Democracy News

Mongolia Marks Over 20 Years as a Democracy
January 19, 2010 | Printer Friendly

On December 10, 2009, Mongolian Prime Minister Batbold spoke on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of democracy in Mongolia.  He detailed the steps that were taken by political leaders and civil society to bring about the democratic transition, and he spoke of the challenges that remain to strengthen Mongolia’s democracy.  He emphasized the necessity of a free press, a vibrant civil society, and ensuring that values of democracy are integrated into education systems to guarantee democracy’s future. 

Mongolia is a member of the Convening Group of the Community of Democracies, and it has been designated as the next Chair of the CD following the conclusion of the Lithuanian Chairmanship in 2011.

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Keynote Speech delivered by S. Batbold, the Prime Minister of Mongolia,
at the Commemorative Gathering devoted to the 20th Anniversary of Democracy
Source: Embassy of Mongolia, www.mongolianembassyus.org

Ulaanbaatar, 10 December 2009

Dear Citizens of the Democratic Mongolia,
Honorable President,
Distinguished Members of the State Great Hural and the Cabinet,
Dear Guests, Delegates, and Ladies and Gentlemen,

Today is the Human Rights Day proclaimed by the United Nations and observed annually by the international community. This process was kicked off 61 year ago with the “Universal Declaration of Human Rights” adopted by the United Nations. Since then, the spirit and fundamental principles of this Declaration have become the humanity’s endowment and continuously translated into our life and actions.

The Declaration’s spirit has transcended the limits of national borders, races, languages and cultures, and thoughts. It has united and linked all peoples with common interests of human nature, human rights and freedoms, made them open and responsible to each other, and lead towards deep understanding of mutual cooperation. It will remain as such in the future. Today’s democratic Mongolia is an embodiment of this spirit. The path to this state has not been easy or smooth. The last 20 years of our life and events testify this.

The first modest gathering organized this day 20 years ago under the spirit of the above Declaration was the historic event we are celebrating today and the beginning of a modern democratic movement in Mongolia. That demonstration opened the window of pluralism in the closed society with a single ideology; rang the bell to wake up the aspirations and instincts rooted in the deep heart of every person to make speech and to express his/herself for individual rights and freedoms; and appealed to the people to participate in public movement for social changes and reforms.

The initiators, organizers and activists of the demonstration were representatives of the new generation, visionary of the coming new era. I wish from this podium to express the deep appreciations of the Mongolian people to this generation who won over their fear and precaution with their youth courage and actively served the cause of the first meeting, the first demonstration and the establishment of the first democratic union, coalition and parties.

Mongolia with its centuries-old statehood traditions made in the early 20th century a historical choice for social progress, approved its first Constitution and proclaimed the Republic. At the end of the 20th century, we the Mongols were given another opportunity to make a historical choice for respect of democracy and upholding our national proud. This process was not a sudden or accidental event.

When the iron curtain dividing the humanity into two camps collapsed, the Mongolian People’s Republic as an integral part of the respective system did not stay outside the process of “Perestroika” that was storming the Soviet Union and the Eastern European countries. Towards the late 1980s, the Mongols, especially the intellectuals were engaged in open and sharp criticism of the authorities, publishing and speaking for acceleration and deepening of reforms, organizing circles and clubs, placing agitation flyers on walls and streets, and strongly appealing for social justice and openness through mass media.

The Mongolian Democratic Union and other newly formed parties and movements were presenting their unwavering demands to the authorities for freedom of association, organization of demonstration and meeting, free expression of thoughts, ensuring human rights, introduction of multi-party, parliamentary system, holding elections on democratic basis, separation of roles of political parties and the state, and were taking active steps. In order to expedite their cause, a political hunger strike was chosen as a resort as of 7 March 1990. In the given circumstances , this was an act of risk, life challenging and civic courage.

Considerate of the mounting aggravation of situation, the authorities, particularly J. Batmunkh, the Chairman of the Presidium of the People Great Hural and the General Secretary of the MPRP, firmly upheld the principle of “non-use of force”. The two sides were flexible and serious, took to the negotiating table, built a consensus and cooperated. Thanks to this, the Mongols found a universally-accepted solution. Despite the shortcomings found from today’s height, the reformist environment of transformation (perestroika) and openness (glasnost) characteristic of the mid-1980s prepared our people to listen to their instinct to embrace democracy as the best option of social reforms. Such psychological peculiarities laid down the foundation to incite the democratic thinking in the inner world of people. The responsible politicians, the responsible political forces existing in such circumstances were, probably, prepared psychologically not to negate and resist democracy. This was one of the fundamentals for the birth of democracy in Mongolia.

