Patronage and Democracy

September 24, 2012

Rahim was from Bulak, a village in the Chui Valley. Rahim was widely respected in his community as a result of the success he found after the collapse of the Soviet Union. He graduated with distinction from the Kyrgyz Academy of Medicine in Bishkek in 1998, and over the course of the next ten years built several successful businesses. Rahim, encouraged by his relative Turgunbek, then Minister of Public Health, entered politics and was appointed to several

governmental positions. He was eventually appointed president of a fund to provide credit to entrepreneurs in the Kyrgyz Republic. In this capacity, Rahim was able to raise KGS 3.4 million (about $100,000 adjusted for inflation) for

investment. Rahim had more going for him than his talent for business and politics. He was descended from a Kyrgyz aristocratic line, Ak-Jol (or ak söök, meaning the descendants of the nobles), and traced his patrilineal descent back to Nurmanbet, one of the most ancient Kyrgyz lines. The Ak-Jol line today comprises over seventy households throughout the Kyrgyz Republic. Although Rahim was young to be a leader with such a powerful community position, he used his lineage to expand the network of relations and supporters around him. Eventually he was given the name öz ball (own son), which helped him to maintain his honored position without violating the rules and norms of the community. In 2007 Rahim mobilized this community and was elected to parliament as a member of the Social Democratic Party of the Kyrgyz Republic. His grandmother had always reminded Rahim to be with the people, and Rahim took the advice to heart. In parliament he used his position to encourage business and provide jobs and to build schools and hospitals. In the community he supported culture and put on lavish celebrations.

Rahim's one disadvantage was that he had nobody to whom he could pass on his success. His lack of 'appropriate brothers' stemmed from the fact that Rahim had no sons, just one sister, and two male cousins who were considered his closest kin. This mattered a lot when, in 2008, Rahim disappeared and was never heard from again.

Aksana Ismailbekova (AUCA Anthropology '05) interviewed Rahim for her dissertation, "The Native Son and Blood Ties: Kinship and Poetics of Patronage in Rural Kyrgyzstan." Aksana submitted her thesis last year at the Martin Luther University in Halle-Wittenberg, and when we sat down in Bishkek to talk last summer she was on her way down to Osh to complete research on the June 2010 events. Over the past twenty yearsAksana has watched as a debate in the Kyrgyz Republic has taken place over what comes first: kin or law. In most places around the country, the answer depends on the strength of the kin present. In Bishkek you will find many people who understand that the rule of law is desirable, but find nobody who is willing to enforce it. The collapse of the Soviet Union left people expecting the same level of service from a government that, to this day, does not have the resources to provide it. A vacuum of power never exists for very long, and to cope with the lack of state-provided support, people in the Kyrgyz Republic began to rely on traditional relationships and patronage systems. Some areas of the country experience little to no influence of large family relationships. In research done by former AUCA Professor Gulzat Botaeva (Article, pg. 20) there is little evidence of a patronage system in an Issyk-Kul village where people make their living by selling marijuana. This contrasts greatly with the case of Rahim, who used his family network to dominate his village and take over surrounding villages.

Rahim routinely used the power of his patronage to enlarge his family and fatten his coffers. His family connections in

Kazakhstan opened up the possibility for him to export milk. These profits allowed him to buy up former collective farms under suspicious conditions. Rahim then replaced many of the experienced farmers with family members, and forced others living on the farms into a sort of indentured servitude, making them completely reliant on the patron's largesse. Rahim also used public funds that he directed at the time to make infrastructure improvements and investments on his properties and for his businesses. Not even religion could get in the way of his business prospects, as he used his position as a local administrator to block the construction of a local mosque in favor of a community health center that in which he had a personal stake. In that altercation, Rahim used his connections within the state apparatus to delay efforts being made to construct the mosque. Rahim also colluded with those same people to secure funding for the future clinic. Publicly Rahim used his community influence to question the motivation for the mosque, and the foreign source of funding. Rahim was able to legitimize his position through a vote that took place at a village meeting, taking steps to make sure that opposition was limited.

The Kyrgyz Republic is singled out for its adoption of democracy in a region known for strong autocrats, but does a democracy built on a combination of rule of law as well as patronage qualify as democratic? Aksana says that it does.

