Public discourse these days is still dominated by how MPs, cabinet ministers, and senior officials have been stealing from the Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) Development Fund. A campaign named ‘We won’t forgive’ is flowing through social media. A small group of people even organized a demonstration in the central square, demanding that the parliament be dismissed.
President Battulga has sent a letter to the Speaker of Parliament, proposing that the parliament should voluntarily dismiss itself. In addition to the stories revolving around the SME Fund, people have started demanding that the government disclose financial reports of the other 27 similar funds run by the state. The same question is being asked for details on where the trillions of tugrugs raised through Chinggis and other bonds went (under the name of price stabilization), who received the funds, and how the repayments will be made.
The fact is that Mongolians have always known that the authorities have been stealing from public funds. There have always been media stories to varying degrees on the subject. On several occasions, I wrote about how they were stealing from the publicly owned land in the capital city and even coined the term ‘zaisaining’. It was supported by some people in the online environment, however the public has almost always stayed silent. Today voices are louder because the money that was supposed to go to SMEs has been stolen by MPs, which has more direct implications for the people. Even so, the majority of people, especially those who have stronger professional education, are still observing silently.
Mongolia is facing a political crisis triggered not by the economy, but by corruption. The underlying source of corruption is political party financing, and the public needs to demand that it be made transparent. This is the message I have kept repeating for nearly 10 years, speaking out and writing in both online and traditional newspapers and on TV and social media. However, even if people were aware, they acted as if they did not know what was going on. Political party members have not been able to develop a strong enough will to speak out to their party leaders.
It never fails to amaze me why people are not doing anything while they watch how their money, land, and natural resources are being stolen from them. It is not an issue of awareness, but the consequence of a selfish mentality. As long as people are doing okay and are able to manage their everyday life, everything else is irrelevant. This mentality is still with us, and Mongolians have become selfish, incapable sycophants.
Here is an attempt to explain how we came to this, and what needs to be changed and where, using the four levels of the Iceberg Model in systemic thinking.
Event level
The Event Level is the tip of the iceberg. In other words, it is 10 per cent of the whole problem, which is embodied by what is happening today, including how decision makers divided the SME Fund between each other as repayment for donations to their political party and the ‘60 billion MNT’ case. The parliament is trying to dismiss the cabinet ministers who obtained loans from the SME Fund for companies owned by their spouse, but leave MPs untouched. This shows how MPs are afraid of losing their authority. Even if these MPs repay the loans and voluntarily resign, it would not resolve the crisis in our public governance. The next MPs and government officials will continue stealing from public funds in their own ways and methods.
Pattern level
The same thing that is happening above the water at the tip of the iceberg is taking place under water as well, but everything will eventually become clear. It may look different on the outside, but the pattern is the same. In our case, this pattern is how the government is still serving political and business groups behind the curtains, putting their interest above the interests of the people who elected them.
Even if those who stole from the SME Fund are caught and made to repay all damages, the other 20 plus funds, bonds, and various programs will eventually float to the surface of the water. Even if every one of those cases is fought and won or if a brand new political force comes to power, there is no guarantee that similar patterns of stealing from public funds will not continue. Also, it looks like there will not be a single case solved with the culprits held accountable, as long as the Mongolian People’s Party (MPP) and/or the Democratic Party (DP) are in power. This is because the structure that enables this pattern is deep in the water. Therefore, no long-term solution can be found at the Pattern Level.
Structure Level
The pattern of what is happening is created by its underlying structure. In other words, the overall structure of the Mongolian state and government – our current government institutions, their interconnections, our laws, law enforcement organizations, business regulations, infrastructure, tax system and so on – will continue manufacturing the same patterns, which would result in the same cases where public funds are stolen.
President Battulga came up with an initiative to change this structure. However, regardless of what shape it takes, any new structure cannot guarantee that it will not produce similar crimes. Even if the culprits are punished and the structure is reformed, the authorities in the new structure will find a more complex way to steal.
Mental Model level
The best way to make a structure as advanced as possible lies at the Mental Model level. If problems are fixed at this level, its impact runs up to the tip of the iceberg, making the whole system cleaner. Highly developed countries were able to make the change at this level, which is why they enjoy more prosperity, a strong livelihood, and higher life expectancy. For this reason, Mongolians are trying to go to those countries at the slightest opportunity.
The Mental Model level includes the mentality, attitude, values, expectations, and morals of a nationality. Mongolians will not be able to fix many of the issues facing our development today, unless we make changes at our Mental Model level. Everything depends on how we can change our own attitude and how we bring up the younger generation. Here are a few examples:
- We are bringing up our kids, demanding them to be street-wise and not end up worse off than others. But we are not asking them to uphold fairness and protect justice, and we do not exemplify these values. Therefore, kids grow up willing to do anything to be better and win more than others. For this reason, we are seeing the spread of desire to become wealthy easily and quickly by carrying the bags of people with power.
- Teachers in Mongolian high schools are encouraging better performing students to let the weaker performers copy their work. This is fueling the theft of intellectual property and plagiarism because students are just copying others’ work for their degree papers.
- There was a case of a little kid in the third grade who gave 1,000 MNT to all of his classmates to become the chair of the class. It does not help when parents bring up their children to agree with the majority, be close to the powerful, and not say anything if others have been quiet. This behavior is making our younger generation more cowardly and less confident.
Our society direly misses a mentality that values protecting justice, loving others, refraining from lying and stealing, and respecting others and their personal property. Mongolia is not developing a culture of whistleblowing and fighting against injustice.
We, Mongolians, must make a change in our mentality, grow more humane and develop cooperative habits of living and behaving. Only then, will our structure become healthy. We need to advance our government and our laws, and ensure that the laws are strictly followed and that those who break it are held accountable. Only then, will our livelihood prosper.
2018.11.14
Trans. by B.Amar