February 18, 2011
What the parliament have done to take a break, wondered a correspondent as the Parliament closed the fall session and the question was warmly supported by many citizens. Though they say with proud that they worked hard whole winter to adopt and amend 150 laws, indeed thirty of these laws have been passed at the same day or the last day of fall session.
A reason why a law becomes a “guuli” /Mongolians say a law turn into “guuli” when a law is of poor quality and is not enforced properly after the adoption/ is that the parliament passes a bulk of laws within two or three days just before the break of spring and fall sessions.
A principal duty of lawmakers is to draft and pass a law.
Because our dear members treat to their principal duty not seriously and even miss sessions if an agenda is not of their personal interests, the quality of their work is very poor. It is becoming a normal habit for parliament that it passes the law that requires constant amendment and alteration or do not live for three days or that is never realized.
Every law must be obeyed and implemented properly. If it is not, it is a basic principle of relations of democratic society that a lawbreaker is subject to legal responsibility.
The Government should lead the implementation of law and every citizen and cooperative should comply with it, but judicial institutions must control its process.
Since there is no one to comply with laws and laws turn into “guuli” because of their poor quality, we, the citizens, are wondering to find out an answer to only one question. Do parliament members pass such “guulis” by accident or by purpose?
Looking back thoroughly, it can be concluded that two political parties who ruled the country independently or jointly, have been passing the laws with bulk of defects by purpose.
Since political parties have no established economic program and doctrine in Mongolia and there is no principal difference what they say and do, it is easily seen that they do not undertake long-term farsighted policy and research regarding serious socio-economic issues before passing related law.
Simply for this reason, parliament members who managed to have seats in parliament using the name of their political party, play their own game, treat to principal duty from the point of personal interest only and pass or amend laws solely for the purpose of personal benefit and business income. Probably it can be said that there is institution called political party in Mongolia.
The brightest example is the recently-passed law on Prohibition of Mineral Prospecting Exploration in Water Basin Areas and Forest Areas. The law, widely called as “the Long-Name Law” is a clear demonstration of all-time parliament members’ lack of vision and their parochialism.
Few parliament members have recently proposed to amend this law that it is not realizable in reality though it was passed in 2009. Where were they and why were they silent when the law was debated and passed?
The reason why the laws are not implemented has deep root. Far early 1990s, the parliament comprised of the two political parties’ members passed the law which gave green light to gold exploration in any place regardless of mountain, steppe, forest and river.
The cabinets of that time also contributed to this by uncontrolled grant of prospecting and exploration licenses flourishing the license-based jobbery, for own wealth and pocket.
Companies owned by all-time parliament members, cabinets they formed and “bosses” they appointed were the pioneers to mine gold in that river basins where the exploration was the fastest and most cost-efficient for them.
They left the area not undertaking any post-mining rehabilitations, after digging up every fragment of gold. They also re-sold licenses at double or triple prices. You can find their names on any newspaper.
Hundreds of rivers dried up and disappeared and when local communities stand up to protect what is left today, they are trying to cancel that law by obscuring it with various new clarifications, explaining that the country will have to pay billion dollar compensations if the already-issued licenses are taken back by the government.
It is obvious that the “long-name law” is not implementable in this way and will remain in history as a classic example of “guuli”.
Exactly the same tactics is being used by politicians in order to legalize what they are doing on territories of all national parks. Soon they will re-set the boundary of the Bogd Khan National park in an attempt to legalize the money laundered by selling the lands of Ulaanbaatar City.
The people see and know that such a well-performed show is behind every law almost and that those in power misuse Mongolia’s natural resources and lands for own profit humiliating and making nasty fun of its people. Mongolian people sacrifices their environment and children’s future in order to pay for politicians’ robbery costs.
It is very strange that the “guulichid*” /makers of such “guuli”/ of Mongolian parliament not only do business in law, flourish their private business in the name of lawmaking, launder money and play with the money of taxpayers by passing the laws with defects and loopholes, but also are going to take a vacation at our expenses.
Should we allow a group of few narrow-minded and unprincipled people, who cannot think beyond washing brains of low-educated people by making fake promises to win elections and by passing such “guuli” based on no certain studies and researches, play with another twenty year of our life?
Translated by Shinebayar
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