I’ve now arrived in Tajikistan, so expect the focus of this blog to change a bit.

That said, speaking with other people in Bishkek (I’m keeping interviewees anonymous on this blog, but suffice it to say, if Kyrgyzstan had pundits, they would be them), I mentioned my previously outlined observations about the Kyrgyz presidential elections, and they noted that choice was never an expectation for the election - it was basically a referendum on Bakiev’s administration. While referendums have a shady history in Kyrgyzstan (and Central Asia for that matter) - they have been employed to push through all types of nasty ‘reforms’ that consolidate power or expand term limits. However, it seemed that this one might turn out well because it delivered the stability that Kyrgyz citizens valued above all else. It seems that while the March Revolution attracted a great deal of attention from American media and donor organizations, it scared a lot of people here in Kyrgyzstan. People just want to live their own lives without a lot of upheaval. ‘Stability’ has been used by many people for many purposes, but it seems that the main outcome of the elections is that people are currently happy with the system and they have hope for the future, neither of which existed half a year ago.

However, I still believe that raising a little hell once in a while - as long as it is well-focused, reasonably contained and nonviolent, which NGO-organized groups during the March Revolution certainly were - is not a bad thing (it certainly has a good track record in the United States). I think that one of the major obstacles in Kyrgyzstan to creating social elements of a stable democracy (strong ideologically-based parties, objective media, local activism, etc.) is the lack of a notion of citizenship and a social contract - both the ‘by the people, for the people’ notion of statehood and political representation and the sense of using political engagement to express one’s beliefs and better one’s life. How to do this? I have yet to find an answer. Maybe it will be in Tajikistan or, more likely, Mongolia…