The President of Kazakhstan has established a new aim for the industrial and innovative development of the Kazakhstani economy through impoverishment of new business ideas. The President’s vision is highly supported by the young generation of Kazakhstanis, as it aims to improve young people’s futures.
‘Cosmo-formula for cadres’
AssylkhanNurgaliyev
Ph.D.student in Social Policy and Administration
atThe University of Nottingham
ThePresident of Kazakhstan hasestablished a new aim for the industrial and innovative development of theKazakhstani economy through impoverishment of new business ideas. The President’s vision is highly supportedby the young generation of Kazakhstanis, as it aims toimprove young people’s futures.
Today there are three factors whichare needed for the development of the Kazakh state. Firstly, the differentsocial groups in Kazakhstan needto be united by a single will. Secondly, there should be a strong state policy which strengthens nationalinterests. Thirdly, human capital must be developed; otherwise, education of young patriotic generation of professionaladministrators, governors. The last point is crucial, as it affects the possibility ofinnovative and industrial modernization of Kazakhstan and the implementation of all significantplans,which can onlybecome real if there are people who canfulfil those plans.
In this regard it is interesting to recount the story of the father of Abai, who was the greatestKazakh poet, philosopher and thinker. His father Kunanbai was the governor of the Semey region in EasternKazakhstan. Kunanbai was educated and was a rich aristocrat, who gave much attention to the education of the young generation. It is known that Abai was able to receive both an Islamic and a European education because of the help and willof his father. Kunanbaisupported talented youth, which then became a feature of the personal character of Abai. ManyRussian thinkers who were travelling or living in Eastern Kazakhstan,scientists andpoliticians who were arrested by the Tsarist regime and sent to Kazakhstan, and Kazakh poets were all guests of Kunanbai. Abai used social occasions for hisown self-development with theaim of increasing his knowledge, as a person learns more useful information during a live discussionthan by being part of theaudience for a lecture.
Being the sultan (governor), Kunanbai was a strongorganized person and administrator with a strict character. It is useful tostudy his method of administration, as it shows how Kunanbai was trying to raise responsible,patriotic and skilfulyoung Kazakhs. The valuable notion was that Kunanbai was always trying toparticipate in specialevents and weddings of young people, who were living on his territory. At thesame time, Kunanbai gavepresents to young married couples in the form of cattle or other domestic equipment. However, the most significant thing wasthat Kunanbai gave landto new families with the aim ofdeveloping young husbands’administrative skills and underpinningtheir love for theirnative land and their responsibility for the wellbeing of their relatives. However, the only requirementwhich Kunanbai requestedfrom married couples was acareful attitude to the landthat had been given to them. If the young couple could not take good care of the land,then Kunanbai had a right to returnit and entrust the land to another couple. The main criterion for Kunanbai was effectiveadministration of his territory (Kipshakbaiyev, 2009).
According to the tradition ofnomads, it is vital to change thearea of land on which people are living and breeding their cattle, as the constant use of a certain area of land slowly but surely destroys the livability of that land.The reproduction of cattle and its growth also depends on organizational skills. Throughthis practice, Kunanbaiwas trying to show that land and resources could not be administered in acareless way.
Nowadays, living in a market economy, it seemsthat Kunanbai was acting inthe right way. When the person feels that he owns property, he starts tovalue and care for hisor her possession and thinks how to enlarge it and at least to save what he or she has already got. Sometimes, looking at the actions of so-called “topmanagers”, who haveadministered national wealth poorly, there is a wish that ‘the principle of Kunanbai’ had applied to them. If you are notable to manage the resources which were entrusted to you, be honest and give the opportunity to anotherperson who would manage it properly and with responsibility.
