“Travelers”

UB Post

December 03, 2010

The most precious quality of an administration is its just deed and people’s confidence in its match of words said and actions done.

Unfortunately, such kind of confidence is an endangered thing in Mongolia. In a country like ours where the law pertains not to those who has power and money but only to ordinary citizens, who will believe in government?

Will you be surprised if a list of the biggest lawbreakers of Mongolian laws includes law-making parliament members, law-implementing Cabinet members and its agency heads, law-enforcing court and police officials of all generation? Just go to and look at Zaisan, Nukht and other valleys in the National Park of Bogd Khan Mountain. You will see disorderly and unplanned built luxurious houses, cottages and apartments, in which our lawmakers, law implementers and law enforcers mostly live.

We see how the press makes it public who and where lives taking their definite names and positions and we see how the number is increasing. The highest place to appeal lawmakers and the principal fundament for Mongolian legislation must be the Constitutional Court of Mongolia.

Unfortunately, our Constitutional Court itself settled in a new palace built right on the Zaisan Valley, a part of the Bogd Khan National Park, thereby calling the others for breaking the law. How should we understand that? Does it mean that we, the citizens, have got nothing left to address not to the Constitutional Court but to blue sky which is the only available option above the Constitutional Court, to ask how in all government administration levels the Article 12, Law of Mongolia on Specially Protected Area is insistently infringed by lawmakers, law implementers and law enforcers themselves. It is good that the number of shamans is on increase. Or are our authorities “the travelers”, who have permits to camp on the National Park stated in the above-mentioned law? If they are, then it appears that our “home” is ruled by some passers-by?!

Like Mongolians say “Don’t let someone, who will stay, load the cargo. Most of people who are in power in Mongolia, their puppets altogether machinate lands of Ulaanbaatar City for personal interest only in an open and hidden way, being a part of dirty land business directly and indirectly. These bad guys, who became masters in acquiring a land in the territory of the Bogd Khan National Park behind the name of license to run a tourism business, in order to build their luxurious houses and cottages jointly with their accomplices, have bought and subjugated leaders of political parties.

A pyramid of lobbies who buys the choice of citizens at high price and finance election expenses of particular politicians to make the decision making profitable for them only or of politicians who are pledged as debt security, has erected in Mongolia. Valleys in Bogd Khan National Park is the clear examples of how officials who was elected only serve its people, put their personal interests before the peoples’ interests and how such trend has “developed” into a day-to-day function standard of all recent administrations

The only method and chance to change such system is next elections. It is obvious that in next elections the people have no reason to believe in those “valley residents”, who took the law into their own hands and makes a mock of their people. We can do nothing with those who already settled in the Bogd Khan valleys. We just need to make this area a special zone of Ulaanbaatar City to charge relevant tax or fee and use this money to finance projects to turn ger districts into apartment blocks.

Even a goat understands that Ulaanbaatar City can be free from air pollution only after the ger districts turn into apartment blocks. Generally, it is already time to make political parties publicize their separate reports on origin and amount of election donations and their expenditure, on each of candidates. We can live a healthy and energetic life only if we will be reminding the politicians continuously and constantly that they are servants of the people. Today’s politicians are not able to do all these changes and reforms.

As they hostage each other, they can talk rhetorically, but are not able to do anything. Let them live in harmony. Otherwise, they might beat each other and tear down our home.

Anyway, next election is approaching. Very soon, a new young generation, who has sagacity, who loves their homeland, who are free from machinations and various dirty things and who are intelligent, will come to power as a new political force. But for today, Mongolia is ruled not by the governance of justice but by the law of governance.

Translated by P.Shinebayar