May 17 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgian Orthodox groups rallied in Tbilisi against a new law designed to protect same-sex relationships. Media estimated that there were several hundred people at the rally, underlining the conservative nature of Georgian society. The Georgian Orthodox Church retains a lot of power in Georgia.
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(News report from Issue No. 185, published on May 21 2014)
May 19 2014 (The Conway Bulletin)- In 2020, Kazakhstan will probably introduce a new pension scheme that will deduct 5% of an employee’s wages and automatically place it in a government plan, the labour ministry told the Tengrinews website.
Employers will match this employee contribution.
It appears that these planned reforms haven’t been announced more widely and loudly because of a very real fear of upsetting people.
The risk for Kazakhstan is fairly obvious. In Armenia a similar plan triggered widespread demonstrations. The problem is that Kazakhstan and other former Soviet States need to reform and update their pension schemes.
Last year, the Kazakh labour sacked its ministers because of backlash over trying to make women retire at the same age as men.
Persuading Kazakhs to accept the latest plan is also likely to be a serious challenge for the Kazakh government.
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(News report from Issue No. 185, published on May 21 2014)
May 15 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan’s upper house of parliament ratified a joint air defence agreement with Russia media reported. The deal further binds Russia and Kazakhstan’s militaries. Russia already had a similar deal in place with Belarus and has been working on a deal incorporating Armenia.
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(News report from Issue No. 185, published on May 21 2014)
May 17 2014 (The Conway Bulletin)- Kyrgyz president Almazbek Atamabayev signed a law that will criminalise libel.Under the new law, the authorities in Kyrgyzstan can send people to prison for up to five years for libel. A statement by Mr Atamabayev’s office sad that the new law would not impact on freedom of speech.
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(News report from Issue No. 185, published on May 21 2014)
MAY 12 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – The head of the Georgian Orthodox Church Patriarch Ilia II called for people to mark a new day of “Strength of Family and Respect for Parents” on May 17, the same day as the International Day Against Homophobia. The Orthodox Church is regarded as anti-gay rights. Georgia has introduced a law protecting same-sex rights.
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(News report from Issue No. 184, published on May 14 2014)
MAY 13 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia’s pension plan reform is still causing problems. It was one of the main contributing factors on the resignation last month of the previous government and is also top of the agenda for the new government.
To appease massive discontent over the proposed plan, the government dropped the most controversial part of it — imposing a mandatory 5% salary contribution towards people’s pension. Thousands of people had hated this concept and taken to the street to voice their anger.
Parliament has now heard the government’s new plans which called for an optional 5% salary contribution.
This is a rare concession from the ruling Republican Party but it still may not be enough. The opposition has said that the government has enough power to force companies to impose the 5% salary contribution on its employees.
It looks as if the new government will have to tackle the pension issue head on too.
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(News report from Issue No. 184, published on May 14 2014)
MAY 6 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Looking to woo foreign investors, Kazakhstan plans to introduce various tax breaks and other benefits, economy minister Yerbolat Dossayev said. These new measures are likely to include 10-year tax breaks and visa free entry for 90 days for investors from developed countries.
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(News report from Issue No. 183, published on May 7 2014)
MAY 2 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia’s parliament passed an anti-discrimination bill it needed to implement for further integration into the EU but the conservative Orthodox Church has said it will protest against it.
Media reported that Georgia’s parliament passed the law unanimously.
The bill, its supporters and its detractors, give a good insight into the division coursing through Georgian society between modernisers and traditionalists.
The EU, which Georgia is desperate to join, has called on legislation that protects the rights of minorities. This has been generally accepted by Georgians, although the conservative Orthodox Church continues to rile against it.
And the Orthodox Church in Georgia is powerful. Patriarch Ilia II is considered a genuine power-broker, politicians cosy up to religious leaders and priests lead demonstrations. Last year, priests led a march against a gay rights parade that triggered violence. Tolerance in modern day Georgia only goes so far.
For the Church, the new laws are virtually heresy and it has promised to protest against it. Their main difficulty with the law is its protection of homosexuality.
Patriarch Ilia II was succinct. “Not a single believer will accept such law,” he said.
For NGOs pushing for the new legislation it has also been a slight disappointment. They were disappointed that the law finally adopted had been watered down from its original state.
Expect more tension between modernisers and traditionalists.
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(News report from Issue No. 183, published on May 7 2014)
APRIL 28 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — The revolution and turmoil in Ukraine has frightened the Kazakh government and triggered a draconian law gagging the media, journalists and analysts told the Conway Bulletin.
Earlier this month, the Kazakh government introduced a law that will allow it to ban media during a state of emergency.
Yevgeniya Plakhina, an independent journalist and blogger who has staged anti-government protests, was succinct in her view of the new law.
“The continuous state of revolution in Ukraine has scared the government,” she said. “These laws give the leadership a red button, a button that can be arbitrarily pushed.””
Mainstream media in Kazakhstan has become increasingly marginalised, leaving a void for social media to fill. The authorities argue that social media, as well as more traditional forms of press, can be manipulated by extremists and needs to be controlled during an emergency.
Peer Teschendorf, regional director of the Friederich Ebert Foundation, a German organisation promoting civil society and media freedom, said that these laws were the culmination of a process that began after fighting in the oil town of Zhanaozen in Western Kazakhstan in 2011.
“The free press that is left now has to tread very carefully,” he said.
For Zhanbolat Mamay, journalist for the independent newspaper Tribuna, the law reflects future political landmarks that the authorities are worried about
“The signing of the Eurasian Economic Union treaty is in May and no-one is allowed to criticise it,” he said referring to the morphing of the Customs Union between Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan into a stronger union.
“Another reason behind the new laws lays in preparing for the future. The transition to a new leader will have to happen in an information void, in order to prevent criticism and revolt.”
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(News report from Issue No. 182, published on April 30 2014)
APRIL 29 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan is going to introduce a minimum capital banking requirement that will probably whittle down the number of banks in the country.
The head of the Kazakh Central Bank, Kairat Kelimbetov, said that to meet requirements laid out in Basel-III, a set of banking benchmarks drawn up after the global financial crisis of 2008/9, banks in Kazakhstan would have to increase their capital to 100b tenge ($550m) by 2019. T
his new requirement, analysts have since said, will cut the number of banks in Kazakhstan to roughly 15 to 20, from the current 38.
For Kazakhstan’s Central Bank this is undoubtedly a positive. It takes the view that the Kazakh banking sector needs to be reformed. There are currently too many banks and too many banks with large bad loan portfolios.
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(News report from Issue No. 182, published on April 30 2014)