The manifestation of the need for democracy and transparency in the Mongolian society was evident when young members and scholars of the MPRP developed policy documents of reformist character and presented their fundamental demands to convene an extraordinary Party conference and to adopt a new program of action and Charter. Such an extraordinary Conference was held in April 1990 at which these new policy documents in principal were approved and new party leadership was appointed.

In April 1990 the newly emerged democratic movements and parties submitted an ultimatum to the authorities and held discussions and negotiations as a result of which a major protocol of mutual understanding was signed. In May of the same year, the People’s Great Hural adopted amendments to the Constitution of the MPR and took a decision to hold free, democratic elections based on a multi-party system. Such a reform process unfolded each day and month that led to a first free democratic election in July of 1990 and an establishment for the first time of the permanent parliament. The State Baga Hural developed and discussed a new draft Constitution of Mongolia which was later adopted by the People’s Great Hural. That laid down the foundations of democracy in Mongolia and started the process of institutional reforms.

The people of Mongolia deserves to be proud for their choice of non-violence. The history and accomplishments of the whole democratization process at that time of choice for the development path of Mongolia were a clear materialization of the late S. Zorig’s belief in “the wisdom of the Mongolian people”.

The people of Mongolia are deeply grateful to the pioneers of democracy who preferred the social aspiration for a new life rather than their lives; the leaders of the Party and the State of that time who foresaw the imminent changes and made a decision for peaceful transition and reforms; the individuals and political forces who took part in laying down the foundations of democracy and market economy. On behalf of the people of Mongolia and on my own, I extend our sincere gratitude to all previous Presidents, Speakers of the Parliament and Prime Ministers who headed the highest constitutional institutions of Mongolia.

In the quest to further develop and strengthen democracy in Mongolia, the role and contribution of those people who started and materialized this process would continue to be of great importance.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The irreversible embracement of democracy by Mongolia is the highest accomplishment in the twenty years of democratic changes. All public opinion polls conducted since the 1990’s have revealed that the people of Mongolia permanently believes in the correctness of their choice in favor of democracy and have never lost their faith in that choice.

The democratic values such as human rights and freedom have become today the belief of every Mongolian. Market economy, free press as the fourth branch of governance and thriving civil society are the guarantees of our democracy. We can conclude that during the past 20 years democracy as a system has been basically established in Mongolia.
The most important essential prerequisite for the establishment of democracy in Mongolia was to protect and guarantee human rights and freedoms on the basis of law. The new Constitution of 1992 based on the universally accepted spirit and principles of human rights has legally guaranteed for human rights and freedoms to the full extent of common practices and norms enshrined in the fundamental international human rights instruments. It is an incredible achievement in itself when people are confident to state that basic human rights and freedoms are in place in Mongolia where in the past by all characteristics limited were the individual rights to access to information, to free expression, free association, protection and inclusion of their interests in the state policies.

An important achievement of the Mongolian democracy is the guarenteed opportunities for the citizens and the public to participate at their initiative in policy formulation and decision making. Whereas the country previously had a system with a single candidate-based “election” organized through command methods, up until now we have successfully held five general and Presidential elections respectively, as a result of which transfer of power has been carried out in accordance with the Constitution. The fact that there were no cases where elections were invalid or had to re-run demonstrates the compliance of election processes with the common international practices.
In addition to the government offices elected by the principle of democratic representation, the citizens exercize their participation in the decision-making and protection of their interests through non-governmental organizations or through direct democracy. No doubt that this brings about a further progress in strengthening the civil society.

Providing real step-by-step opportunities for the citizens’ rights to access to information and to free expression presents a demonstration of working democratic system in Mongolia. Dozens of newspapers, journals, radio and television stations and other mass media are actively operating in Mongolia as free press. The continued Government policy of supporting an access of independent media sources to information on government bodies, public officials, political parties and any other subjects constitutes another significant condition for the development of democracy in Mongolia on the basis of public support.

Economic reforms represent an integral part of the democratic development of Mongolia and the practical guarantee for democracy. Building of democracy and development of market economy in Mongolia have proceeded in parallel and interdependently. And the private sector has become the leading player of the economic and social progress. The development of private sector which contributes about 80 percent of the GDP and produces the most national wealth represents not only the economic benefits of strengthening democracy in Mongolia, but also its future guarantees.
 