There was an attractive fact in thehistory of the RussianEmpire, when Tsar Nikolai II used to collect reports from Government members and regional governorsduring his holidays athis residences. It was usual that the Emperor did not have enough time to read them all. Moreover,many of those reports hadsimilar content to each other and were repeating statistics of the precedingyears. However, the reports were necessary to show the progress of workimplementation over acertain period of time, even if Emperor Nikolai was not interested in them. Nevertheless, the Emperor once took a letter in which a regular governor ofone of the Russian provinces,Stolypin, wasdescribing the mechanisms of themodernization of the Empire. Peter Stolypin soon became the PrimeMinister of the Russian Empire and with the support of Emperor Nikolai had the chance to make many effective and significantdecisions that wouldbenefit the state. Afterthe reforms, which Stolypin initiated, the Emperor of Prussia, Wilhelm, told Nikolai during a private conversation that the social and economicreforms of the RussianPrime Minister were much more effectivethan the policies ofhis famous Prime Minister,Bismarck (Solzhenitsyn, 2008: 5–143). It was a personaltalent of Nikolai to discover, mark and promote skilful administrators of new formation.
Today, contemporary Kazakh literature andacademic papers try to reflect thediversity and complexity ofthe Kazakh nation’s history and culture. It is important to admitthat according to local critiques itseems that today in Kazakh society there is much focus on the materialistic side of social life, rather than on art, scienceand knowledge. Therefore, there isa real necessity for the spiritualand mental enrichment of the younggeneration.
Recently, historian and writer M.Suleimanov (2009) wrote a book devoted to the ancient formula of the greatGenghis Khan, which wasuniversal in Kazakh steep. The author described the principles that were the main criteria for Khan in histraining of future administrators for his Empire.
Thus, Genghis Khan was always dividing personalitiesinto two kinds.The first kind consisted of individuals who,in his opinion, weretruthful to their occupation and were real professionals, whereas the secondkind of people actedonly in terms of theirown self-interest and not in the interests ofthe state and of society members. Khan gave much attention to the issues of morality among his entourage.
Moreover, today, due to research, a largeaudience has becomefamiliar with the ancient nomadic principles of state administration, such as ‘Jasa’ of Genghis Khan and the ‘Power’, ‘Authority’ and ‘Army’ of the past. It is notable that allthese principles had one common feature: the aim of finding and supporting people who were faithful and displayed honour and morality in their profession, and for whom it was importantto implement their task honestly, rather than toseek material benefits. According to Suleimanov, Genghis Khan named such personalities, who were faithful and reliable, the ‘ar isi’ (which in the ancient Kazakhlanguage meant“truthful and responsible execution”) (Suleimanov, 2009: 23). Afterwards,this term was used in the 1930sin Nazi Germanyto indicate the “nation of higher origin”, also known as the ‘Aryan race’ (Wildman, 1996: 87).However, initially, inthe era of Genghis Khan,this terminology was in use for thedescription of a person with distinctive professional and moral traits and strongadministrative skills.
Genghis Khan saw people who were mainly occupied with their self-interest, who had a wish for materialpossession and personal safety and lacked dignity, aspotential traitors. In Genghis Khan’sbelief, such people were honest with their rulers only because of fear. At that time itwas the ruler’s priority to deprive properties of their men. Therefore, suchpeople were not seeing beyond the limits that were identified by their masters. That was the reason whyGenghis Khan supportedand encouraged initiative, creativity and braveryin his people’sdecisions concerning military or public questions. People who only cared about their self-beingand their self-preservation could not be inventive and useful for society.Therefore, it wasnatural for Genghis Khanthat such people could easily betray their masters purely because of the wish to increasetheir own material possessionsand avoid any responsibility or obligation. Therefore, Khan found such people to be ‘psychological slaves’ and was forced to dismiss them from his state apparatus, and from the right to govern the population of his Empire(Myzun, 2005, in Suleimanov, 2009: 124).
Moreover, during his invasions ofnew lands and states,Genghis Khan attractedto his side those opponents who foughtwith him until the last moment of battles and who were devoted to their formergovernors. Such people, Genghis Khanbelieved, would adherestrictly to their beliefsin any situation, andwith the help of such individuals, Khan began to build his Empire (Kalashnikov, 1985: 337).
