Home >
Meetings >
Speeches from Ulaanbaatar Meeting
back
April 28, 2013

Speeches from Ulaanbaatar Meeting


 

TO FIGHT AGAINST CORRUPTING GENERATION BY BUDIMAN SUDJATMIKO

 

“To jump into the pool of politics, one should be rich. But money should be the least important factor for political involvement.

Social intelligence, networking, social roots and reputation are far more important factors. Many of us have forgotten these, and making money has become a prime motivating factor for political involvement.

May 1998. Black smokes soared high to the sky. It was seen from behind the bars of Jakarta’s Cipinangprison as it shadowed the transition of democracy in my country, Indonesia. A couple of days later, we gathered around a radio and listened to Soeharto’s resignation speech. Everyone was excited, shaking hands, and hugging.

Then, one of our friends, a fellow political detainee from the Democratic People Party, said, “If this transition fails, our generation will turn to be the new corrupting generation.” We were suddenly speechless.

Regenerating corruptor?

Of course, corruption is not only about economy although it heavily involves money. Corruption is the interface of a cluster of processes: politics, law, and organizational, amongst other aspects.

Gambetta says there are two common patterns of corruption. The first is corrupted service: where rules are rigid but implementation can be easily diverted. The second is corrupted rule: where policy is diverted to benefit a particular group of people. This kind of corruption is subtler and hardly detected.

In his research, HokkySitungkirof the Bandung Fe Institute shows that the most effective measure to eradicate corruption is reinforcement of a legal system that is connected to improving the political environment, where the political elites who tend to corrupt arise.

One of the external factors that cause corruption is the cost of political competition and the lifestyle of the politician. High-cost politics, truthfully, is a factory that produces a never-ending corrupting generation in a democratic era.

The stage of political act would be dominated by “well-fed” political actors, both on the local and national level. This has been stressed by FebriDiansyah from ICW (Indonesian Corruption Watch): most corruption cases that were committed for local elections to fund political campaign. The same phenomenon might be happening for the election of organization (?) leader or even presidential election.

Actually, some governors, regents, and legislators have won by keeping election cost low and not getting lured to into corrupt practices. But I have to admit, the number is far from sufficient to shift the power balance in this expensive political system.

Meanwhile, potential good candidates are reluctant to jump into the political system for fear of getting involved in a system with a bad reputation.

If this cycle goes unchallenged, democracy which has been fought over with life, tears, and blood will always generate leaders that seem to lead but they don’t and legislatures that seems to represent the people but they don’t.

The same story and plot with a different title. But beyond everything, the saddest fact is to find yesterday’s protagonist has turned to become today’s antagonist. There is no other option. Together, we have to fight this.

How to fight

During my visit to villages, I hear a lot about an urban legend called “Queen of Justice” that is shared with a hope in every word being spread. I have my own perspective about this legend. Without any intention to disregard their hope, I believe the Queen of Justice is not a demigod. Instead, it is a system that will produce one (Chandradimuka). As long as there is no good Chandradimuka, we shall not expect there will be a good leader with integrity. If there is, that would be an exception.

For me, transparency in political funding is an urgent agenda to build a healthy political Chandradimuka. At least, there are six measurements that I would like to propose:

First, to set a maximum limit of cost of a political campaign for public positions such as campaign for regent, governor, president and legislature election.

Second, the collection of political fund should be done using an open account where public access is granted. This should also be applied in the election of a chairman and in the convention of Presidential Candidate from political parties as a prerequisite to participate in the election.

Third, the collection of the fund should be directly from an individual to the account without any intermediaries, with a particular limit of donation.

Fourth, any expenses should be reported in detail to public.

Fifth, there should be an audit performed by independent body.

Sixth, funding from other than the single account is a crime and subject to punishment.

This mechanism, single and open account, is hard to fight for. It is impossible for a legislature to fight for this. Therefore, I invite us all together to roll this as a movement.

