OPPOSITION LEADER Kurmanbek Bakiev has taken over as ‘acting
president’ of the former central Asian Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan
after president Askar Akayev fled into exile.
Earlier huge protests, sparked by election fraud and anger over
government corruption and widespread poverty, turned into an uprising .
Kyrgyzstan is third former Soviet republic in recent years to succumb to
so-called "people’s power".
NIALL MULHOLLAND reports on developments.
PROTESTS BEGAN in the south of Kyrgyzstan after disputed
parliamentary elections in February, and a second round of elections on
13 March, which saw Akayev’s allies win all but six of the parliament’s
75 seats. With the election of two of Akayev’s children to parliament,
opposition forces said they feared this marked an attempt to create a
ruling dynasty.
The authoritarian Akayev regime is responsible for previous rigged
elections and for harassment, imprisonment of opposition figures and for
shutting down newspapers.
Large-scale protests against Akayev’s rule began in 2002, in
opposition to a government deal that agreed to give territory to
neighbouring China, and also against the jailing of an MP, Azimbek
Beknazarov, and Feliks Kulov, an opposition leader.
Akayev was a former Stalinist apparatchik in the Communist Party, who
jumped over to capitalist counter revolution and became President in
1990. He was re-elected shortly after independence in 1991 and again in
1995. He promised to create a democratic state and to develop the
economy but failed abysmally on both counts.
Akayev attempted to play to both the US capitalist superpower and
Russia, its giant neighbour. Following 9/11, US forces were allowed to
use the Manas airport base in Bishkek, the capital city. Akayev
supported Bush’s so-called ‘war on terror’ and was applauded by
the US for his hard-line action against ‘Islamic extremism’. This
gave Akayev the pretext to increase his grip on power.
In September 2003, the Kyrgyz government agreed to allow Russian
military forces to deploy at Kant airbase, just 30 miles from US troops.
Who’s behind the ‘Tulip revolution’?
THE WESTERN press is generally mystified over the character of the
recent opposition movement to Akayev. The ‘Tulip revolution’ does
not have the strong pro-Western slant as recent popular movements in two
other former Soviet states, Georgia and Ukraine.
But it is clear that the ‘Tulip revolution’ – despite its ‘leaders’,
many of whom are members of Kyrgyzstan’s ‘political class’ that
have fallen out with President Akayev – is fuelled by working people’s
outrage over the impoverished conditions Kyrgyz people suffer.
However, working people do not have mass independent working class
organisations to lead their struggle beyond overthrowing the corrupt and
brutal Akayev regime. To go forward, workers need to create a government
genuinely representing the urban and rural workers and the poor.
Opposition leader, Kurmanbek Bakiev, head of the People’s Movement
of Kyrgyzstan, led recent Bishkek protests. But he previously served as
a prime minister until two years ago, and was forced to resign after the
police shooting of protesters in the southern district of Aksy.
Under the rule of these mafia-style capitalist politicians, ethnic
divisions in Kyrgystan can grow. Different politicians will reflect
different clan and ethnic-based capitalist interests. In doing so, they
will stoke up ethnic differences and indulge in the old ruling-class
tactic of divide and rule.
Historically, the Kyrgyz are regarded as ‘moderate’ Muslims and
ethnic Kyrgyz in Afghanistan were oppressed by the former Taliban
regime. But if a workers’ party does not fill the vacuum political
Islam can make headway across Central Asia, setting ethnic groups
against each other.
‘Democratic wave’
No doubt, Bush will claim that events in Kyrgyz show the US-sponsored
‘democratic wave’ is spreading across the region and is a
vindication of the White House’s foreign policies.
But the ‘democratic revolution’, in the hands of imperialist
powers, is a tool to force ‘regime change’ that furthers the
interests of the ruling class. In doing so, the imperialist powers and
local ruling classes cynically manipulate genuine pro-democratic moods.
The only ‘democracy’ the US wants is where the main parties support
capitalism and imperialism.
Just as workers in Kyrgyzstan must reject the influence of US
imperialism, it is also in their class interests to reject the meddling
of Russian imperialism.
Earlier this week, right-wing Russian nationalists called on Russian
President, Vladimir Putin, to "intervene" to support Akayev.
Workers and the poor in Kyrgystan will not win decent living
standards and permanent democratic rights on the basis of capitalism, no
matter which section of the rich clans are in power.
Working people in Kyrgyzstan and everywhere can only rely on their
own strength, and the solidarity of the international working class, to
bring down dictatorships and to win democratic rights.
A struggle for democratic rights needs to be linked to a struggle for
far-reaching social and economic change – for socialism – if all
rights are to be permanent and living standards drastically improved.
