If I’ve gotten either my facts or my opinions wrong on any of the Mongolian Protest posts, please email me or post a comment!

If the UB Post and Mongol Messenger are any indication (which they probably aren’t), there has not been a lot of political dialog in the newspapers - the opinion pages are silent. Indeed, the only media controversy seems to be a heated Wikipedia battle. Perhaps media outlets are taking defamation laws seriously, but one would think that a healthy division between the news and op-ed pages could overcome this. Of course, media bias is a problem throughout the world, but in Mexico, for example, by purchasing three or four of the main newspapers (e.g. leftist Journada and rightist Crónica) you could triangulate with reasonable accuracy what actually took place. Given protestors’ misconceptions about the whole Ivanhoe process, though,it seems that there was a lot of misinformation out there - though I’m not sure who is responsible for this (Was the press release translated into Mongolian? Ivanhoe’s Mongolian page does not seem to have been updated Was it distributed to NGO leaders?) It would have been nice to hear more than one quote from Layton Croft, Ivanhoe’s Executive Vice President for Corporate Affairs.

On a larger level, these protests are illustrative of the huge disconnect between elites and non-elites in Mongolia. All three protest targets - the parliamentary musical chairs, the Ivanhoe negotiations and Altjin Group’s silence over the SAPU fire - took place in the upper echelons of government power, and ordinary Mongolians had no way to participate in the process or, thanks to poor media coverage, learn about it. These protests have taken the country to a new level of political polarization, putting political NGOs in the difficult position of having to straddle the divide between two vastly different perspectives on Mongolian politics, if not splitting them altogether into ones that work closely with the government but are seen as sell-outs (or, to use a more academic term, ‘captured’) by the population and those which work more closely with popular movements but exhibit great antipathy towards the government (I’m thinking of J. Batzandan’s Healthy Society Movement here). This is taking the country in the wrong direction, away from the consensus between the three main sectors (government, civil society and business) required to successfully accomplish the judicial and legislative reforms that the country so desperately needs.

On a totally unrelated note, if you download the Mongolian Sights Google Earth placemark collection, the Mongolian parliament building is represented by a restaurant symbol. Must be some sort of political commentary…

Protestors focus on three main things: (1) Ivanhoe, (2) government corruption and (3) reparations for victims of the 12/05 SAPU trade center fire. However, they seem to all be combined into one agglomeration in Sukhbaatar Square, which proably makes it difficult for particular groups to get their message out - it looks like a disorganized mob of angry people.

The Ivanhoe case seems to be a combination of genuine nationalism and manufactured outrage on the part of the protest organizers, as the press release by Ivanhoe does a pretty good job refuting the protestors’ claims. It’s also interesting that all of the protests are at Sukhbaatar Square and not at the prominent Ivanhoe building 1/2-mile or so away (so I’ve read, at least). Also, the protestors might not realize that their presence will likely only make the negotiations worse and potentially ruin the deal. Misinformed protest is never a good way to make social progress.

Second, there’s the issue of protestors demanding government resignation. This seems to be the most irrational of the movements - do they really think that the well-entrenched politicians will listen to them? There is the ubiquitous threat of a ‘color revolution’-style ousting, but that would probably be the worst possible scenario, as it would throw the country into total chaos.

Finally, there’s the victims of the SAPU fire, who probably feel cheated by both the company and the government. Mongolia’s shaky legal territory and preponderance of corruption don’t help matters, and I’m sure there is not a small amount of class tension in the mix (i.e. wealthy businessmen and politicians conspiring to cheat poor merchants), which would not be surprising if it were true. Fortunately, it seems as if the issue is resolved.

I know I should be working on my thesis, but I need a quick diversion. (I hope none of my readers are looking at this, wondering where my priorities are!)

I’ll get to Kyrgyzstan in another post, but right now I want to focus for a bit on Mongolia. Rather than doing a postmortem on an event, I thought I’d try and capture (as best I can from Massachusetts) what’s going on right now in Mongolia.

For convenience, I’ll split this into three posts - a recap/summary, some second-hand observations and then some more academic commentary.

That said, let’s start in media res with a disturbing occurrence reported on at Neweurasia: “Altandush,” a young protestor, lights himself on fire. What prompted this extreme action? While, as a commentor mentioned, self-immolation is not unheard of, though it is in any circumstance extreme.

Here’s a brief chronology, compiled from news sources:

April 5: Resolute Reform and Just Society protestors, along with SAPU victims, attempt to enter the government palace but are repelled by police.

April 6: Protest challenges government’s signing of a pact with Ivanhoe Mines, demands mass resignations.

April 7: 2000+ protest calling for government-wide resignation.

April 8: Former tenants of the SAPU trade center, which burned down in December 2005 challenge the government to force the trade center’s owners to compensate the victims for their losses.

April 9: Protests continue, though, as Luke pointed out, Ivanhoe followed the letter of the law perfectly.

April 10: Students accept Tg1000-5000 from the MPRP.

April 10: Protestors block ambulance, patient inside dies.

April 12: Protests turn ugly as fights break out

April 13: S. Ganbaatar, of Resolute Reform, declares that the government must act by April 18.

April 15-ish: Ivanhoe makes a whole lot of concessions, but protests continue to escalate.

April 18: Unions and big business band together to demand fiscal reform.

April 18: 3000 protest in Sukhbaatar Square. No police intervention necessary.

April 18: Protestors announce a hunger strike.The head of Altjin says that she will be able to pay some, but not all, of what the protestors demand. 11 businessmen are compensated 30% of their losses.

April 20: SAPU victims continue hunger strike as MPs meet with them and the Altjin company.

April 21: The MPRP releases a statement saying that they’re going to cooperate more with NGOs/civil society.

It seems to have calmed down a bit in the last day or so, judging by the fall-off in news. Thanks to Luke Distelhorst (another Washingtonian! And Nathan makes three) for ongoing coverage - keep up the great work!