Some groups have been trying to implement the mechanism in legislative election and in local elections. Some failed whilst others won.

It is my job, and yours, to use their success stories as the inspiration to believe that a clean generation of politician can be born.”

 

THE SPEECH BY MR.NYAMAA ENKHBOLD

 

“Excellences,

Dear colleagues,

Ladies and gentlemen

It is an honour for me to speak before such a distinguished audience. I would have been even more delighted if I was able to talk about a perfect and model democracy in my country. Alas, nothing is perfect in the world and so is the state of democracy in Mongolia.

We are one the youngest democracies in the post-cold war world. As any youngster, we are still experiencing joys and disappointments of the challenging growth and change of the system, change of ourselves and change of our mentality.

20 years is a very short period of time in terms of history. We can be proud of many things that we have completed during this period and at the same time we still need to nurture and polish many things to make democracy mature in this country.

Over the last 23 years of democratic reforms Mongolia has advanced on many fronts. First of all it was a peaceful transition encompassing both political and economic spheres which almost no other country ever had gone through before. Simultaneous transition to democratic political system and free market economy created additional difficulties to what we had to do to achieve.

The first democratic Constitution of Mongolia was enacted in 1992, it contained for the first time a whole chapter on the protection and promotion of human rights. Since then advances of democracy could be summarized as follows:

1/ Multi-party system was developed (Mongolia has now over 20 registered political parties)

2/ Legal foundation was put in place for the development of democratic institutions;

3/ Periodic elections of the Parliament, President and local parliaments were held and most of them were considered free and fair

4/ Freedom of the press was more or less developed, although must say that over the recent past many mass media has come under the control of some wealthy people and rich politicians

5/ Vibrant civil society emerged although I must again say some of them are politically oriented

6/ Market economy basis was laid down unleashing the potential of individuals to pursue their entrepreneurship (today 80 % of GDP is produced by the private sector);

As a result, democracy has taken a firm foothold in Mongolia and there is no U-turn in its development. However due to some specific reasons we are advancing in a ‘’a step forward and then a step back’’ manner. In the first decade of democratization process, the legacy of the old regime influenced a lot people’s mentality and advances of society. Mongolians were used to have more or less even level of everything in their life and heavily rely on the Government for their livelihood. And yet, rapid political changes, especially what the Government did, did not meet expectations of the public in terms of improving their daily life as was promised.

The first Democratic Governance Indicators (DGI) released in 2006, came to a conclusion that democracy in Mongolia was at the crossroads. The second DGIs report covering 2007-2008 made the same conclusion.

By 2008 the economy was more or less stabilized but at the same time alarming signs of widening gap between the rich and the poor and corruption had emerged jeopardizing fruits of slow but steady democratic changes. Perhaps that is the reason why DGI issued in 2010 was mostly factual and had no conclusions. I recommend you read carefully these documents to understand dynamics and phase-wise outcomes of the period.

Throughout 2010s and up to now corruption has been top concern for Government and political parties everybody blaming everybody for its expansion.

The process of UNCAC implementation was reviewed by a group of experts from Kenya and Yemen and staff members of the Secretariat in 2010. The review was based on completed response to the comprehensive self-assessment checklist received from Mongolian side, relevant supplementary information, telephone conferences and e-mail exchanges.

Several measures have been taken in recent years in order to implement UNCAC step by step. The Law on Information transparency and freedom of accessibility and The Law on Regulation of public and private interests and Prevention of Conflict of interests in Public sector were adopted by the Parliament in 2011 and 2012 respectively. The new Laws on Presidential, Parliamentary and Local assemblies elections included drastic changes related to donations, election financing and most importantly accountability for their violations. The independent authority against corruption is becoming more resolute in dealing with high-flying corruption cases. So far so good.

