PETER BOWERS (In Studio): Last Sunday was the 21st Anniversary of Mongolia’s democratic constitution. So today we’ll be looking at how Mongolian democracy began and how it’s going. But before that, we’re going to go right back to the days before democracy.
Socialism (Location: Suhkbataar Square, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia)
PETER BOWERS: I’m standing in the centre of Suhkbaatar Square in the centre of Ulaanbaatar, the capital city of Mongolia. To my left is the main road and to my right is the big, impressive parliament building. But just above me is a statue of General Suhkbataar with his arm raised on his horse and his other arm on his sword, at the ready. He was the great military general who defeated the White Russians and the Chinese in the Socialist revolution of 1921. He’s remembred as a hero for defeating Mongolia’s enemies but the communist government he brought into power isn’t remembred so fondly.
Openness and Restructuring
PETER BOWERS (In Studio): Fast-forward 70 years or so and Mongolia’s economy was really struggling. The government of the time followed the lead of the Communist government over the border in the Soviet Union and brought in a policy of openness and restructuring. Under this policy some of the whisperings for change could became louder. I had a look at a tribute to one of these whisperers.

Zorig (Location: Peace Avenue Intersection, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia)
PETER BOWERS (background sound of heavy traffic): I’m standing before an unusual statue on the streets of Ulaanbaatar. Its not like most statues where they usually have a weapon and a fierce expression, ready to beat their enemies. Its just a man gazing upward with a book under his arm and a cigarette int eh other hand. He was a political science teacher at a university a few blocks away and he was one of a group of young intellectuals who began meeting to talk about real political change and democracy in Mongolia. His name is Zorig. Now his little group named themselves on the UN’s Human Rights Day in 1989 the Mongolian Democratic Union and they sent some demands to the parliament about these changes.
Protesting Louder
PETER BOWERS (In Studio): The demands were ignored but the protestors were getting louder. I went to the site of the protests, Suhkbataar Square.
Suhkbaatar Protests (Location: Suhkbataar Square, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia)
PETER BOWERS: Around this time of year in 1990 there were some small protests in this very square and some small democratic groups were popping up. By February the protests were getting really big and rowdy. It’s a big square and its great to imagine hundreds of people, mostly young, marching and chanting for Democracy. One of their chants was “Moriindoo”, which was an old battle cry: “Mongols! To your horses.” In fact, the protests got so rowdy that at one point Zorig had to jump on someone’s shoulders with a microphone and tell all the protesters to calm down.
If I’ve judged this correctly from the photo I saw, I’m now standing where some members of the Mongolian Democratic Union staged a hunger strike in March 1990. I’ll just sit down to try to be like them (pause and shuffling). So they sat here, huddled like me in the freezing cold, eating nothing but water with dissolved salt in it and telling everyone if they died it would be the government’s fault. They said they would only stop the hunger strike when democratic reforms were made including multi-party elections. And by now the protests were getting really rowdy. The government became split: some member wanted to bring in the Tianaamen square tactic China had used less than a year before. But the leader Batmonkh famously said: “These are our sons, our people,” and he refused.
Anyway, within two days of the hunger strike the government was feeling the pressure such that Batmonkh and his cabinet resigned. And a provisional government was formed to organise the first multi-party elections in the country’s history.
Democratic Changes
PETER BOWERS (In Studio): Soon private ownership was allowed, foreign investment was allowed, and many public sector units privatized. And they disbanded the Dotood Yam, the Mongolian Secret Police who had carried out the purges. Democracy was here and on January 13, 1992 Parliament approved the new constitution. I had a look at the Parliament building. It’s the same one they used in those early days but it was renovated since the revolution so looks quite different.
Chingghis Khan (Location: Parliament House, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia)
PETER BOWERS: I’m walking toward the parliament house now. Probably the most captivating thing about this square is the huge statue of Chingghis Khan before me. Its interesting to democracy because the communists didn’t like Chingghis Khan and they sort of tried to forget him from history. They thought he would promote nationalism and anti-soviet feeling. Its an amazing statue, I’m standing before it now, its twice my height and about eight times my width and its elevated off the ground. He’s not smiling, looking big, mean and strong. He’s a bit scary. He’s an excellent symbol of Mongolian strength and independence and pride. Many people say the democratic revolution was actually the first time Mongolia became properly independent. Before that, they weren’t actually part of the Soviet Union but they were very heavily influenced by them. Like in the 1930s when Stalin told the Mongolian government to kill thousands of Monks, and the Mongolian government obeyed. Since democracy Chingghis Khan became popular again and statues like this are all over the place. Religion has also flourished.
1992 and 1996 Elections