Khan was facing those difficultieswhich governors often meet when they form the state apparatus. Most of the representatives of the nomadic elitewere opposed to GenghisKhan’s attempts tocentralize andinstitutionalize the state power and strengthen the role of the state among tribes.Certainly, those representatives did not care about the state, as they were mainly concerned with their status in society,with their power, and werenot thinking about a united and powerfulcountry. Aristocracy was seeking independence and sovereignty from the state.However, Genghis Khanwas aware of thedestabilizing moods of people in power and therefore made necessary decisionsby replacing therepresentatives of the oldaristocracy with new ones. Despite a constant, exhausting search lasting 30 years and which experienced manydifficulties and mistakes, Genghis Khan was able to find talented and skilful commanders and governors for his Empire, people whom he later named asthe real ‘aristar’ or“aristocrats of the spirit”. At first many of the new ‘aristar‘ did not support Genghis Khan. However, seeing his truthfulreign, they accepted his power later. The30-year period defined individuals for Khan, who had in his perception a moral right to govern thestate. Certainly, it was uneasy for Khan to accept the fact that the process of selection was followed by a constant waramong tribes and groups, but this was a way to identify the “real” state administrators (Suleimanov, 2009: 164).
One of the key principles of Genghis Khan’s method of administration wasobjectivity. Thisnotion underpinned the practice of Khan judgingand assessing both theold and the young without concern for their materialprosperity and rank. This practice enabled young talented public administrators to reach highgovernmental positions,as Khan listened to their knowledge andthoughts. For instance, nowadays there are many sources which admit the talent,humaneness and strategic mind of Zhaushy, the first son of Genghis Khan, who was greatlyrespected by Kazakhs for his deep knowledge of the issues of governanceand therefore was named the ‘Alash-khan. It was to Genghis Khan’scredit that he could teach his son Zhaushy in such a way (Suleimanov, 2009: 191).
The issue underdiscussion is significant for Kazakhstan, as there are difficulties inthe region. In the post-industrial twenty-first century, the region is faced with problems of rapid growthof population and scarcity of resources, including limited water, land and natural resources. Therefore, the issue of the formation of skilful and intellectualcadres becomes crucial and decisive.
In conclusion, it is worth admitting that todayKazakhstan needs in highly professionals and idelogical patriots, in skillfuladministrators of public sector, of social affairs and of strategic nationalresources. In the next fewyears it is extremely important that Kazakhstan modernize its social andeconomic potential,strengthen its democratic institutions and underpin its political course. Theseintentions are possibleonly if the state has young peoplewho are qualified and eagerto lead the country with enthusiasm in the new era of challenges andresponsibility.
Bibliography
1. Myzun,U. (2005). ‘Khans and Governors’ The Golden Orda and Russian knyazhestva’, inSuleimanov, M.H. (2009). ‘The era of Genghis khan in Kazakh history’. ZergerIlyas Press, Almaty, Kazakhstan.
2. Kalashnikov,I.K. (1985). ‘The cruel century‘. The Sovremennik Press. Moscow, Russia.
3. Kipshakbaiyev,N.K. (2009). Conversaition on the ‘Story about Kunanbai‘. Noverber, 2009.Astana, Kazakhstan.
4. Solzhenitsyn,A.I. (2008). ‘Tsar. Stolypin. Lenin‘. U-Factor Press. Moscow, Russia.
5. Suleimenov,M.H. (2009). ‘The era of Genghis khan in Kazakh history‘. Zerger Ilyas Press.Almaty, Kazakhstan.
6. Wildman,S.M. (1996). ‘Privilege Revealed: How Invisible Preference Undermines America’.New York University Press. The United States.
Text in Russian couldbe found by the following link: http://www.ia-centr.ru/expert/10761/