However the reality is not as bright as it may seem. There is a lot of criticism in the public and the press that the core principle of upholding rule of law is being abused and violated. The situation has worsened since the latest parliamentary elections held in June 2012. According to the opposition Mongolian People’s Party which I belong to the Government and Parliament took a number of decisions which violated the Constitution and several other laws. That, in its turn, may lead to overall disrespect of the rule of law further discrediting democracy, need for political check and balance system and accountability of Government to the people.

In my view, the following chain of factors and circumstances, namely; ignorance of rule of law-loss of political check and balance system-disregard for accountability- political dependence and loss of impartiality of the judiciary-use of law enforcement for political purposes will directly lead to rampant corruption, erasing everything we have achieved so far with such pain and efforts. The final result will be erosion of democracy. Dear friends, just remember, the first thing to, to, let me use this word, to kill democracy is to ignore the rule of law.

I can bring out many examples of what is happening within the same chain nowadays in Mongolia. But I am sure, for experienced people like you here, understanding of our concerns, tendency of events, direction of advancement and attitudes are more important than the actual, not very pleasant for the host country details.

We have gathered here to share our experiences, concerns for the future of democracy, learn from each other. Learn also from each other’s’ mistakes and shortcomings.

Now, we Mongolians, like many of you, who want to build a real democracy in our respective countries, know that democratization of a society is a long road with a lot of potholes and bumps and difficult everyday work. There is no one right recipe for democracy. We have to go our own ways taking into account tradition, culture, mentality, and way of life and inspirations of our peoples. Yes, it is an inspiring challenge and I wish you every success in your selfless and rewarding effort for the happy future of your peoples.

Finally, I want to assure all of you that, regardless of all these ups and downs on the way to mature democracy, every political party and movement in this country is for developing democracy further, making it the guarantee for prosperous, self-sufficient and independent Mongolia a proud member of world community.

Thank you for your kind attention.”

 

PARLIAMENTARY ETHICS:  INTERNATIONAL PRACTICE AND MONGOLIA’S CASE BY MS. BATCHIMEG MIGEDDORJ MP OF THE PARLIAMENT OF MONGOLIA

 

“Chairman,

Esteemed guests and fellow Parliamentarians,

Once again, it is my distinct pleasure to welcome you all to Mongolia …

The main topic of this session is ethics and oversight. I am convinced that these are important issues which we simply cannot avoid in our discussion on fight against corruption. Here, I am going to concentrate more on Parliamentary ethics. First, I would like to elaborate on the importance of international exchanges and cooperation in this field. Second, I will briefly share our story here in the State Great Hural of Mongolia. 

Ethics is a very broad topic. It is an old issue as well. It is as old as the origin of first parliaments, I believe. Ethics also always has been a very fundamental issue.

Parliamentarians, who fail to submit to expected ethical standards, cannot produce sound policies and legislations that serve for the best interest of their nation and people. Vise versa, in societies that lack moral and ethical good, the principle of rule of law can hardly find fertile soil for survival. No amount of laws can prevent cheating in the absence of ethics.

Ethics of politicians is fundamental in further perfecting democracy. It is also equally important in maintaining and raising public trust in democratic political institutions. And it is essential in fight against corruption - long lasting social and political struggle of each and every nation represented here.

Despite the universal awareness and acknowledgement of the fundamental importance of ethics, the issue of parliamentarians’ ethics is still problematic in many countries.

However, the good news is that parliaments around the world are becoming more active in addressing ethical misconducts of their members and refining their ethical system to prevent further misconducts and raise the public trust in the parliament. Today, in our Parliamentary Forum, we have representatives from 10 different national parliaments. I believe we all have good practices and important lessons to share with each other. For example, we have learned that the Sejm of Poland established Deputies' Ethics Committee in 1998. Lower House of the Indonesian Parliament adopted a code of ethics in 2004. And last year, Parliament of Kyrgyzstan approved of the Committee for procedural rules of Parliament and parliamentary ethics within its structural change.

Moreover, it is worth applauding that international network of parliamentarians aimed at consolidating democracy and combating corruption, such as PFD and GOPAC have been emerging to serve as international bodies to provide coherent and integrated approach and to recommend benchmarks of norms and standards for democratic parliaments. 

