Following the referendum on democracy, Roza Otunbayeva was sworn in as Kyrgyzstan’s new president. She becomes the first woman head of state in a Central Asian republic. Bao Tong, a former top official in the Chinese Communist Party, looks at the Kyrgyz people’s desire for democracy after only a couple of decades of freedom and weeks of tragic inter-ethnic violence. This example should be a warning for the leaders of all countries.

Hong Kong (AsiaNews/RFA) – Roza Otunbayeva has been sworn in as the new President of Kyrgyzstan, the first Central Asian woman to fill that post. She had been the caretaker president since in April, when her predecessor President Kurmanbek Bakiyev was forced into exile by a popular revolt. Last Sunday, more than 90 per cent of Kyrgyz voters backed a new constitution in a referendum to give more powers to parliament and reduce those of the president, marking a turning point in the country’s road to democracy. For Bao Tong, a former top Chinese official, last weekend's constitutional referendum in neighbouring Kyrgyzstan amid widespread inter-ethnic violence in the south, is full of lessons for China.

In an essay written for the 89th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Bao Tong, a former aide to ousted late premier Zhao Ziyang, contrasted these two events, the Kyrgyz referendum and the CPP anniversary, to warn his country’s ruling Communist Party that it should heed Kyrgyzstan’s example.

“Kyrgyzstan has decided by referendum to become a democracy, bringing hope of long-term stability,” Bao said. “The people of Kyrgyzstan have produced a new election law, with some determination, on the basis of a nationwide referendum,” he added.

Last April, people took to the streets forcing then President Kurmanbek Bakiyev to flee abroad. His administration had come under fire for concentrating powers in his hands and for widespread corruption.

“A people that do not fear a universal referendum will have nothing to fear from universal, direct elections. In their fearlessness, they [the Kyrgyz] have found a level road to long-term peace and stability,” wrote Bao Tong, from his Beijing home, where he has been under house arrest since his release after a seven-year jail term following the 1989 Tiananmen Square pro-democracy movement.

Bao, Zhao and the latter’s supporters had fallen from grace for refusing to crush violently the protests, as their successors would do.

In China, state-owned media spoke favourably of Kyrgyzstan’s referendum, describing the strong support provided by the United Nations to the changes, which entail parliamentary elections before the end of the year.

"The adoption of a new constitution is an important step towards promoting the rule of law and establishing a legitimate, democratically elected government," China’s official news agency Xinhua said, quoting UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon.

Xinhua also reported remarks by Kyrgyz interim president Rosa Otunbayeva, who hailed the result as the beginning of "a true people's democracy," ending a system that was "authoritarian and familial."

In the weeks leading up to the referendum, clashes between ethnic Kyrgyz and Uzbeks left hundreds dead and forced more than 400,000 ethnic Uzbeks from their homes.

Inspired by the Kyrgyz experience, Bao lashed out at the method of choosing "designated successors" as incumbent North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is apparently preparing to do, and as former supreme leader Mao Zedong failed to do in his political career.

"It is too risky and altogether too unstable to hand over the supreme power to govern a people to a non-system," Bao said.

By contrast, the 1911 Revolution led by Sun Yat-sen had "opened a new window" for the Chinese people. "In a country that wanted to call itself a republic, the people were the ultimate masters," he wrote. "And so the idea of full and direct elections was lodged deeply in people's minds . . . . This was a new principle."

However, with the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, the tentative steps towards democratic elections were abandoned in favour of single-candidate elections, in which the candidate was preselected by the Communist leadership.

"One can see at a glance the indescribable genius of the single-candidate election," Bao wrote. "It is quite simply that essence of our country's history—the system that was abandoned in favour of the traditional royal family, the system-without-a-system in which the keepers of power decide who will succeed to power."

Earlier this week, Chinese President Hu Jintao called on Party members to "play an exemplary role," at a time of continuing public anger over rampant corruption in their ranks, growing calls for political reform, and sweeping social changes.

Then again, observers have pointed out for years that corruption is a direct consequence of the lack of democracy and the right to criticise those in power.

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