Nazarbayev’s Readings: Whose Praise Will Be the Biggest
In Astana, on the eve of the First President’s Day which the country will celebrate tomorrow, there was a competition between the leading masters of flattery, fawning, and boot-licking. The event was officially named “The First Nazarbayev Readings”.
The organizers of the so called “Nazarbayev Readings” began their performance on the background of the palm trees growing in the atrium of the “Nazarbayev University” where they had erected a stage and invited a number of guests.
Yes, it was truly a performance – what was happening in the university carrying the leader’s name could not be called readings in the normal meaning of the word because each speaker coming up on the stage before the audience considered it their obligation not so much to debate the role and place of individual political figures in history as to extend as many compliments, praise, and niceties about Nazarbayev.
The only way these “readings” actually resembled a “reading” is that, during the event’s plenary session, nobody spoke “note-free” but instead, everyone read their speeches. Notably, the speakers had provided their presentations to the journalists ahead of time. That way it was known in advance what the experts would be talking about.
Meanwhile, the role of tamada, sorry, moderator of the plenary session which opened the readings was performed by Kanat Saudbayev, the former state secretary and minister of foreign affairs of the republic, in his usual artistic manner.
He spoke of the EXPO victory and of Kazakhstan being a phenomenon on the international arena which, according to him, would have never happened if the country didn’t have such a leader as Nursultan Abishevich Nazarbayev.
Toward the end, Mr. Saudbayev came to a fascinating conclusion, “Today, the Kazakh way of development, the strategy, and the creative work of Nursultan Nazarbayev aiming at building a new independent state is a subject of serious analysis and extensive research in many countries around the world.”
Having thus given the tone for the further speeches, Mr. Saudbayev invited to the stage another one of the well known in our country glorifiers of the leader’s virtues – the present State Secretary of Kazakhstan Mukhtar Kul-Muhammed who, by the way, managed to keep the audience in suspense a little bit longer than his predecessor. So for example, when talking about Nursultan Nazarbayev, Mr. Kul-Muhammed for some reason remembered the founding fathers of American democracy.
The State Secretary passionately listed, “George Washington, the first President of the country, Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of Independence of the United States, Alexander Hamilton, one of the creators of the American bank system. Many of you have probably already figured out”, asked after an intriguing pause Mr. Kul-Muhammed, “why I mention them specifically from the platform of Nazarbayev University? Yes, for all Kazakh people, Nazarbayev is, without an exaggeration, the founding father of independent Kazakhstan.
After the grandiose comparisons between the leader and the first U.S. presidents made by one of the masters of the “speech about the nation’s leader”, another one was let on the stage. Coming to the ever-present platform after the State Secretary, the Minister of Education Mr. Zhumagulov was clearly aiming to rehabilitate himself in the leader’s eyes after the public reprimand which he had received the day before during a meeting with the mayors and the ministers.
The head of the Ministry of Education was going all-out: he called Nursultan Nazarbayev “a great passionate leader”, placed him next to such famous world politicians as George Washington, Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Kemal Atatürk, Mahathir Mohamad.
“A lot has been said and written about the ‘Nazarbayev phenomenon’”, proclaimed Zhumagulov in a preachy tone of voice, “Heads of governments, world famous analysts and economists, heads of international organizations and the biggest companies speak of Kazakhstan and its Leader with respect and admiration.”
Mr. Zhumagulov spoke for a long time – he quoted the classics and interwove some mathematical theories in them, in turn reminisced about the 1990s and came back to the present, held up as an example some program documents enacted by Nazarbayev over the years, and finally, came to the end of his speech.
“What I’ve said is far from an exhaustive depiction of what is known worldwide as “the Nazarbayev phenomenon”, said Mr. Zhumagulov, possibly hinting that it’s time to finish talking. “I am certain that the forum will reveal many other sides of Nursultan Abishevich’s fundamental work.”
The most verbose presenter was, however, another politician – the Deputy-General Secretary of the UN Kassym-Jomart Tokayev. He spoke approximately 40 minutes, practically about everything, starting with the nuclear disarmament and ending with the leader’s latest achievements on the international arena. A curious detail was revealed at that time – as it turns out, in the beginning of the 1990s, Muammar Gaddafi himself attempted to befriend Nursultan Nazarbayev who was still in possession of a significant nuclear potential.
“In the beginning of 1992,” suddenly remembered Mr. Tokayev, “via the diplomatic channels, a letter was received in MIA, addressed to the President of Kazakhstan from the leader of the Libyan revolution Muammar Gaddafi. He was proposing that the nuclear munitions be preserved on the territory of the country as, in his words, the first Muslim nuclear bomb, and promising that he would designate a multimillion dollar assistance for its maintenance. This missive is likely to have been kept in the archives, and, in my opinion, it should be made public so that the future generations could better understand the dynamics of this complex period.”
By the way, this example served as just one of many instruments for praising the nation’s leader:
“We can now say unambiguously: in the modern world, there is no match to the President of Kazakhstan in terms of experience, wisdom, willpower, vision, and effectiveness. That is precisely why the foreign countries call him a global-level politician. The first celebration of the first President is approaching; this is truly a national day when the citizens of our country will be able to look to the recent past, comparable in its tension and dynamics to a whole century, as well as turn their eyes to the future which we connect with the glorious name of our leader, the head of the people, the first President of the Republic of Kazakhstan.”
The Nazarbayev readings continued in the same vein all the way to the evening. After lunch, the forum participants separated in groups and continued promoting the personality cult toward the leader. Moreover, the conference did not limit itself to just one day on Thursday and smoothly continued on into Friday.
