Maidan in Asia. Kazakhs and Arabs. Almaz Braev

just a crazy passion for being like Europeans. But this imitation is certainly mechanical and material, nothing more.

      Chapter 9

      Kazakh Maidan

      A former antimonopoly officer in the first government of independence, a “constructive” oppositionist in the past, today an obsessive pensioner once said: “The population of Kazakhstan is spread over a large territory.” Thus, Svoik complained about the problems of the local opposition. In the wilds of His subconscious, a thought was still wandering, painfully searching for the reason. Another colleague of Svoik in the opposition case, the well-known human rights activist Zhovtis in Kazakhstan, said: “Kazakhstan has a complex structure of society..” – Is that all you can? Nothing else?

      This is where the “old” brains and past resources of the opposition stop developing and don’t give to others (with the help of solidarity of several editors, including a fellow Svoik’s countryman). They’ve been saying the same thing for thirty years. But they don’t want to leave the political stage. Even similar Democrats accuse Elbasy 1 that he had been in power for thirty years. Every such speaker (and for me, they just are populists) guards his feeding territory, and Kazakhs still look such people in the mouth because former nomads love and trust old things in their apartments. Therefore, the new persons, the new Kazakh intelligentsia, cannot break through such demagogues.)

      And yet. A large territory really affects the much-anticipated riot, but everyone will see their own interest in the steppe fire. It is unlikely that the old Democrats with thirty years of experience will like who will benefit from the Kazakh Maidan. No one will listen to these pensioners anymore. But liberal intellectuals and such like them do not mean the resources of a large territory at all and the ability or possibility of a chain reaction after a riot at its center. And nothing else. Although I suspect I will repeat it again, they themselves do not understand what they are talking about. These are elderly oppositionists of advanced age. But they don’t want to give up the stage. (But nationalists replacing these talkers will simply not notice them then come)

      In fact, counting on the emotions of the crowd, flaring up like dry brushwood – these are just stamps of the past. All pensioners live and think that the sky is not blue and the grass is not green now, but before all be better.

      The fire that has broken out, so desirable for demagogues and populists, does not suit us because even pensioners live one day, and the petty ambitions of the townsfolk (how is it, these are not nomads, not Kazakhs? The market is crushing people, crushing them. Former Soviet intellectuals are no longer the people who swam in ready-made soup. Now, it’s a selfish little thing) They are not interested in what will happen next. We are only interested in it. We are interested in what will happen, how the fire will burn, and how the people will warm up after.

      This is just an introduction to explain that a large territory is not a panacea for the Maidan. Moreover, the days of pensioners from the democracy of the 90s in Kazakhstan have passed.

      Chapters 10—11

      Oligarch Ablyazov

      The oligarch Ablyazov, the former minister of the autocrat Yelbasy I) does not stop calling: “People come out against the regime!” He broadcasts from the outside and now lives in the West.

      There is nothing fundamental in his speech. First, the Kazakh politic should know their people well. This oligarch repeats a simple set of orange stamps. All Kazakh liberals are very similar: some have light faces, and others, as expected, are Asian. From such speakers comes dilettantism, which just stinks of ignorance. Are they Kazakhs or not Kazakhs? What difference does it make to us?

      Do the Liberal Democrats need the people? Yes, they need people as a means. They want to use the people to replenish their wealth or just change their fate. Protestant ethics entered the heads of these people rudely. That’s why these speakers say very cynical things. The people, the former nomads are actually not as stupid as they seem, although the regime has done everything to simplify the people. That’s why Ablyazov and his people are so confident. The main thing for them is to excite the crowd to revolt. Although the regime officials simplified the people for another purpose, the Kazakhs were always quiet during the so-called reforms. After all, the Kazakhs have never had a market democracy (yes, there was a military democracy, but this is completely different), so no one and nothing can excite the Kazakhs. How many years have opposition oligarchs been fighting in hysterics? Are the Democrats such, do you think? No, they are not Democrats. They just dressed in fashion. In fact, they were pushed away from power by Yelbasy I. While they were in power and enriched, they praised Elbasy I in a crowd of court hypocrites. This is Asia, don’t forget!

      All right, it’s the liberals. And what about the people? What are the motives for rebellion among ordinary people?

      After all, the regime did everything to deal only with ordinary people. There is really no intelligentsia. The last so-called Soviet intelligentsia has grown old (like the poet Olzhas Suleimenov), and it has nothing to say to people “infected” with market excitement. There is no opposition, and there cannot be by definition. There is a certain steppe chiefdom. Every local leader thinks he is a party. Creating a party is a complex process. A party cannot be created at the will of ambitious nomads. Civil solidarity is needed to create a party. A party cannot be created because of momentary irritation or discontent of a merchant in the bazaar. Another urban culture is required to create the party of at least two generations of merchants whose children received a good education and became principled. To create a team, you need to cut personal ambitions. But in Asia, ambition comes first. Moreover, I repeat, the regime did everything, so there was no alternative to it. The impregnable government and the common people. That’s all. That’s all that happened. That’s why Ablyazov so stupidly and brazenly calls people to come to the square. He knows what kind of material he’s dealing with. But he doesn’t know these people won’t accept him if the Maidan happens. And he will also come to an end.

      Chapter 12

      There was no conspiracy. There have been, are, and will be horse races

      There is a stereotype that if you simplify people, you can make them submissive.

      How to simplify? Well, make the nation mono-ethnic. So that representatives of another culture and education do not introduce yeast fungi for revolt.

      You probably think that the authorities did it consciously and according to plan, that is, such a task was set – to simplify people.

      In the beginning, I talked about catalysts. If you make genetic changes, some plants really produce abundant fruits.

      But what does it look like in humans?

      Do market values such as moral GMOs lead to degradation?

      Exactly so.

      No one has listened to the sages before. Who needs these wise men? Wise men distract from daily problems. It is necessary to build a mansion, enclose it with a high fence, set an alarm system, raise children, train them at prestigious universities, build a house, raise a son, and plant a tree in short. All this must be done quickly to overtake rivals. Nomads, though former, need to outrun other nomads; they must outrun and surpass others. This makes local corruption even ruder and brazen. Don’t the former nomad’s people themselves want to ride like that? The people themselves like to “jump” like that. Therefore, market motives have become clear and close to the former nomads on the one hand. That’s why people simplify so quickly. The officials at the top are jumping, and the people at the bottom are also jumping. No wonder the main ideology here is the praise of ancient antiquity, where “always wise ancestors” lived. That’s all the age-old wisdom. There is nothing to oppose such wisdom to Western cunning. Therefore, the authorities have nothing to offer the people except billboards about the wise old days and