Nurbulat MASANOV
ALMATY, Oct 6
(Specially for THE GLOBE)
The deputies� corps to be elected on October 10 is supposed to up our country, which is in a deep crisis, touched all spheres of the society.
In connection with this we have a lot of questions. Is the Parliament able to fulfil the historical task? Do future deputies understand the responsibility to be undertaken by them? Will they able to make a correct choice between the population�s interest and their own ones? Will they able to call the executive power to the order, etc? Let�s try to meditate on this theme.
All over the world the Parliament is first of all to present local specific interests. This is dictated by both the election system, when a parliamentarian is election from a definite number of the population, and with the fact that according to the logic, it is to present concrete interests of this segment of the electorate namely.
What interests is the parliamentarian to present and what does the term �local specific interests� mean? These are quite simple and clear interests of people, who elected this parliamentarian to the country�s Parliament (working places, roads, prosperity, electricity and heat at their homes, safe streets, etc.).
That is why all over the world the Parliament is the national assembly of deputies who present the sum of local specific interest. These interests are mainly economic, every-day, vital, communicational, etc.
You will ask, how do separate parliamentarians and the whole Parliament present these local specific interests? Quite simple, in a legal way, i.e. by means of approval of the corresponding laws, with the help of which these local specific interests may be easily realised. If it is required to approve necessary laws for schools to work normally, parliamentarians should approve these laws. If the corresponding state policy required for this, parliamentarians are to press the executive bodies. If it is necessary for this to dismiss the worthless Cabinet of ministers, they will dismiss the same without any doubts, etc.
In other words, to realise local specific interests of their electors, deputies make any efforts till the dismissal of President, Prime Ministers and other figures dependent on them in the democratic world.
What do deputies do to settle all these problems?
First, they are united into groups according to their interests, into parliamentary fractions, commissions, sub-commissions and other structures.
Second, they regularly gather together and discuss their interest trying to find a compromise, which would satisfy all of them or at least their absolute majority.
Third, they hold corresponding hearings and invite the most qualified specialists (lawyers, economists, politologists, sociologists, businessmen, etc.). Later basing on specialists� opinion deputies take optimal decisions.
Fourth, they regularly observe how laws approved by them work, i.e. they try to work honestly.
How can the deputy be made work honestly? It is quite easy. He is to be often re-elected. That is why, e.g. in USA congressmen of the Lower House are elected every two years.
Often re-election makes deputies dependent on electors and does not allow them to tear themselves away from the electorate. Moreover it makes deputies be professional politicians.
What is a professional politician? It is a man who continuously appeals to the electorate to be supported by the latter, i.e. this is the man who is constantly elected by the population as its representative. This man always considers his electorate�s interests to be the priority.
What does it mean to settle the electors� interests in a political way? It means that no separate deputy (whatever fine and proud he is) will manage anything! The deputy is to be able to hold secret or public negotiations with all his colleagues and persuade them to settle a problem jointly. The policy is the art of possible things!
That is why electors all over the world know that they should not elect a separate man! They obligatorily should see whether he can find allies, what party he belongs to, what the party it is, etc. Under conditions when all candidates promise approximately the same set of good things to electors, people know that a separate man is just an empty man and the population will never vote for him. As a rule, a separate man is not a professional politician, but a professional careerist.
Americans do not believe separate men, who are not supported by political parties. They know perfectly well, that these empty lone persons will not be able to settle any problem, as the laws are approved by the majority of votes.
So, if we want a strong Parliament, we should not elect separate persons. We should vote for deputies supported by political parties and strong public movements!
Agriculture
�The Energy of Kazakhstan�, a magazine-appendix to THE GLOBE presents the announcement of the article �Everything revives after grain� by Ervin GOSSEN. You will be able to read the full variant of the article in the fifth issue of �The Energy of Kazakhstan� which is sold in the Supermarket �Ramstore�, at �Texaco� filling stations, in �Yubileiny�, near CUM, as well as in hotels The Regent Ankara and Hyatt Regency/Rachat Palace.
Everything revives after grain
E. F. Gossen, the Academician of NAS RK
N.A. Ibadildin
The point is that nobody knows where the way-out is,
We even do not know where the entrance is.
Boris Grebenschikov
Every country has its own advantages. �Do what you can do better than others, and sell the balance to them.�
Kazakhstan is included in the so-called grain zone of the Earth.
There are not too many regions suitable for grain production by their climate conditions and biochemical content of the soil in the Earth: a narrow line in North America (northern USA and Canada), and some European countries (France, Ukraine, southern Russia and Kazakhstan). We may also mention Argentina and Australia. These countries essentially control the international foodstuff market. At the same time, these countries are the main manufacturers of grain.
Due to the economic transformation, which gradually transformed into a continuous economic crisis, Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan are no longer present in the grain zone. Geographically these countries are still there, but not in fact.