Since its establishment in 2002, GOPAC brought together over 170 parliamentarians and 400 observers dedicated to fighting corruption and improving good governance. GOPAC’s vision is to achieve accountability and transparency through effective anti-corruption mechanisms and inclusive participation and cooperation between parliamentarians, government and civil society. It has a special task force on Parliamentary ethics and conduct. In 2009, this Global Task Force has released A Handbook on Ethics, which provides a fine tool for parliamentarians to develop and strengthen ethics regimes in their own parliaments as well as to promote best practice in this area. We are glad to have two colleagues from GOPAC with us today, MP Budiman Sudjatmiko from Indonesia and MP Mairamkul Tilenchieva from Kyrgyzstan. 

Not only national parliaments, but also supranational organizations such as United Nations and European Union have accomplished great deal in setting government ethical standards and imposing them to their member states. At the same time, international organizations like Transparency International and newly established International Anti-Corruption Academy possess a great deal potential in promoting improvement of ethical system globally. Presence of leaders of these organizations today makes our Forum even more meaningful. I believe it is a good opportunity for us to explore the further effective ways and means to develop cooperation with these organizations.

In my view, international cooperation on Parliamentary Ethics and Conducts is crucial at least in three ways. First, it provides good opportunities of knowledge sharing. Second, it provides us tools and resources to build better capacity. Third, it also works as pressure for change.

Although a young democracy, Mongolia has been on a path similar to those of our friends, regarding the establishment of ethical oversight body, and its roles and functions.

In 1997, “Law on the State Great Hural of Mongolia” first stated that the State Structure Standing Committee shall have a Subcommittee on Ethics. Its mandate covered Ethics of Members, Declaration of Members’ Income, and dissemination and enforcement of rules of procedure of the State Great Hural. The first Committee was established in 2000.  However, it took 10 more years until the “Code of Ethics for Member of the State Great Hural” and the “The Rules of Procedure of the Subcommittee” were approved by the Parliament and State Structure Standing Committee, in 2009 and in 2010 respectively.  The committee had only 3 meetings within 12 years.

A new parliament has assembled after the parliamentary election held last year. And currently, the Subcommittee on Ethics comprises of 8 members. In February 2013, the Rules of Procedure was amended, broadening its mandate to initiate investigative action by the committee’s own initiative. The new rules also has clarified the roles and functions of the subcommittee and its members, and more importantly, gave a strong emphasis on providing necessary information and advice to the members of parliament in order to prevent ethical misconducts. 

Here I would like to mention how one particular case, which drew much attention internally as well as internationally, was handled by the newly formed Ethics Subcommittee. It was a case where the Vice Chairman of the State Great Hural failed to include his offshore company and bank account in his yearly Statement of Income and Interest. Just this Tuesday, the subcommittee convened on this issue, and made a decision to submit it to the Session of the Parliament, deliberated on by all 76 MPs. At the end of the session, the MP in question, by his own initiative, stepped down from his position as the Vice Chairman of the State Great Hural.

The new Rules of Procedure provides us with the framework to bring Code of Conduct into life. However, we must also remember that codes are works in progress. They are not fixed and must evolve as we learn from our practical life and best practices from other countries.

Moreover, we need to build capacity. Mere existence of ethical system is not enough for preventing misconducts by parliamentarians.

The existence of a code of ethics and committee can help, but it does not guarantee a miracle cure for all that is perceived to be wrong with politics. Codes of conduct are most effective when they are built on a political culture where integrity, transparency and accountability are highly valued.

A good check and balance system is needed, in order to ensure legitimacy of political institutions and to facilitate transparency, while abuse of power and corruption are minimized.

