JUNE 11 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Kazakh government wants to modernise its pension system. Among other things this means making women work five years longer until they are 63, in line with men.
The logic appears simple but the issue has hit a nerve and triggered a rare show of ground-level dissent.
But, if the public dissent was rare, the government’s climb-down has been little short of extraordinary.
On June 11 Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, ever watchful for an opportunity to flourish his man-of-the-people credentials, sacked labour minister Serik Abdenov who had been charged with pushing through the pension reforms.
Mr Abdenov had cut an increasingly forlorn and isolated figure. Audiences have openly laughed at him, he has stumbled over his words when trying to explain the reforms and a protester has pelted him with eggs.
But the climb-down didn’t stop there.
Mr Nazarbayev has also said that the entire pension reform needs to be looked at once again and suggested that the changes should come into effect in 2018 and not in 2014. Since Mr Nazarbayev’s intervention state-influenced media have been putting out stories suggesting that the pension reforms have gone too far.
In Kazakhstan, this is code for a rare government U-turn.
ENDS
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(News report from Issue No. 139, published on June 17 2013)