Musical awesomeness

This here is Ch. Munkh-Erdene, an accomplished board harp (or Yatga / Ятга) player, performing a piece by a renowned Mongolian composer B.Sharav.

Bloomberg Interview with Ts. Elbegdorj

Bloomberg interview with Elbegdorj on the Rio Tinto mining agreement

3 Hazara students selected for the Tsahim Urtuu scholarship

Further to my post in April about Tsahim Urtuu scholarships for Hazara Mongol students, 3 students have been selected for the 5-year scholarship from the Hazara community in Afghanistan to study in Mongolia. Further details are available on their website.

Wiretapping to be discussed

News.mn reports that 4 of the Great Khural standing committees will convene today to discuss the state budget for 2010-2012. What drew my interest and concern was a bit about the Internal Security, Foreign Policy Committee meeting. The committee members will meet to discuss possible changes to the Communications law, which includes legalizing wiretapping of mobile communication for law enforcement purposes.

No information at the moment is available on the committee's section of the Parliament website, which is regularly updated with transcripts of meetings and other documents. The proposal, prepared by the Government, may be rejected by the Parliament according to news.mn. While the news article doesn't go into further detail, it sounds like warrantless surveillance to me. More details to come as and when available following the standing committee's meeting.

DP Victory celebration

DP supporters gathered at Sukhbaatar square with the party flags yesterday afternoon around 3 to celebrate Ts.Elbegdorj's victory over N.Enkhbayar. Unfortunately, from up here, this is the closest I could zoom in to Elbegdorj's triumphant hands-in-the-air.  He's the lone person coming down the stairs from the Chinggis statue towards the crowd. If you zoom in, you'll get this:

The speeches ended after about an hour and the crowd dispersed quietly.

Happenings

According to news.mn:

Nothing has been officially announced as yet but it is certain that Elbegdorj has won in six Ulaanbaatar districts and in eight aimags. Incumbent president N.Enkhbayar, seeking reelection, has been favored in three districts of the capital and 13 aimags   ...The victory must be especially sweet for Elbegdorj as this vindicates his consistent stand that last year’s results did not reflect the popular mood. It has also shown that charges of him being responsible for instigating the July 1 incidents have been rejected by people.[Source]

Thankfully, UB is in a peaceful post-election mood, summery and green. Speaking of which, summer is upon us in May, with little warning or time to prepare ourselves psychologically. Or maybe it's just me, unprepared for the drastic seasonal changes after a few years spent in the relative climatic monotony of Singapore. Change, indeed. What awaits us now that Ts. Elbegdorj is set to take the symbolic throne of politics in Mongolia. Foreign investors will be quietly monitoring the post-election developments, I'm sure, to see if Elbegdorj's past "anti-foreign, populist" inclinations return to further complicate the mining agreement finalization.

What lies in store for N.Enkhbayar now, is what I am also curious about. During the noon press conference where he graciously conceded defeat to his opponent, he was asked if he would run in the Chingeltei by-election for the Parliament seat Elbegdorj is leaving behind. He simply replied with "An interesting idea".

No doubt N.Enkhbayar's defeat signals much more significant political changes than Ts.Elbegdorj's victory does at this moment in time. Many feel that Mongolians simply chose to vote for the lesser of two evils.