Cultural attitude is another factor that we need take into consideration. For example, Mongolians lived under communist rule until 1990. People are yet to shed their mind set of expecting everything to be spoon-fed from the state. Over 80 per cent of petitions addressed to the Parliament are requests for assistance for tuitions and gers, meaning Mongolian traditional dwelling.  Is it an ethical act to satisfy requests of few using taxpayers’ money? Everyone has their own answer to that question, but it is safe to say that most people still believe it unethical for MPs to leave such personal requests of their constituents unsatisfied.

As we have witnessed, much work deserving of credit has been accomplished by parliamentarians around the world. However, much more is required to raise and keep our conduct and behaviour to finer levels. I hope that this forum will provide us with fresh and constructive ideas to accomplish this mission. 

I thank you for your attention.”

 

SPEECH TO BE DELIVERED AT THE VII MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE OF THE COMMUNITY OF DEMOCRACIES BY MS. UYANGA GANTUMUR

 

“Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,

Distinguished guests and representatives,

Dear friends,

 

First of all, I would like to deliver my sincere greetings to you.

How to ensure an effective parliament control is the point of my speech to be delivered from this honourable rostrum. The parliament is elected by the public. Though we have elected the parliament by majority opinion, it is required to take the double control over it. It is one of the most rightful forms to improve the governance and eliminate erroneous parts of the democratic governance. Mongolia’s parliament has also these control methods and mechanisms being used worldwide.   

Open hearings were organized at the parliament level but not regularly. Analogous mechanisms are used as well.  The Civil Chamber under the President organizes such kind of discussions and hearings permanently. Currently, the branches of the Chamber are established in every district, each aimags and soums /administrative units/.

Mongolian Parliament was never lacking of voting on issues whether to give trust the head of the Government and other ministers. One of the inseparable parts of our parliament’s activities is questioning and inquiry for the members of the Government. The law on the State Great Hural gives an opportunity to create temporary committees on certain issues, thus study these issues deeply and intensify them more. Such committees were organized by each Parliament. Now the temporary committee to study in details the mining licenses and other issues around the mining will be created soon.

Structure for monitoring the budget expenditure was established inside and outside the parliament. As far as you know, besides these mechanisms, about 1000 mass media means, over 700 non-governmental and civil society organizations run their regular activities in Mongolia. Judging from this picture, all these achievements of Mongolian democracy and controlled parliament are desirable for the foreign countries. 

Unfortunately, these monitoring facilities are not enough for the parliamentary oversight and can’t to yield. Perhaps, we are needed to create additionally other puzzled structure so as to improve our current monitoring network or to take double control over the proper operation of the above structures.

Already 23 years have been passed and we have not finished yet lying the bricks of democracy. If we imagine the democratic society as a person and see its figure and appearance, we have created human-like thing having the legs and hands, eyes and mouth, as well as heart and lungs. But this thing has been failed to come to life for past 23 years.     

At first sight, we are likely to create a good democracy and quite good parliament. However, now we are lacking of content and outcomes. Mongolian people are thoroughly fed up with formalism of democracy. They wish to have powerful government capable to discuss and resolve any matter comprehensively, thus achieve a definitive result.

Just recently, Mongolia was considered worldwide as a good example for New or Restored Democracies. However, the political, economic and social processes in Mongolia demonstrate the objective situation in reverse. I think any requirement and possibility to make smart the reality and tendencies have finished.        

Introduction of difficult, complicated, multi-staged, indirect and heavy system instead of simple, easy, humanitarian and direct system into Mongolian society leads the national system to the complete destruction.

On establishing the anti-corruption agency, this evil of the society is not eliminated, even more is not decreased. Though we have founded the National human rights commission, it could not to ensure human rights guarantee. Furthermore, our democratic Constitution itself can’t to be the guarantee for human rights and democracy.

I think that these objective complications caused suffering on Mongolian democracy are not possible to be distracted by saying as if it is temporary occurrence anywhere or there is a lot of countries with difficult situation more than yours. Is it necessary to resolve any matter endangered the democracy on the verge of war and crash?!

