Some thoughts from 2014 that are relevant to the total and complete defeat of the Democratic Party in Mongolia in the 2016 elections

In June 2014, I returned to the USA after a three-week visit to Mongolia. During my visit, I met with and lectured to Democrats of all ages in Ulaanbaator, Darkhan, Muren, Uliastai and Ovorkhangai.  This is an open letter that I wrote to President Elbegdorj at that time, discussing what I had seen and heard.

While the Democratic administration in Ulaanbaator seems to be improving everyday life for the average Mongolian citizen - at least, in the center of the city - the Democratic Party seems to have lost its way and to have forgotten its mission, if it ever had one.

There are two major political parties in Mongolia but both are modeled on the old-style Communist Party, with powerful Party organizations and little regard for the average Mongolian citizen.  Democracy seems to have disintegrated into a choice, every few years, between the least objectionable of two, increasingly indistinguishable, organizations.

Young people are choosing Party allegiance based on a cynical calculation of which Party will help them get a job, advance in their career, and make the most money.  As a result, the Party that is viewed as most corrupt becomes the most attractive to many who hope to benefit from the corruption.  

Neither major Party articulates a clear and simple platform, and neither Party is pledged to improve the life of the average Mongolian.  

However, while the Parties are becoming indistinguishable in terms of the total absence of coherent principles, members of the two Parties rarely come into contact with one another.  For example, one woman told me, after I had lectured to a group of MP women, that she has been a member of the DP for 25 years and had never sat in a room with members of the MP. Moreover, a man who belonged to the DP had been afraid to come to the meeting because the local governing body was run by members of the MP.  Even though Party allegiance can be strong in the USA, such segregation is unheard of.

The absence of readily apparent principles and ideology in Mongolian politics has led, as far as I can tell, to the division of the adult population into three major groups: the generation that rebelled so courageously against totalitarianism in 1989/1990; the generation that grew up under totalitarianism but tried to establish democratic governance; and the young generation, who have no respect for political principles (since they rarely encounter them) but are looking for a focus for the idealism that is so often inseparable from youthfulness.

Just as children learn their mother tongue, Mongolians who rebelled in 1989/1990 had inevitably absorbed a “mother politic.”  In other words, the Communist form of politics and Communist political parties were deeply ingrained in them and it was, unsurprisingly, the Communist model that they took as the model for their political parties.  

Truly democratic politics draw their strength and power from the people and not from unelected Party officials.  In a democracy, candidates for election are chosen locally, in the constituencies that they will serve.  As a result, candidates understand their constituencies and are accountable to those who vote for them because they live among the citizens who will vote for them.  

At many of my lectures, I asked the audience, “Which Party works for the good of the average Mongolian citizen?” In every case, the answer was “Neither.”  This answer is particularly disturbing because most of my audiences were DP members.

At one of my lectures, after I had returned to Ulaanbaator from the west, I said, “What we need is to inject the DP with a huge syringe, filled with idealistic principles and young people.”  To my surprise, the audience burst into spontaneous applause - the first time this has ever happened to me during my five lecture trips to Mongolia!!

I propose that the courageous generation of 1989/1990 link arms with the generation born since that time and that, together, they articulate a real Democratic platform that puts the needs of ALL Mongolians ahead of the ambitions of special-interest groups and Lexus-hungry politicians.  

I believe that the revolutionaries of 1989/1990 understood then and still understand that democracy is more than going to the polls every couple of years to cast a vote for one of two or three almost identical parties, each of which is modeled on the old Communist Party.  

I also believe that the young generation is yearning for a country in which money, advancement and status are no longer the only goals.

I believe that young Mongolians want a country in which achievement in any field is not inseparably linked to allegiance to one political party or another.  

The Democratic Party has 18 months to pull itself together before the next election.  If it is to win that election it needs to restore the value of the tugrik and to offer the country a clear choice - a choice between a Party that puts the needs of the average citizen first (the DP) and a Party that exists, exclusively, for the enrichment and advancement of its members (the MP).

A Party that puts the needs of the average citizen first is a Party founded on transparency and accountability, with candidates drawn from the communities that will elect them.  It is a Party that understands that every citizen has a right to know how every tugrik of his or her taxes is spent.

Any elected or appointed official who refuses to account for every tugrik received from taxpayers does not belong in the Democratic Party - and he or she certainly does not belong in a Democratic Party that hopes to win the next election.  

Confidence in the DP as the Party of transparency and accountability, and as the Party that is working to improve the life of the average Mongolian, is essential if the DP is to have any chance of winning the elections in 2016.

Now, in June 2016, the DP has been totally and utterly defeated in the recent elections and it might be time to reconsider some of the points that I made two years ago.