It is, therefore, a vital task to strengthen the economic guarantees of democracy. A third of the population still live below the poverty line which testifies the incomplete realization of one most important principle of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Mongolia. According to the Human Development Index published by the UNDP, Mongolia is ranked 115 from 182 countries. It means that the implementation of social and economic rights is lagging compared to the exercize of political rights.

Priorities of the successive Governments have always been to create employment opportunities for all Mongolians, to expand and enlarge midlle-income classes and to provide social welfare to marginalized people. As for my Coalition Government, the twin concept termed as “Development for Individuals, Individuals for Development” will be the core of our policy.

When poverty and social disparity are excessively high, democracy becomes vulnerable. Therefore, in order to further strengthen democracy as a system in this country, poverty reduction continues to be the most important task in the coming years.

Looking from the 20 years’ height, one can see that Mongolia has experienced enormous fundamental transformations in political, social and economic relations and its democracy has become immune. There is no single political party who would object democracy. There is no space if one would dare. The societal values have transformed as a whole. The international community has welcomed and supported our success and achievements. In her message on the occasion of the 20th Anniversary of Democracy in Mongolia, Ms. Hillary Clinton, State Secretary of USA, underlined that Mongolia is “a notable example for the new democracies in the world. Mongolia has continued to further its achievements and to strengthen democracy.” Yesterday, the Millennium Challenge Corporation’s Board of Directors approved a renewed contract of over $280 million with the Government of Mongolia which is another manifestation of welcome by the international community of the strengthened democratic governance in Mongolia.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The democracy Mongolians have so far achieved and its values we collectively share should not be regarded as “the end of the road” or the “top of the hill” but it is a continuous process towards improving the social relations. Therefore, we can say that we are entering the next phase and taking another step towards building a better democracy. No society is perfect thus we are not an exception. We are still vulnerable to mistakes and injustice. And thus we shall not get accustomed to these as habitual circumstances and strive towards developing and strengthening the democratic social institutions to eliminate and amend this situation. People openly criticize inertia, discriminative attitude, corruption, bureaucracy and encumbrance of the state and governmental organizations, their failure to serve as a medium to provide social welfare and the political parties falling short of keeping their promises declared in election agendas and being dumb to their voices. Only by fixing the aforementioned shortcomings, Mongolia would be able to pursue democratic process further. In other words, it is now crucial to enrich and thus ensure the democratic system by applying norms and actions that serve people equitably. In doing so, we shall customize with scant attention the norms and internationally accepted living and working standards aimed at securing democracy, ensuring righteous abidance of the law and human rights, protecting the minority and combating corruption. We shall follow the example of the Eastern European countries that are a lot similar to us and have successfully restored their democracies. This also has been reflected in the Ulaanbaatar Declaration adopted at the 5th International Conference of New and Restored Democracies. Within this framework, yet much needs to be done.

We have been talking a lot about raising the responsibility and fighting corruption. Public organizations shall object to corruption and public officers should be liable. And there are only a few stringent criteria to judge their corruption and liability. In brief, firstly, abidance of the laws and regulations, taking responsibility and imposed penance, secondly, consciously fulfilling the job for which one has taken an oath before the state or if not then transferring the position to those who are capable, thirdly, moral principles, one shall be able to deliver an apology and rectify his actions. Moreover, a righteous state shall be enriched with an enforcement of the laws and regulations, close collaboration with the people, transparency and morality. Therefore, the Government will take step-by-step measures and work towards applying at least the abovementioned three principles to the activities of all state organizations and public officers, and implementing meritocracy principle or the principle of rewarding those working in public service.

The present democracy is a representative one that allows political parties to play a major role in the democratization process. However, people still doubt political parties. Therefore, not depending on whether the political party is ruling or in opposition, all parties shall work towards promoting cooperation with an aim to improve their activities, seek reforms and upgrade their leadership skills.

Another reason people doubt political parties is the competition among the political parties that is too polarized. This situation has widely affected the public service, civil society, press, economic entities in urban and rural areas, even including soums and bags /smallest administrative units/ and negatively impacted their daily activities. Mongolians have never benefited from being divided and extremity. Throughout the history of Mongolia, the power of consensus and unity has been of advantage to us. Therefore, I would like to emphasize here that along with conducting functions with respect to laws and regulations, the democratic institutions shall act initiatively to reach an agreement and cooperation. There are many good examples where the major political parties have successfully worked jointly towards development, tackling the challenges facing the country and preventing from external threats. For instance, Austria has had a major coalition government for more than 40 years and in Switzerland the political parties have been collaborating successfully since 1959. Our past history and the early years of transition to democracy are clear evidence of the success we can achieve whilst working together. I am confident that the coalition government established following the general elections of 2008 will work towards building the success.

