the ANC is a consultative and advisory body, it also makes sense to constantly monitor changes taking place in this area and the dynamics of population migration. Among other things, we need a forecast of demographic growth or decline in the number of certain ethnic groups, and an assessment of the impact of various external challenges on this process.
For example, in 2022, in connection with the outbreak of hostilities in Ukraine, we observed an influx of Russian citizens to Kazakhstan, and now an outflow of labor migrants from the Russian Federation, including to our territory. It seems that the Assembly could monitor these changes in the country’s population structure, their impact on the interethnic situation and the social well-being of citizens, as well as predict potential tension lines and promptly inform the relevant government agencies in order to forestall possible conflicts.
In general, the content of the activities of the ANC should be seriously reconsidered. Its goal should not be a formal demonstration of unity through cultural and entertainment events, but deep social design with an adequate and clear articulation of the interests of ethnic groups and ways to solve pressing social problems. For example, if there is infringement of civil rights, radicalization of political participation of ethnic groups, unequal access to social benefits, etc.
State support for the structural divisions of the Assembly must be targeted, targeted and with sufficient funding so that they can provide real assistance to people on the ground. Plus, it is necessary to expand the possibilities of social elevators for representing the interests of ethnic groups in local authorities, including maslikhats. The main thing is that public activists who really care about their region, city, village and share the ideology of patriotism and “fair Kazakhstan” are promoted to important positions.
Friend and foe
In general, we now need a clear guideline for the formation of a single, cohesive nation. This, in my opinion, is the main leitmotif of the president’s activities and his initiatives in this area. We are talking not only about establishing vertical open channels of communication between the government and the population in accordance with the concept of a “listening state,” but also about creating a tolerant environment of cooperation within the Kazakh society itself, which is very heterogeneous.
Unfortunately, not everything is as smooth as we would like. For example, recently the Almaty akimat invited me to the celebration of Nauryz, and even there - on the podium for honored guests - representatives of various ethnocultural associations were deliberately located separately from each other, divided into “us” and “strangers”. But abroad, all of us, citizens of Kazakhstan, are called Kazakhs, regardless of skin color and eye shape. Just like Chinese citizens are Chinese, French citizens are French, Russian citizens are Russian, etc. That is, it is important, through joint efforts, to reverse this tendency towards isolation based on ethnicity.
In theoretical terms, I think it is necessary to stop the misinterpretation of ethnic and civic identity. From my point of view, such a division is incorrect. We must talk exclusively about a single identity, absolutely indivisible. Ethnic self-identification is an objective process of nation formation, a stage on the way to a common civic identity. When we absolutize this or that content, there is a danger of devaluation of national values and interests.
By the way, several years ago I conducted a study regarding Almaty mosques. At that time they were very different - Uighur, Chechen, Ingush, Dungan and others. As it turned out, they did not have any single national ideologeme; their sermons were built around ethnic consolidation, not national ones. This is a serious omission that leads to enclavization and separation of certain groups of Muslims. They already have differences as to who is a true believer and who is not. We see the same split among the Kazakhs, but along the tribal principle. There is also a rather pronounced division into “shala” and “nagyz”.
Become a people's tribune
If you remember, in 2009 the state put forward the Doctrine of National Unity, which also turned out to be “woven” from compromises. Behind the conceptual vagueness was an attempt to turn a blind eye to the problems that existed in the sphere of interethnic relations. Subsequently, they provoked a number of conflicts, and no doctrines, no declarations worked here.
Thus, in February 2015, in the village of Bostandyk in the then South Kazakhstan region, pogroms took place in an area densely populated by the local Tajik population. A year later, in February 2016, interethnic clashes took place between Kazakhs and Turks in the village of Buryl, Zhambyl region, due to murder for the purpose of robbery. On New Year's Eve from 2018 to 2019, a mass fight took place in the Karaganda restaurant "Ancient Rome" with the participation of Armenian and Kazakh youth, which ultimately led to a crowded rally and destructive statements on social networks. In February 2020, in the village of Masanchi, Kordai district, Zhambyl region, a high-profile ethnic conflict occurred, as a result of which people died and Dungan houses and property were burned.
Unfortunately, the Assembly did not play the proper role in those events, either in terms of expert analysis and forecasting, or in the process of pacifying the parties. As I already said, the reason for this lies in the fact that the ANC is built as a vertical structure, initiated and regulated from above, which does not have a sufficiently well-funded expert and analytical base and modern information and propaganda infrastructure, and does not attract opinion leaders who are authoritative for ethnic groups. Meetings of the Assembly and its divisions are held in the spirit of assurances of “eternal friendship and loyalty to the authorities,” while real social problems are in the background.
Take the same controversy surrounding the Kazakh language. Although it is obvious, and the president of the country has spoken about this many times, that it should be not only a state language, but also a language of interethnic communication. This is normal world practice. There are 56 ethnic groups living in China, but all speak Chinese. I'm not even talking about France, where even migrants try to master French perfectly, realizing that their social success depends on it. I believe that in Kazakhstan, the project of promoting and consolidating the status of the state language for Kazakh should be directly handled by the ANC as an organization interested in strengthening our statehood, ensuring peace and harmony, and instilling civil patriotism.
I would also suggest integrating the formats of the Assembly and the National Kurultai. It would be advisable for the ANC to become its daily working body, nominating the most active and authoritative citizens of the country, including from local communities, to participate in general meetings. They would pose urgent tasks for national development to the authorities, acting as one of the drive belts for strengthening statehood from below. The kurultai platform should turn into a real people's tribune, where topical issues will be raised that cannot always be covered at the level of parliament or the executive branch.
I believe that the Social Code recently adopted by Parliament is the basis of a fair social policy, according to which all citizens should have equal opportunities and no one should be subject to any discrimination. It is time to break away from the Soviet ideology, under the cover of which there was a real infringement and restriction of the rights of citizens, including various ethnic groups.
author Gulnar Mukanova
https://spik.kz/1842-ank-pochemu-k-nej-net-doverija-i-v-kakoj-transformacii-ona-nuzhdaetsja.html