PETER BOWERS: The interesting thing about the communist party–Officially, the Mongolian People’s Revolutionary Party—here is it sort of re-invented itself and managed to win the 1992 election under the new Constitution. Some historians have blamed the Democratic Party’s loss on their political blundering due to inexperience. Others have said the communist party used effective propaganda. They blamed the Democrats for economic problems the country was experiencing in its first years of a free market. The Democratic forces were also much divided between a number of different parties.
But they learnt from the experience, united to form the one ‘Democratic Party’ and won the next election in 1996.
Semi-Presidential Parliamentary System
Mongolia’s constitution is quite different from other democratic countries because they are ‘semi-presidential’. So they elect a parliament like in the parliamentary system in the UK but they also elect a President like in America. In Mongolia the President is a symbolic figurehead but also has powers to veto certain laws, and is heavily involved in foreign affairs. The Democrats’ candidate, Ochirbat, won the first Presidential election in 1993.
The Present
So how is democracy going?
In many respects it’s going well. Last year the US Secretary of State, Hilary Clinton, said: "If you want to see democracy in action, if you want to see progress being shaped by leaders who are more concerned about lifting up their people than fattening their bank accounts, come to Mongolia.”
But many Mongolians would disagree. The country is experiencing a mining boom that’s been pumping money into the country like the speed of light. While this has helped Mongolia, still a developing country, grow its economy at record speeds, its also brought accusations of corruption. The country’s top opinion poll found 90% of Mongolians believe politicians personally benefit from ‘special arrangements’ in the granting of foreign mining concessions.
A recent corruption case will probably be made into an excellent movie someday. One morning last April former President Enkhbayar found 600 police officers on his doorstep and was charged with 5 counts of corruption. Enkbahayer and his vocal supporters claim this was political persecution as he was then not allowed to contest the June 2012 elections. He protested with a 12 day hunger strike and was released from court on bail for health reasons. He’s since returned to jail but still suffers poor health. Just this month 5 mothers began a hunger strike demanding he receive sufficient medical treatment for his deteriorating health. One Member of Parliament said: “While you are on strike, your husbands, children and relatives are waiting for you. I beg you to stop the strike for the sake of your family’s happiness, as I am a mother of children too.” The really juicy bit of the plot is Enkhbayar is still leader of a party that is part of the current minority government. Who knows where this case will end.
The 2012 Elections
But overall democracy seems strong in Mongolia. The parliamentary elections last year are testament to that. There were a few new things introduced that for the most part went well.
First, Electronic Voting Machines were used after accusations of rorting sparked riots in the previous elections Some EVMs were delayed but in the end all parties accepted the result.
There was also a new rule requiring 20% of a Party’s candidates be women. And it seemed to work. Compared to the previous elections that only allowed three women in the 76-member one house parliament, there are now 9 women in parliament.
The two major parties are now the Democratic Party and the old communist party, the Mongolian People’s Party. The Mongolian People’s Party was actually called the Mongolian People’s Revolutionary Party until 2011 when they had a split over changing the name. The majority of the part became the MPP but a smaller faction that didn’t agree with the name change started their own party with the old name.
In the 2012 Parliamentary elections, the Democratic Party got the most votes but not enough to form government. They formed a coalition government with the new Mongolian Peoples’ Revolutionary Party, the Mongolian National Democratic Party and the Civil Will Green Party. This put the Mongolian People’s Party out of government for the first time in 12 years.
The Future
This year is another big political year with the presidential elections. As I said before, Mongolia is semi-presidential so these elections are completely different to the parliamentary ones.
I had a chat with Nardia, the Political Officer of the International Department of the Mongolian People’s Party. I asked her about her party and their hopes for the future.
Nardia from MPP (Location: Mongolian People’s Party Headquarters, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia)

NARDIA: The Mongolian People’s Party is the longest party in Mongolia. We’ve got lots of history. Even in the international area, we are the member of the socialist international. And the socialist international has 235 political parties involved in. And Mongolian People’s Party is one of them. Actually, from Mongolia we are the only party part of them. And we are very proud of that.
Our goal for 2013 is probably the Presidential Elections. Even though we lost the [previous] two of them [local and parliamentary elections]. And Mongolian People’s Party has a lot of younger generations coming up. This is probably a good opportunity to send our younger generations abroad to get better education. And we are sending lots of, lots of younger generations abroad. And hopefully when they come back in 2017 they will be able to do so much for MPP.
PETER BOWERS (In Studio): I tried to speak with the Democratic Party as well, but unfortunately no one was available. The current President Elbegdorj is from the Democratic Party and you can bet he will attempt to run for re-election. He was involved with the Mongolian Democratic Union and Zorig from the very beginning before the revolution.
Conclusion
So that’s 21 Years of Mongolian Democracy in less than half an hour. You’ve been listening to the Voice of Mongolia in English. Good bye.