Astana, the parliamentary battles of the civil society deputy

After years of calling politics 'the empire of evil', the publisher Ermurat Bapi - a long-standing antagonist of former president Nazarbayev - from Mažilis now fights for the return of assets stolen abroad and participates in the drafting of the new media law. Explaining: 'We must open gaps and create bridges, bringing the upper echelons closer to the masses'.

Astana (AsiaNews) - MP Ermurat Bapi has intervened in the debate on reforms and changes in Kazakhstan, the largest country in Central Asia. For many years, he has published a magazine opposing the eternal regime of Nursultan Nazarbaev , and still today from his seat at Mažilis he tries to defend civil society and the independence of the media, in a crucial confrontation for the future of the country.

Bapi entered parliament for the first time in last year's elections, and so far he says he is "still trying to get used to it, given that I have spent the last 25 years with a way of life free from any conditioning", while in fact he was publisher and the protagonist of the independent press. In journalistic work "there are no timetables, the important thing is that the newspaper comes out on time with everything you need", not like the obligatory scans of working as a deputy.

So far the most important result of this legislature, in his opinion, is the approval of the law on the return of goods taken abroad, in the drafting of which he himself participated with great passion.

“Our projects and desires clash with reality, where the possibilities are very limited”, and personal initiatives are not enough, “it is a collective body with many levels of comparison, we must learn to act in such a way as to reach the point together end". However, the most charismatic representative of the opposition states that he is "not particularly disappointed", and that he has been convinced since the tragic events of January 2022 that "direct and radical opposition does not lead to any results", and for this very reason he has decided to run to the elections.

Bapi believes that it is important to "work on the buffer zones" between power and society, because the opposition movements alone will not be able to build a "new Kazakhstan" without involving the whole of society. “We need to open gaps and create bridges, bringing the upper echelons closer to the masses”, and perhaps we are starting to see results: “We have demonstrated to those in charge that society is ready for changes”.

In the past Bapi supported the Republican People's Party of Kazakhstan, founded in 1998 by former Prime Minister Akežan Kažegeldin, which had played a very hard opposition role until its dissolution in 2001, and then joined the "Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan" movement ”.

The current Alga, Kazakhstan! was not admitted to the electoral competitions, and the current moderate choice derives from the fact that "all these initiatives have not produced any change".

As late as 2020, Bati maintained that "politics is the empire of evil, where only cynicism dominates", after being ousted from yet another attempt to "bring the voice of the Kazakh people into parliament".

Today he insists that we must not give up our principles, but try to use the opportunities still available, given that in any case "the regime in power controls everything", including the possibility of supporting the free press. His magazine Dat has agreed to apply for public funding, and according to its founder "all newspapers and magazines should do so, because independence does not depend so much on money, but above all on what you write".

The deputy is part of the parliamentary working group for a new law "On the mass media", the project of which also provides for the extrajudicial closure of the media "in the event of a threat to national security".

Bati comments that "the discussion will still be long", and in any case national security "is defined by laws and entrusted to the competent bodies", it cannot be dependent on the discretion of one or more people.

The deputy journalist himself has been called upon numerous times to answer for his writings at a civil and administrative level, but "never for criminal offences, you have to know how to express yourself in the context in which you live". He is confident that the new law "will not be repressive", and that there are genuine possibilities to truly build the new Kazakhstan.

• Kazakhstan
• Astana
• civil society
• Ermurat Bapi