The Benevolent Leader, ad infinitum

The economist just came out with an article spotlighting the new referendum passing through KZ's one party parliament that revoked the upcoming election in 2012 and keeps current President[since 1989], Nursultan Nazerbayev to remain in office until 2020. Only 10 years shy of 2030, when Kazakhstan is believed [irreverently by it's people] to be caught up to the modern ebb and flow of the rest of the world. Nazerbayev is already 70 years old but the echelons at the top of the ruling party have put pressure on each tier down to the micro level to acquire signatures. The total number gathered in the end rounded out somewhere near 2,000,000, 1,800,000 over the needed quota. Many people, I've noticed on mail.ru and other places, have been talking and complaining about feeling pressured to sign. Even one of my own teachers lost her job because she failed to compile a list of signatures for this very cause.

Many Kazakhstani's will say Nazerbayev is a great person before they say anything about his presidency or policies. This shouldn't come as any surprise to anyone, since the whole idea of openly questioning a leader's policies is somewhat a new idea in this part of the world. This is not to imply that no one is openly discussing the recent turn of events, but in my scope of experience and in my small town, most people sign and forget about it. The true reality of the phenomena of Nazerbayev proposed to take 3 full decades of office is the sheer unanimity of decision amongst the people. Sure, there are only 16.3 million of them, which makes it quite easy to narrow down "factions". But the truth is that Kazakhstan is still a sapling, metaphorically speaking. The country has no real detailed national consciousness and is, in my own opinion, quite far away from realizing it. Yes, the economy is expanding, money is flowing into the capital, people are being exposed to more opportunity and capitalism is taking a small incremental affect on its markets. The issue is the fact that the peoples' mentality holistically isn't catching up. Everyone outside of the main cities are so underexposed to anything outside their television sets, there is almost no hunger or search for any information. I understand breaking away from the communist hangover of "complacency" is a daunting task and hell, if I had grown up during that time I'd probably be just as lost. The only thing left to do, is build up the new generations to understand the inter-workings of their government, understand the laws, stop the corruption and enforce the "democracy" they claim to have.

This decision comes as a bit of a slap in the face of the international democratic arena, since not one month ago, Astana held the OSCE Summit where Hillary Clinton herself attended. The good people of KZ assured the rest of the world they would uphold their democracy and follow suit.

They, of course, have since failed to due so. Well, let's say they have simply chosen not to do so. The upside to having Nazerbayev's presidency and the rule of "Nyr Otan" for a few more years is that foreign investors will see it as insurance for continued stability. Whether this assumption will pan out, time has yet to tell. All I'm wondering is when will the day come when Kazakhstani's take charge of their "democracy", aggressively endeavor for their national consciousness and run their country not fueled by racism and pride but by a genuine and honorable love for their country.