So here we are, it's election day soon on June 29. Again. It's when our politicians awaken from their 4-year beauty nap, all rested and full of energy and dive right into campaigning. Exciting times. One almost feels angry or cheated, the way you would when a friend who you thought was dead for all these years, turns up on your doorstep grinning from ear to ear asking for a couple of bucks.
I have never had the pleasure of voting, mainly because I happened to be overseas during each election. But I was there during campaign periods, both parliamentary and presidential. Almost every day, the campaign staff would come a-knocking. Mostly kids and old ladies, distributing flyers, little gifts like prepaid mobile credit or a desktop calendar. The flyers, far less than a political flyer detailing the candidate's agenda, would enthusiastically slander the particular candidates' competitors. Many of these flyers would question the ethnicity of some of the candidates: "His grandmother was Chinese. Do you really want this man to lead our country?". Come election, having any sort of foreign blood in you is a disadvantage.
I must say though, there are MP's in the government of mixed heritage. S.Oyun, MP and Mongolia's Foreign Minister, is half-Russian and half-Mongolian, as was her late brother S.Zorig, who was also an MP, a potential Prime Minister and one of the O.G.'s of the democratic revolution. (S.Zorig was brutally murdered, or assassinated some say, at his home a few years back. His murderers were never caught. His sister S.Oyun entered politics after her brother's death. Read more about S.Zorig and the Zorig Foundatoin here.) S.Oyun has been a source of inspiration to many young women around the country, and still remains one of the most popular politicians in Mongolia amongst the students and the progressive.
Running for a seat in the Ikh Hural is, in my opinion, a painful task. Be prepared to get slandered, defamed, your family history and your own history questioned, your financial history dug up and scrutinized. You may find yourself connected to organized crime figures come election campaigns. Or find a new branch in your extended family tree you never knew of.
The slander campaign takes the focus off the issues at hand. And for a good reason too. The general public no longer trusts issue-related promises by MP's during election campaigns. The public is interested in finding the candidate that will do the least damage to the country while in office. Therefore they make their decisions based on the politicians' track record. Can't blame them. The question that I have had on my mind since the last 2 elections is: Are we crazy? After all is not insanity defined as doing the same thing and expecting different results each time. We have been electing the same 2 groups of people into office election after election, swinging back and forth between them like a some doomed pendulum, hoping for some improvement. That is not to say that there was no progress. There have been progress on many fronts. But little progress in how the government is run and little progress on anti-corruption measures.
More to come on Election'2008 of Mongolia.
Some facts about the Mongolian Parliamentary Election or Ikh Huraliin Songuuli or Их Хуралын Сонгууль:
- 12 parties running in the 2008 election for 76 seats
- 26 constituencies
- 2008 Election is the 5th general election since 1992
- 62 of the 76 current MP's are running for reelection
Source: Mongolia Web News
I've heard many Americans of all stripes saying similar things about our own system in the last few years; that both parties are incompetent, campaigns regularly feel disingenuous, and real work on "issues" takes a back seat to mudslinging more often than it should. Perhaps that's just the dark side, or a necessary evil of democracy?
I guess that's why many people are so avid about Barack Obama, that despite his relative inexperience (or perhaps exactly because of that), we see him as something different and new that doesn't immediately induce a feeling of cynicism.
Also, the way you describe it, it seems like having specifically Chinese blood may be more of a political liability than Russian?
Anyway, your post was a good read! It's encouraging to hear a Mongolian perspective that doesn't conclude with "bring back the Empire," like I sometimes hear from my local friends.
I have to say that I am following the US election campaigns more closely that the Mongolian election campaigns, mainly because of Barack Obama.
Definitely, having Chinese blood is a much bigger liability than having Russian blood or any other mixture. You have probably noticed the strong anti-Chinese sentiment in Mongolia, to the extent where even Inner Mongolians are met with distrust by Mongolians.
"Bring back the Empire", sadly, is a very common thing amongst Mongolians, even those who are living and studying overseas. It's not very helpful in our progress as a country. And there are others who yearn for the Socialist days too, which is understandable given the 3 full generations born and raised under communism. The sudden transition was hard on them.