Page 5 - Uzbekistan rising bne IntelliNews special report

bne December 2021 Special Report: Uzbekistan Rising I 5
ignore Western style parliamentary politics where the policies are debated on the house floor and instead adopted a political system that has been in use in Central Asia since
the bronze age – the Mahalla.
The Mahalla
“The problem is not the lack of qualified people. We have managers enough. The main issue is to work more closely and more efficiently with the Mahalla. They connect social groups
of 500-1,000 people. They tell us their problems and what they expect. Our work is to solve these problems from the bottom up,” Tursunor Kabul, the Khakim, or mayor, of the city of Navoi told bne IntelliNews in an interview.
The Mahalla is a local organisation based on a community. This can be
a few blocks on a street, a section of
a city, a suburb or even just a village. The territory is ill defined but the Mahalla is a community living together with shared interests and needs and they form an elected representation that can then talk to the local authorities to meet these needs.
The issues the Mahalla deals with are manifold. If a couple wants to divorce the Mahalla will come and try to iron out the conflicts. If the breadwinner in a family dies or is incapacitated the Mahalla will club together to support them. And more significantly for the Mirziyoyev government, if the roads in the street
Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev was criticised for running unopposed for re-election, but he hasn't abandoned democracy. He has turned instead to a system of social organisation that has been around since the Bronze Age in Central Asia – the Mahalla.
Uzbekistan’s Mahalla democracy
Ben Aris in Navoi
U
he won re-election with a landslide, standing unopposed apart from
a few straw men put up to make the elections seem legitimate.
As bne IntelliNews reported from Tashkent, there were a total of
five candidates, including the incumbent, but the other four were from pro-government parties. The real opposition candidates from the traditional opposition parties were barred from the election, reportedly under pressure from the authorities.
However, this was no Lukashenko- like election and the landslide victory was genuine; voters vox-popped by bne IntelliNews in Tashkent on the day overwhelming supported Mirziyoyev and wanted him to stay on in office.
And election observers from the OSCE interviewed by bne IntelliNews on the day reported that the voting was free and fair, as far as the actual voting was concerned; there was no Russian-style mass stuffing of ballot
zbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev was roundly
criticised in September after
boxes, as no falsification was needed. Moreover, observers interviewed
by bne IntelliNews said that the government was co-operating closely with the OSCE, as “they seem keen to understand how to run a free election.”
Is Uzbekistan reverting to the Central Asia norm of centralised dictatorship where the president remains in office for life and elections are a sham, designed only to bolster the beloved leader’s legitimacy. After all, that is
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“Uzbekistan has adopted a political system that has been in use in Central Asia since the bronze age – the Mahalla”
the system the country had under its previous, and only, president since independence, Islam Karimov.
The truth is more complicated. The government is genuinely interested in giving its citizens a voice and it
is working hard to deal with their problems. But what it has done is to
are broken, they lack a kindergarten or need gas to heat their homes in the winter, then the Mahalla will go to the administration and request them.
Kabul says that it is his local administration's main work: to listen to the Mahallas in Navoi and meet all their needs. He says his goal is to cut down