The government of Kazakhstan was dismissed by the decision of President Nursultan Nazarbayev. His main complaint about the Cabinet is the inability to implement the economic tasks. Observers believe that the authorities are trying to reduce the degree of public discontent by appointing the guilty in the absence of reforms.
Nazarbayev announced that the government should resign on the evening of February 20. On Thursday, February 21, the corresponding decree was signed.
According to the President, the Cabinet of Ministers was unable to carry out the modernisation initiated by him and take measures that would radically change the economic situation in the country for the better, that is increase the share of small and medium-sized businesses, reduce the level of state participation in the economy, clear banks from debts, increase credibility of courts and law enforcement, create jobs and ultimately improve the quality of life of the population.
"The members of the government do not know how to work with the population, listen to people's problems, explain the work and policies being carried out," the statement said.
The First Deputy Prime Minister and former head of the government of Astana, Askar Mamin, has been appointed the acting Prime Minister.
The head of the government, as well as his deputies, the head of the staff, ministers and heads of state committees in Kazakhstan are appointed by the president. He, according to the constitution, has the right to initiate the dissolution of the Cabinet or dismiss any of its members.
However, most often the government declares resignation itself, after which it is approved or not approved by the president. This is the first time that Nazarbayev dismissed the entire cabinet himself.
Nursultan Nazarbayev has been heading Kazakhstan for 28 years since December 1991. In 2010, he was given the status of Elbasy, the leader of the nation, with which he received lifelong guarantees of immunity.
In April 2015, at the early elections, Nazarbayev was re-elected, gaining 97.7% of the vote.
"Why should we live in poverty?"
According to analysts, one of the main reasons for the resignation of the government is the growing discontent of the population with the social policy of the authorities. The situation escalated in early February after the death of five children from one family in a fire in Astana.
The fire at the temporary house occurred at night, and all five girls at the age of 12, 11, 6, 3 and 1 year burned alive. Both parents worked at this time on the night shift, as the family needed money.
The authorities called the incident "the omission of the emergency department," which angered many Kazakhstanis. Hundreds of mothers joined protest rallies demanding from local authorities to improve social assistance to large families. The most mass rallies were held in the west of the republic in Karaganda, Aktobe and Shymkent.
"Let the government protect the rights of mother and child under the constitution! If our rights are protected by the constitution, then we can demand both land and apartment. We have wealth in gold, silver, uranium, coal. They all have to be divided into 18 million people, the newborn in the form of percentages,” Kunsulu Iskakova, the mother of six children, insisted.
Officials promised to consider the proposals of mothers and, if possible, to provide assistance to needy families.
An example from Putin?
Some political analysts indirectly link the resignation of the government with the statements of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who delivered an annual message this week.
“Helping families with many children and the overall focus on quality of life has all given a strong echo in the information space. Moscow suddenly started not from rockets but from social benefits, representing itself human and kind,” political analyst Gaziz Abishev said. "Considering the strong involvement of Kazakhstan in the Russian-language information space, Astana could not help but respond, because comparisons could begin and they did, and Kazakhstan does not look very advantageous in it."
Abishev notes that all this is happening against the background of the growth of social tension associated with the fall in the standard of living.
“The death of five girls in Astana exposed the problems of poverty, agitating people across Kazakhstan. At the same time, the government did not enter a state of emergency and continued to work in a regular schedule. While the problem of aggravating poverty of hundreds of thousands of people remained out of focus of the cabinet’s attention,” the political scientist recalled.
Nazarbayev noted that the new leadership of the government should work out effective steps to improve living standards, stimulate the economy, and implement strategic objectives.
"The funds that the government has on the ground are being spent for other purposes. All this will be monitored. More detailed information on all directions will be given at the congress of the main party of the government, Nur Otan," the statement said.
In the opinion of Kazakhstan expert Dosym Satpayev, the decision to dismiss the government “fits into the classical scheme “a good king, boyars are bad”.
"It is a well-known political technology, when it is necessary to redirect protest sentiments towards negligent officials. Has the effect of a steam boiler that can explode suddenly been seen in Akorda [residence of the President of Kazakhstan]? You can replace officials, but the boiler will remain," Satpayev wrote on Facebook.
At the same time, Kazakhstan is the largest economy in Central Asia, mainly due to its natural resources, including oil reserves. The country is also the world's largest producer of uranium. In 2017, Kazakhstan entered the list of economically free countries developed by the American Heritage Fund. In 2018, the country's economy grew by 4.1%.
However, with such GDP growth, income of the population remains low. For example, according to the Halyk Finance investment company, in 2015-2017, real wages of the population decreased by 3%, while real economic growth exceeded 6%.
"Such a significant discrepancy in the indicators is explained by the raw model of the economy, where the demand for labour largely depends on the inefficient services sector with a significant share of the public sector and backward agriculture. In total, they provide about 70% of the population with work," Halyk Finance explains.
The outgoing government, like the previous one, suffered from "too many heads and faith in state-owned levers," economist Almas Chukin, author of Forbes Kazakhstan, said.
"The president formulated a serious problem. After all, if the share of spending on food increases, this does not mean that people began to eat more and better. This means that the total budget of the family is compressed, and since we have not learned to eat less, therefore, the savings are on other types costs and their share falls," the expert emphasises.
By Nargiza Ryskulova for the BBC.
