TURKMENISTAN: AN IDEALIZED VERSION OF THE MEJLIS

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ASHGABAT 001535

SIPDIS

STATE FOR SCA/CEN

E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/25/2019
TAGS: PGOV PREL TX
SUBJECT: TURKMENISTAN: AN IDEALIZED VERSION OF THE MEJLIS

Classified By: Charge d'Affaires Sylvia Reed Curran. Reasons 1.4 (B) a
nd (D).


1. (C) SUMMARY: Officials from the parliament of Turkmenistan
described a very orderly process for drafting and passing
laws. According to the description, all parties who have an
interest in a law, from Ministries, to members of parliament,
to subject-matter experts, to average citizens can make
suggestions and be involved in the process. By the time the
bill gets to the main session of the Mejlis for voting, all
conflicts will have been worked out. Reality, however,
probably only distantly resembles this idealized description
of the parliamentary process. END SUMMARY.


2. (SBU) Batyr Berdiyev from the International Relations
Committee of the Mejlis, the parliament of Turkmenistan, and
Yazdursyan Gurbannazarova, head of the Human Rights Committee
of the Mejlis, met with POLOFF to explain the process of
passing laws in Turkmenistan. Gurbannazarova ran the meeting
and was the main interlocutor. She began by explaining that
the work that the Mejlis currently is doing stems from the
new Constitution that "our esteemed President" passed in
September 2008. The Mejlis committees are updating laws to
bring them into accordance with the new Constitution and with
international standards. This is all being done "for the
good of the people." Gurbannazarova also explained that the
2008 Constitution increased the number of Mejlis deputies to
125, and those deputies work on one of five committees -- the
human rights committee, the science, education, and culture
committee, the economics and social policy committee, the
international relations committee, and the local
administration committee.


3. (SBU) Gurbannazarova then continued with her presentation
of how a draft law begins. She said that the first step is
for the Mejlis to pass a resolution that a law needs to be
drafted or redrafted. POLOFF got the impression that these
resolutions were usually passed at the suggestion of
President Berdimuhamedov. Included in a resolution is an
assignment of action to one of the five committees. From
that point, until the draft is ready to be voted on by the
Mejlis, the committee is responsible. The committee
delegates the drafting of the bill to the ministry that has
the most expertise on a topic. For instance, a new tax code
would be drafted by the Ministry of Finance. Once the first
version of a bill is written, the Mejlis committee forms a
working group, consisting of the deputies on the committee,
any other interested members of the parliament, and employees
from government agencies that the law would affect. The
working groups meet several times to discuss the bill, and
they often consult with specialists on the topic.


4. (U) During the time when the committee is discussing a
bill, any citizen can comment on the draft. The usual way to
do this is for the citizen to send comments to their Mejlis
representative at the Mejlis offices in the regions. The
representatives then relay the comments to the working group.
The Mejlis representatives in the regions are deputies and
are members of the various committees. For instance, on the
human rights committee, only 8 deputies are based in
Ashgabat, and the other 16 are in the regions. Once a
committee finishes the discussions and consultations, they
present the updated version of the bill to the other four
Mejlis committees for comments and suggestions. According to
Gurbannazarova, all problems and conflicts are dealt with at
this inter-committee stage, so that by the time the bill goes
to the main session of the Mejlis for the vote, none of the
deputies will be against it. She did tell Poloff, in
response to a question, that a bill needs two-thirds of the
deputies' votes to pass. She also noted that Mejlis sessions
are open to the public.


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5. (U) When the Mejlis convenes in a full session, they often
pass a number of laws in one sitting. On November 21, the
Mejlis unanimously passed four laws, including the 2010
Budget, a law on regulation of weapons, a law on the
Migration Service, and a new Sanitary Code. During the
previous session in August, the Mejlis passed even more laws,
which were, again, all unanimously approved.


6. (SBU) Gurbannazarova emphasized that the Mejlis committees
are working full time to update laws, even though the full
sessions convene only occasionally. In the last year the
Mejlis has passed about 40 new laws and regulations,
including new laws on Education, Science Workers, Nature
Protection, Terrorist Financing, Procuracy, and Judges, as
well as a new Criminal Procedure Code and new Labor Code.
The next priorities are the laws on Customs and on Lawyers,
and the Housing Code, Administrative Code, and Penal Code.
She said that the new laws demonstrate that the rights of the
people are the government's and the president's first
priority. As an example, she said that the new Labor Code
increases the amount of vacation time allowed to citizens and
increases maternity leave from 1.5 years to 3 years. And
because the president cares so much for his people, he is
allowing them to take advantage of these new benefits in the
second half of 2009, even though the Code does not officially
go into effect until 2010.


7. (C) COMMENT: Gurbannazarova was very knowledgeable about
the work of her committee and delivered the talking points
about parliamentary process very clearly. However, she was
not interested in a dialog or free-flowing discussion. At
the outset of the meeting she asked POLOFF to wait until the
end of her presentation to ask any questions. When she did
answer questions, the answers were all based on how the
process was supposed to work, not how it did in reality.
Gurbannazarova, not surprisingly, would not admit to any
conflicts or fundamental disagreements between deputies or
among working group members. Despite the fact that most laws
are passed unanimously, most deputies probably vote for laws
because to do otherwise would draw negative attention to
themselves. This meeting was a prime example of the Turkmen
Government putting on a facade of a perfectly functioning
bureaucracy -- something post knows from experience is not
true. Based on stories from local contacts about how
government officials choose to interpret laws and
regulations, it is doubtful that reality comes close to this
ideal. END COMMENT.
CURRAN