No such incidents as war, civil mutiny, religious and tribal confrontations, coup d’etat, armed clash and revolution in our country. But it is not mean that the democracy is successful. Maybe, it is not permissible to say that democracy is successful when any country and any nation is slowly sliding into destruction.

Financial Action Task Force /FATF/ included Mongolia in “grey” list of the countries which may cause risks in the international financial system. They will include us in black list soon. Mongolia leads in the world with human trafficking, opium and network of organized crime, and corruption, unfamiliar words for Mongolians recently.

Destruction in the Mongolian democracy was clearly evidenced by the terrible crime occurred on July 1, 2008. At that time, a bloody confrontation was triggered by the ruling groups who captured the state power by cheating of voting result and tried to suppress this crafty act.

This action attracted formally the international attention and everybody just only expressed their “regret”. Then, after 2 years or on November 1-19, 2010, the United Nations Committee against Torture issued its Recommendation.  

“It is regretful that police resorted to use not necessary amount of force during emergency situation and the demonstration held at the Sukhbaatar Square during  July 1, 2008 event.  Committee concerns that most of this needless amount of force has been used when emergency situation was announced.  Research conducted by the Human Rights National Commission was also not satisfactory”, recommendation concludes.

The National Human Rights Commission of Mongolia in its research study made the conclusion that “human rights were not violated during July 1 event”. But the United Nations Committee against Torture expressed “dissatisfaction” upon this and recommended “to provide the Human Rights National Commission of Mongolia with all necessary manpower, money and material assistance to conduct the activity”. 

The High Commissioner comes to Mongolia to set up an “organization”, an agency to fight corruption and the Human Rights National Commission but fails to come to identify how many people have been shot and killed.

The whole world greeted and praised us when capital punishment has been abolished in Mongolia but when citizens have been shot and killed, imprisoned in hundreds they said “it is internal matter” of Mongolia and expressed “regret”. I really did not understand this.  Some dual standard is serving here.   

Supervision and control of the democratic system in whole, I think, becomes an urgent issue rather than of the state and government agencies or of those who are in power.

 The international organizations pay more attention to forming the shape of the democratic institution in Mongolia, support in view point and financially paying less attention to its content, quality and influence. I would like to say that at the result the Mongolian democracy experienced serious distortion.   

Failures of Mongolian democracy teach us the following lessons:

1.            New and newly emerged democracies have to seriously consider their national specifics and correct difficulties and problems in due time m explain and make other nations to understand otherwise it would be too late and more mistakes and errors will be accumulated.

2.            It is true that outgoing force creates obstacle and problems to democracy. Nevertheless I would like to say that unprincipled and immoral position of the Democratic Party and enforcement leaders who committed wrong-doings under the name of democracy inflict more serious harm and damage. 

3.            For example, rate of corruption never been in Mongolia at time of socialist and communist leadership flourished at time of democratic leaders.  The communist leaders never saved their secret properties abroad. It is impossible to camouflage this fact which is open and transparent before the people by any democratic theory.

Democracy we were dreaming changed the face. Today we face the demand to make a new definition for the democracy.    

I am not talking about turning back from the democracy and market economy we have chosen once. I am talking to reconsider about our mistakes and gains, about making democracy more perfect. Great ideological confrontation of the 20th century ended, the world community is striving towards bright and stable future. 

If Mongolian democracy will collapse this undoubtedly will be a serious blow to the world democracy. I believe a helping hand will be stretched to save the young Mongolian democracy. .

The solution of any chosen topic in the final run deals with this question.

Thank you for your attention. “

 

SPEECH BY MAIRAMKUL TILENCHIEVA, MEMBER OF KYRGYZSTAN PARLIAMENT KYRGYZSTAN

Salamatsyzby! Sainbainauu,

Your Excellency esteemed President TsakhiagiinElbegdorj!

Allow me to extend to you my sincere gratitude for a warm welcome accorded to me and my delegation at such a high level. From this high rostrum, I wish to convey to Your Excellency and the entire Mongolian people the most heartfelt greetings from fraternal Kyrgyz people.

