‘RARA AVIS’, which means ‘rare bird’ in Latin, is the title of a short story written by the famous Russian author Chekhov in 1886. This story depicts how an author who writes about crime goes to a police commissioner and asks him to present all types of thieves to him so he could get ideas for his novels. But when asks the commissioner to point him to a couple of decent people who do the right thing, the commissioner stands there in deep thought, scratching his head. Hence, the title of his book.
What happened in the last few days in Mongolia clearly shows that decent politicians and state officials have become ‘rara avis’ in our country. The stories keep coming out in the media about how our state officials have been stealing and embezzling from the Small and Medium Enterprise Development Fund, government bonds, funds collected for the Asia-Europe summit, and so on. If you look at social media, it is easy to see that people are feeling immensely frustrated and angered.
Economy that lost its way among MPP/DP
When the Democratic Party (DP) was in power, they issued bonds with the names of Mongolian kings and acquired 3 billion USD in loans. However, the money ended up being allocated between state officials under the cover of various projects, without any trace of financial reports or calculations. Hundreds and thousands of large and small programmes were created, which included stabilizing prices by creating reserves of meat and wheat flour, supporting the construction industry, providing housing mortgages at softer rates, stabilizing the price of fuel, reducing the cost of imported goods, creating coal reserves, preparing the power sector for winter, stabilizing electricity tariffs, and reducing air pollution. The only people who got better off from these countless programmes were those who created them. These programmes were funded not by the government, but by the central bank. As a result, a grand total of 5.4 trillion MNT was paid for by taxpayers. Subsequently, public spending increased dramatically and the government became strangled by debt while prices increased and the tugrug depreciated.
Since seizing a majority in 2016, the Mongolian People’s Party (MPP) has let their party members, state officials, and their companies to steal 115 billion MNT in the last two years. This was revealed last week, much to the contempt and loathing of true SME owners. The cat was let out of the bag following an internal struggle between MPP factions. Now people are demanding investigations into another 28 similar funds.
In this way, both the MPP and DP, who have always been in power either on their own or together in a coalition, have been stealing from public funds through their factions, MPs, cabinet ministers, and other state officials. It is now easier to list what they did not steal than making an endless list of what they have robbed from the public.
Another reason why we cannot find a decent state official is that it has become hard to trust them today, not because they do not exist. Those who steal have become a common sight or the norm while those who act decently and with justice have become a rarity. The people in the higher level of our state have spent 20 years stealing and embezzling from the public budget, public tenders, bonds, various programmes, and government procurement. It has allowed mid- and low-ranking officials to ask for bribes openly and without concern.
These current circumstances of our state and government have forced the space for private business to shrink, resulting in reduced employment and increased migration abroad. Unemployment and poverty are spreading throughout our country, and our people are losing faith in the future.
However, what is happening today in Mongolia has put both a historic opportunity and a historic challenge on our table.
Historic opportunity
When it is now discovered and proven that our state officials have stolen from public funds, we, Mongolians, have a great opportunity to strengthen our state and our government as an institution. This would require the following steps as a start:
- Introduce independent, balanced oversight by clearing up the blurred lines between the duties and responsibilities of legislative, executive and judicial branches of the government through making a constitutional amendment
- Make our public governance transparent, responsible, and accountable
- Strengthen the rule of law and ensure everyone is treated equally before the law
- Give people the economic freedom that allows them to increase their income, strengthen our civil society, improve the public oversight mechanism, and turn all state-owned companies into public companies
Historic challenge
A historic challenge has presented itself to Mongolia’s political parties, especially the two major parties in MPP and DP and their members. The challenge revolves around:
- Start holding their party members accountable regardless of their status or power, if they stole from public funds
- Introduce transparency and improve internal democracy by reforming their accountability system and political party financing scheme
- Strengthen as an institution and no longer be dependent on one individual
If political parties cannot reform now, they will be pushed off from the political board.
2018.11.07
Trans. by B.Amar