In the case of the 2007 parliamentary elections, Rahim's hometown of Bulak serves as an example of what Aksana considers a localized Kyrgyz democratic process. It is common knowledge in the country that politicians pay for votes during the election process. In 2007 community elders came together to demand the purchase and renovation of an old store into a cafe that could be used for weddings and events. This kind of patronage, Aksana argues, is a democratic process that allows people to participate in village decisions. Before the election took place Rahim took the demands of the village into consideration before providing the younger people with a stadium, the elderly with a traditional yurt, and the poor with a horse. This endeared him to three sectors of the population, and convinced the villagers that electing Rahim was in their long-term interest. Rahim was running under for Social Democratic Part (СДПК), which opposed the party of then President Bakiyev (Ak-Jol).

Despite the pressure to support the presidential party, who retained a majority of the seats in the parliament, villagers routinely asked local campaigners for Ak-Jol to stop, and did not distribute flyers that were given to them. On election day Rahim's chief of staff Oroz used all of his connections to get out the vote, helping students travel back to the village, picking up elderly and helping obtain the proper documents. At the end of the day 700 of the eligible 1000 had voted, leaving 300 unused ballots. Instead of destroying the ballots, as was mandated by law, Oroz suggested to the central election commission monitor that the ballots be distributed instead among party members.

The party members filled out the remaining ballots, including 50 that were filled out by the election monitor, who ended up voting neither for Ak-Jol, her party, or the Social Democrats, but for a third, neutral party. In the end 90% of the votes came in for Rahim. State authorities declared the election a success, while international observers showed corruption to be everywhere, and called for the vote to be annulled. Aksana says that the truth lies somewhere in between. There was indeed corruption with bought votes, and corrupt officials. The people, however, chose to participate in the flawed process because they benefitted from participating. The people in Bulak justified the violation of the election rules by organizing their election in a way that took into account local practices as well as democratic ideas of equal representation. In the end the community was more upset about 10 legitimate votes cast for Ak-Jol from unknown citizens than the 300 that were cast fraudulently.

It is unclear why, after a little over a year in office, Rahim was disappeared. It is possible that because of his membership in the opposition that he was seen as an obstacle that had to be removed. The perpetrator also could have been local, as Rahim collected several enemies over the time he was distributing profits to only those in his admittedly extended circle. What is certain is that Rahim was quickly forgotten. Rahim's grandmother told Aksana that lines of people used to come and see her every day to ask a favor of Rahim, or to invite Rahim to a birthday party or celebration. After he disappeared only a few families came by to give their condolences for her loss, and she was no longer invited to participate in community life. Rahim's lack of sons and brothers meant that there were no strong patrilineal lines to carry on his work after he passed. The hundreds of family members that Rahim brought into his circle through extensive ancestral research and family tree fidgeting were accepted by the community because of the strength of Rahim. With his passing Rahim's strongest patrilineal ties, to his father's brother's sons, were irresponsible and not accepted by the community as 'appropriate' brothers. Some of the businesses still remain in the hands of those who were close to Rahim, while others have passed on to new patrons. It is unclear whether a new partron will be able to consolidate economic and political power the same way Rahim was able to. Changes to the way the parliament is elected seem to make it less likely of a Rahim repeat. Current parliamentarians are put forth on party lists, which do not necessarily correlate to specific districts of the country. But it is not clear yet if this change has weakened or simply shifted patronage in the country. Aksana says that the villagers are not blind to the excesses and manipulations of patrons like Rahim, but they also feel that it is better to have a patron than to have nothing. As long as the federal and local governments remain weak and unable to provide the most basic of services, patrons such as Rahim will come and go with various levels of strength and influence. Even if it were the case today that the government could provide, it is unlikely that the Kyrgyz people would submit to a democratic system with no regard for the Kyrgyz family tree.

Aksana is married and has a child. Her husband Rufat, who is also a Kyrgyz citizen, has just completed his masters degree in water management, and Akbar (6 years old) attends school in Halle but has become a fan of Dusseldorf football club, who were just promoted to the Bundesliga this year. During the week Aksana commutes to her institute in Berlin to work on her research and teach classes. She has written her dissertation and conducts her research in English. And despite only having two semesters of German at AUCA prior to leaving for Germany, she has advanced enough to co-teach upper level anthropology courses. Although she travels back to the Kyrgyz Republic frequently to conduct surveys and interviews, she and her husband hope to move back permanently to the Kyrgyz Republic as soon as they can find the right opportunity.

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