�To have� and �to be able� are different things. To be a grain producer is a real jump into the 21st century. In the 21st century, the foodstuff problem will be most serious due to both the growth of the population and the deficit of water. To have the potential of a grain producer and not to use it, may only be called a historical self-punishment. You should make use of whatever nature and God grants you. In connection with this, the locusts� invasion to Kazakhstan may be interpreted as a warning and an omen: if you are granted a good land, you should work, otherwise the land will be wasted and lost.
Kazakhstan was a grain power
There was a time, in fact quite recently by historical measures, when Kazakhstan was able to export a little less than 10 million tons of high quality grain per year. In the structure of the world�s consumption, this number is quite small, but on a regional scale it is quite significant.
During the soviet period (1986 to 1990) both the area under crops was greater and the crop capacity was higher, hence there was an export reserve. At the present time, Kazakhstan only covers its requirements. Agriculture may become a locomotive, which will draw the entire economy out. Intensified agriculture requires herbicides and fertilisers. The demand for these materials will stir up the chemical industry. To cultivate the soil agricultural machines will be needed. The demand for these engines will stir up the machine-building branch. This positive chain reaction which can reinvigorate the entire economy will be possible if the agriculture is being restored.
The development of agriculture will result in positive social consequences. First of all, working places will appear in rural districts. This development will stop the steady migration of the rural population to towns. Thus, towns will be released from tension. Rural people will be able to maintain themselves.
The capture of new and old markets in the region, i.e. realisation of the export potential will guarantee both the political authority of Kazakhstan and a much needed inflow of hard currency.
Till the present time, the attitude to the agriculture was an attitude to a peculiar fetish. The agriculture was perceived as something sacred living according to its own laws. The appointment of a new Minister of Agriculture Mr. Mynbaev, a professional economist and financier, demonstrates that for many years for the first time this attitude has changed. The agriculture is not considered as something mysterious. The agriculture is also subordinate to economic laws, according to which all other economic subjects work. The agriculture is a business, and alike any business it is to be economical and gain some profits. The new Minister should prove this.
Kazakhstan was, and with hard work may again become a grain power.
Policy and economy of Kazakhstan agriculture
During the soviet period, Kazakhstan�s agriculture was organised on a wide-scale and mass character. Farm operations were supposed to be large. It was absolutely correct. The agriculture in Kazakhstan�s valleys is most profitable when vast territories are cultivated with the help of highly productive machines. However, the scheme that previously worked collapsed due to many reasons. These reasons sometimes are not of �a climate� character, but of a political one. We will outline two main factors that buried Kazakhstan�s agriculture.
First, Kazakhstan has since 1991, chosen oil production as the main direction of its economic policy. Do you remember talks and slogans that if Kazakhstan is not the second Kuwait, then it is the second Norway? And that Kazakhstan�s wealth will increase completely because of oil. Based upon these objectives, all the resources of the state, both tangible and intellectual were directed to oil excavation, the sale of oil fields, oil tenders, etc. In that time there was a scent of big oil and big money in Kazakhstan. Nobody could say a word about the agriculture. The trust in oil and expectation that �oil will rescue� were not justified. The Asian crisis, a glut of oil in the market, and the high cost of Kazakhstani oil� all shattered this hope.
Second, privatisation was held in Kazakhstan. Privatisation broke the single manufacturing chain in the agriculture, as well as causing the problem of small lands. The privatisation of agriculture was one of the consequences of major and minor political games in Kazakhstan. In these games the most unclaimed one was agriculture.
It is obvious that the redistribution of property and land broke the wide-scale and mass character of the grain agriculture in Kazakhstan.
That was the thoughtless political decision aggravated by unavailability of working capital, when peasants were not able to provide themselves with technique, seeds and chemicals, i.e. with everything that is required for the intensive technology of grain production. All these facts lowered the Kazakhstan agriculture, which was once powerful and modern enough to a primitive level.
We may continue to enumerate reasons. For example, the absence of the sales plans, barter transactions, the disparity of grain prices in comparison with industrial goods. The matter is the same � the state either does not regulate these processes in agriculture or does not pay them enough attention, while the wide-scale method of agriculture is only possible if the state is involved in the process.
The state should determine its position in the agriculture. If prices for Kazakhstan�s main exports decrease, the State functionaries as rationally thinking men will most probably just seek other comparative advantages of Kazakhstan. One of these advantages is agriculture. In this regard, the restoration of the large agricultural producer to bring together the technological chain is the top priority.
Kazakhstan�s agriculture can be restored. The locusts� invasion has just illuminated: a boomerang from the ruined village strikes so strongly, that it literally reaches capital corridors and windows.
(Full version of the article you can read in the fifth issue of �The Energy of Kazakhstan�)
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