Amid the nationwide Kazakh problems related to coronavirus, the collapse of the world oil prices, the high-profile dismissal of Dariga Nazarbayeva and the flood in the Turkestan region, other news got a bit lost to view. Meanwhile, some of them deserve a more close attention.
One of such news (a bit shocking one, in our opinion) is the appearance of the opposition — simultaneously at the level of legislature and in the Parliament.
This is how this news was described in Forbs.kz (text in bold by kz.expert).
«On Wednesday, May 6th, at the plenary meeting, the Mazhilis deputies approved the legislature draft «On the additions to the Constitutional law on the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the status of its deputies» as well as the corresponding series of amendments to the current legislature».
«The additions to the Constitutional law on the Parliament and the status of its deputies» introduce the definition of the «parliamentary opposition» as «the political parties represented in the Mazhilis, that are not a part of the parliamentary majority and, as a rule, hold a different view on the political and social-economic issues».
— The other norms assign the following legal guarantees to the parliamentary opposition: to initiate parliamentary hearings on the topical issues related to the functioning of the state and the society (no less than one time per session), to determine the agenda of the governmental hours in the Parliament (no less than two times per session), to introduce alternative legislature drafts to those governmental laws that the opposition does not support, etc, explains Peruashev.
The legislature also guarantees the right to speak at the joint meetings of the Chambers, plenary meetings of the Mazhilis, the meetings of the committees and work teams, the parliamentary hearings and all other parliamentary events to the leaders and representatives of the opposition factions».
In our opinion, the said changes to the Kazakh legislature, despite their pro forma, decorative and we would even say comical value, do nonetheless present a big step forward. Not for the country though but for a Mazhilis deputy and the leader of the Ak Zhol party Azat Peruashev.
Those who wish may click on the following links in order to see that it was he who was the driving force behind the changes to the legislature we are commenting on and therefore had not simply «brought back to life» the political opposition in the country but we can even say elevated it to the status of the «law». Which, by the way, has already been noticed by the sympathising experts.
In our opinion, it is the Ak Zhol party and its current leader that will become the main beneficiaries of the fact that now they (citing Mr. Peruashev) «have the right to be heard».
Of course, if we are to believe Head of the Mazhilis Nurlan Nigmatullin, becoming an opposition party within the Lower House won’t be easy; although, of course, it will be easier than registering a new party (not to mention easier than getting into the Parliament itself (quoting from Forbes.kz):
«Speaking of the legal aspect, one has to understand that if a party makes a decision to become a parliamentary opposition, it must declare it. In will be written in the rule book and this faction will announce it at a Chamber Bureau meeting and then register. And then, it will start working as part of the parliamentary opposition, said he (Nigmatullin) in the course of the meeting».
Since the Ak Zhol party shows much more activity than the Communist People’s Party of Kazakhstan, it is very likely that it it the former that will become the main opposition force at the legislature level. Especially since, according to the changes, the opposition receives a guaranteed right to occupy certain posts (quoting from Forbs.kz):
«The second legislature draft makes it mandatory to elect the head of one of the standing committees from among the opposition deputies. The same is applied to electing the secretaries of two standing committees (currently, the Mazhilis has 7 such committees)».
Unfortunately, Azat Peruashev (perhaps being inspired by the opening possibilities) has forgotten that, apart from the Parliament, Kazakhstan also has local representative bodies. Otherwise, he would probably see to it that the changes to the legislature included the rights of the opposition at this level of power as well. Perhaps they would not be as «significant» but at least they would be registered on paper. Also, the leader of the future opposition did not manage to obtain a fixed share of the state information demand although, judging by the fact that the number of the publications devoted to this party and its leader significantly surpasses the number of the publications on the CPPK, the money is not an issue.
Nonetheless, we would recommend to Azat Peruashev not to end his activities in the chosen direction and continue to pursue political reforms. In particular, in our opinion, the idea of writing into legislature the position of the «leader of the opposition» that, like the «Leader of the Nation», must have the right to address the public directly (albeit once a year) as well as become the irreplaceable head of any opposition unions and summon the parliamentary opposition meetings that are mandatory for participation may turn out to be very productive.
One must agree that, when the pandemics and the quarantine regime end, all this promises many a joyful minutes to Kazakhstan and the Kazakhs while Mr. Peruashev will get a change to achieve fame nationwide.
