The Good Cop? Uzbekistan Readies for Another Year of Major Changes · Global Voices
<PERSON>'s four-hour address. Photo from presidential press service.
Easing the lives of ordinary people and doing battle with the outsized post-independence successor to the KGB topped the agenda in a four-hour state of the nation address given by Uzbekistan's President <PERSON>.
The marathon address earlier this month was the most recent attempt to portray <PERSON> as the good cop in a country full of bad ones.
<PERSON>, 60, came to power in September last year on the back of long-reigning despot <PERSON>'s death.
His predecessor's reign of nearly three decades began when the Central Asian country was still a Soviet republic and saw the country regularly rooted to the bottom of global human rights rankings. Uzbekistan was best known for systematic torture, including boiling, and forced labour in the country's cotton fields.
Following a pro-forma election three months later, <PERSON>'s stern-faced former prime-minister of more than 13 years cemented his position at the top of the authoritarian country's political elite with a simple message: things must change.
He has reiterated it ever since.
“Халқимиз эртага эмас, узоқ келажакда эмас, айнан бугун ўз ҳаётида ижобий ўзгаришларни кўришни истайди. Бизнинг меҳнаткаш, оқкўнгил, бағрикенг халқимиз бунга тўла ҳақлидир”. pic.twitter.com/JDNDZIiYoV
— <PERSON> Press-service (@president_uz) December 22, 2017
People want to see changes in their lives today, not tomorrow, and not in far future. Our hard-working, kind-hearted and generous people have a right to it.
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Meet the new guy, not quite the old guy
The live stream of <PERSON>'s December 22 annual address was peppered with likes from Uzbek Facebook users as a sea of state officials broke into waves of applause at regular intervals.
“Let Allah protect you, respected <PERSON>”
“Thank you. Be healthy and safe,” read one comment on the Facebook live of <PERSON>'s speech. “When the President tries so much to change the situation in the country, everyone should contribute to this initiative”, read another.
While subservient officialdom was a trademark of the <PERSON> era, live streaming certainly wasn't. 148
The change in form has been accompanied by some changes in substance.
From freeing political prisoners to ordering the removal of unpopular foreign travel and currency exchange restrictions, <PERSON> has already undone many of <PERSON>'s signature policies.
Perhaps most notably, he has also acknowledged forced labour in the country's lucrative cotton harvest that once saw tens of thousands of schoolchildren along with teachers and state medical sequestered into work as pickers.
“It was very interesting to listen to you. Let our president be healthy. Inshallah, a bright future is waiting for us. We believe in you, <PERSON>”
But he initiated these changes while keeping the authoritarian system intact and continuing to publicly revere <PERSON>, who remains the father and founder of independent Uzbekistan.
For instance, according to Reuters, <PERSON> blamed unspecified “economists” during his speech for faking economic data throughout <PERSON>'s time in charge.
Eight percent (GDP growth) was fiction. To be frank, I ordered the 5.5 percent figure [for 2017] to be checked almost 10 times! In 2017 we have created 336,000 new jobs and this is a real figure. Before, we used to report creating nearly a million jobs annually. No country in the world can do it!
“<PERSON>, we all are for you. There is no president in the world like you are!” one commenter said.
Whetting appetites for more
Facebook is not the only place where the new president is present. 339