Esteemed Mr. President,

In your address to ZhokorkuKenesh – Parliament of Kyrgyzstan which was made during your visit to Kyrgyzstan last year, you emphasized the fact that Mongols and Kyrgyz people are two nomadic peoples who have one destiny and one grief as well as common heroic history and pride. Moreover, Your Excellency noted that our two peoples have similar and diverse moments in their centuries-long history and that they have rich traditions of statehood and rule of law. Implementation of large-scale free political and economic reforms in Mongolia – in the centre of Eurasia proves the fact that Mongolia achieved its most important goal which is strengthening of democratic accomplishments which were launched in 1990, the Year of White Horse. Taking this opportunity, I would like to extend our best wishes for great success to Your Excellency and your colleagues who are doing their utmost to develop Mongolia along the path of democracy, freedom and just governance for the well-being of your country.

Esteemed participants of the conference, dear colleagues and friends,

The current 7th Ministerial Conference of the Community of Democracies has extremely valued significance for the further development of democracy in our respective countries. The underlying themes of our conference which are strengthening of democratic norms, poverty reduction, creation of accountable and dynamic civil society as well as the quest for means designed to eradicate corruption serve as its testament. I am confident that today’s meeting which is being held within the framework of the conference will be an important avenue for a constructive dialogue.

I, in my capacity as Member of ZhogorkuKenesh – Parliament of Kyrgyzstan, am ready to share with you, dear colleagues, with the information on practical measures that are being taken in Kyrgyz Republic to strengthen the fundamental principles of democracy, taking into account traditions and national mentality of Kyrgyz people. In order to achieve these noble objectives, we above all, have launched the struggle against corruption – the most dangerous social evil which represents a real threat to the national security of our country.

The fight against corruption has been the main objective for our country. Of course we understand that the measures undertaken to this end will not yield momentary desirable results, however at the result of these actions we will receive positive changes in the near future. The fight against corruption in our country began at the highest echelons of authorities, within so-called “white collars”, who are related with creation of corruption scheme which have done enormous harm to the image of Kyrgyzstan. Scales of this harm were announced in the recent annual report of the General Prosecutor of the country during the session of JogorkuKenesh /Parliament/. And this fight has already had concrete results on corruption restraint. For example, for the last year some officials of the highest rank were arrested for a bribe by anti-corruption federation of the country. In this sense there is a large-scale and real fight on crime abolition in our country. The fight against corruption already made positive changes to consciousness of the society. People now have believed that it is not just a motto, and that we intend to do all we can in this fight. The Parliament and the Government of Kyrgyzstan are taking joint actions for the implementation of the tasks set by our people. I am sure that at the result of joint efforts and actions we can build a society respecting laws of the country.

Dear friends and participants of the conference!

The following cardinal measures have been carried out for the last 2-3 years for optimization of the fight against corruption in Kyrgyzstan:

-           First, we carried out judicial reform

-           Second, as you have seen, we carry out total and rigid fight against corruption within all echelons of authorities

-           Third, we have created favorable conditions for effective development of small and medium business in Kyrgyzstan

-           Fourth, we attract investments into our economy, strengthening at the same time the rule of law and observance of national interests for the well-being of the people of Kyrgyzstan

-           Fifth, freedom of speech has become real thing and we assist to both of state and private mass media to function free.

These measures are links of one chain and actions have to be focused and continuous.

I am sure that if we continue our actions in this direction with the responsibilities and eagerness just like we had at the beginning of the actions, we will see the good time when our people, in particular, our future – our children, will live in a happy, free and democratic country.

Dear participants,

In conclusion I would like to wish you a successful and fruitful conference. I also wish all benefits and prosperity to our brotherly countries.

We, people of Kyrgyzstan, say in such occasion “Let us bless the Great Manas”.

Thank you for your attention.”

     

back