INDIGENOUS DIMENSIONS OF “CIVIL SOCIETY” IN KYRGYZSTAN— ERSPECTIVES FROM THE MARGINS

Abstract

This is the first study to address an ongoing gap in current literature on informal patterns of associational self-organization and assertion in peripheral communities of Kyrgyzstan. The study looks at pertinent perspectives and reflections on the meaning of “civil society” in Kyrgyzstan. It raises a crucial policy-tied point that the externally imported concept of “civil society” can have sweepingly different meanings and manifestations in local context. The key corollary of the overall argumentation is that a “standard” donor approach to the phenomenon of “civil society” and the applicability of the term, in its loose meaning, to indigenous environment of patrimonial polities is, in fact, myopic.

In this vein, the following argument made by Roy is not supported by current evidence and field perspectives on traditional forms of self-assertion in Kyrgyzstan: “In the conceptualization based on Western ideas of political and economic freedom (free elections, free markets), “civil society” has to be created from scratch in Central Asia. This is either because there is nothing of value today upon which to build (the entire Soviet legacy being cast as negative)—or because there is no such thing as a traditional society in Central Asia, owing to the onslaught of the Soviet system on previous social structures. 

 Further, the study attempts to unravel complex underpinnings of Kyrgyzstan’s diverse society and communitarianism through exploring the tribal, clan and kinship affiliations as well as community level powerhouses (“Jama’ats”), which constitute the informal backbone of individual, social and political behavior in Kyrgyzstan.

Until comparatively recently, of all the Central Asian states, Kyrgyzstan has been the most willing to follow a clear pro-Western political and economic course, including commitment to the development of democracy and open society. However, during last several years then ruling regime started to show the increasing signs of autocratic propensities severely limiting political liberties and civic rights at home.

Gradual backtracking of democratic policies found its expression in direct state interference in the parliamentary election of 2004 widely recognized as rigged and non-democratic. In the same vein, persecution of dissenting politicians and shut-downs of opposition press outlets culminated in political violence and notorious killings of demonstrators in Southern Kyrgyzstan in 2002.

With the backdrop of growing economic morass, endemic corruption and crisis of governance, a severe power struggles between competing tribal elites has only worked to worsen domestic situation. The State as an institution of provision, protection and guarantee has proved unable to perform its functions and secure a politico-economic stability. Admittedly, the State has totally failed to exercise its key role in local context of clan-based corporativism, that is to arbiter between influential regional clans and keep a power status-quo intact.