It is of vital importance for us to eliminate and rectify the defects of present election system to further strengthen democratic standards. There have been widespread claims and rumors before and after elections on vote rigging, election frauds and breach of law. The people no longer doubt the fact that the election process and the laws should be improved. Therefore, priority issues to be addressed are to make the voters’ voices heard and their interests appropriately represented in the parliament through elected representatives, to reduce election campaign expenses and reconsider timing and duration of future elections and thus through these measures strengthening the election system. I think that it is an issue that we all must think about and make a decision on without any delay. And the timing and the existing circumstances are in our favor.

In order to ensure that everyone benefits from democracy in an equitable and accessible manner, we need to introduce a law on freedom of information and to put in place the right legal framework. Because there is no adequate and transparent information about the work of government institutions, citizens are not always aware of the passing new laws and which interests of which groups are being affected by them. They do not well understand what kind of government services they are entitled to receive and when, where and from whom they can expect such services. I believe that we must work towards achieving the goal of changing this situation where government services do not reach everyone equally as well as adopting a law that would guarantee the freedom of every citizen to obtain information.

I would like to note that it has become demands of today’s democracy that the press adhere to the principle of equally accessible, realistic and balanced information and be guided by the codes of ethics of civilized and responsible journalism, which would make an important contribution to the development of democracy.

Encouraging civil society development and active citizens’ participation should provide a vital guarantee for strengthening democracy. It is important that the public and their representative organizations work with government bodies and be the initiators and implementers in the process of solving many challenging issues such as protection of human rights and reduction of poverty and unemployment. My government will actively look for solutions to those problems in cooperation with civil society organizations.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

One issue that arises out of the Mongolian democracy in a delicate and complicated manner and requires an accommodating and thoughtful solution is the objective of developing a political consciousness and culture in the citizens. Only citizens who have developed a political consciousness and culture can fully enjoy the rights in a democratic system while further strengthening it.

It is one benefit of democracy that the people of Mongolia are being able to carry on their national cultural heritage and at the same time to openly receive the intellectual cultural achievements of the mankind in a creative way. With the increasingly favorable and vast opportunities opened up by the rapid advancement of information technologies and the globalization, it becomes necessary to approach the goals of developing democracy and improving the citizens’ education in a closely knit package.

This is about the need to build up an ability to make responsible choices in one’s own interests, to equally enjoy one’s freedom and have a sense of responsibility, to tolerate others’ views, to cooperate with those having different opinions, and to process different access of information on one’s own. In the ways so far described, it has become necessary to utilize many opportunities presented by democracy to their fullest extent and to rigorously develop a democratic culture and constructive consciousness.

It is also my view that we should work seriously towards making this cultural development an indispensable part of the education system for the young people. For the purpose of developing a democratic culture and constructive consciousness, we need to get theoretical and research materials explaining the values of democracy and market and integrate them into the school curricula. And to instill the advantages of democracy in the minds of our children and youth and the people at large should become an essential part of the work towards strengthening democracy. Because the implementation of human rights and the development of a democratic culture are to occur most extensively inside families, a special attention must be paid to policies to promote the family institution.

The advantages of an institutionalized democratic and open society lie in the fact that it enables us to keep track of how democratic norms and processes are being implemented in the daily affairs of the government and society. In this, it is extremely important to ensure participation of citizens who have a full legal capacity, a democratic culture, and a conscious conduct. The clue to the question whether democracy will further consolidate is in the hands of the citizens themselves. The people can fully enjoy their rights and freedoms within the legal boundaries by acting on their own or through their representative institutions at all levels. The future of the Mongolian democracy will depend on the foresight of the government, the devotion of the people or, in one word, the concerted efforts of all of us. It is here where lies the spirit of the Constitution of Mongolia, that “State power shall be vested in the people of Mongolia. The people shall exercise state power through their direct participation in State affairs as well as through the representative bodies of State power elected by them.”

Fellow citizens of Mongolia,

I would like to address all the people of Mongolia and to call upon them to keep their faith in the mission declared in our Constitution by strengthening the independence and sovereignty of the nation, by cherishing human rights and freedoms, justice and national unity, by inheriting the traditions of national statehood, history and culture, by respecting the accomplishments of human civilization and by aspiring toward the supreme objective of developing a human, civil, democratic society in the country.