KYRGYZ EXCHANGE ALUMNI: EVERYWHERE BUT IN THE

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 BISHKEK 000387 SIPDIS DEPT FOR SCA/CEN E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/24/2019 TAGS: PGOV PREL KPAO KG SUBJECT: KYRGYZ EXCHANGE ALUMNI: EVERYWHERE BUT IN THE GOVERNMENT BISHKEK 00000387 001.2 OF 003 Classified By: Ambassador Tatiana C. Gfoeller, Reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). ¶1. (C) SUMMARY: Alumni of USG-funded exchange programs seem to have successful careers everywhere but in the Kyrgyz government. Alumni are making a positive difference in their organizations and communities but are generally unable to affect Kyrgyzstan's overall course or the bilateral relationship with the United States. The overwhelming majority of alumni shun what they see as corrupt and thankless work in their own government structures. Attendees at the annual alumni reunion, however, reported many small scale successes and were eager to describe the political and economic games of the Bakiyev family. END SUMMARY ALUMNI REUNION: NETWORKING OUTSIDE THE GOVERNMENT -------------- -------------- ¶2. (SBU) Post's annual alumni reunion provided us an opportunity to take stock of what participants of exchange programs have done for their country and for improving understanding of the United States in the past year. The reunion, held on April 11, brought together over 200 alumni. Representatives of the Kyrgyz government and Parliament and private sector guests also were in attendance. The alumni came from all regions of Kyrgyzstan and represent programs like FLEX, Muskie, UGrad, Fulbright, TEA, JFDP, Community Connections and International Visitors (IV). In total, alumni of USG programs count for over 3000 in a country of about five million people. ¶3. (C) One obvious trend stood out among the attendees: very few alumni work in the Kyrgyz government. While 13 of the 90 current members of Parliament are alumni, they and most high-level exchange program participants have traveled on short-term programs like IVLP or the Library of Congress-funded Open World program, and do not consider themselves program "alumni" in the same sense that alumni of longer-term programs do. President Kurmanbek Bakiyev is an example of a short-term exchange program participant who has not made public reference to his IVLP visit to the United States. WORKING IN THE GOVERNMENT: "THE OPPOSITE OF WHAT WE LEARNED IN THE U.S." -------------- ¶4. (C) Alumni explain that the Kyrgyz government holds little appeal for them, not only because of the low salaries it ;offers, but also because of the participation in corruption it often requires, and the resentment alumni encounter from officials. Alumni claim that simply being hired for a government job, from entry level up, requires personal connections or bribes, and usually both. Advancing in the government demands you to both take bribes and pay them to your superiors. They believe current officials are extremely hierarchical, resistant to young people and new ideas generally, and increasingly anti-American. ¶5. (C) One alumnus of the UGrad program, who was offered a job in the Foreign Ministry but turned it down in favor of an international organization, said that working in the Kyrgyz government was "the opposite of what we learned in the U.S." An alumna of the Muskie program similarly argued "We come back from the U.S. and try to better our country, so we go to work at international organizations or in education . . . whereas those in government are people who weren't smart enough to study abroad but want the positions to get rich." ¶6. (C) Another alumnus of the UGrad program gave up a better paying job with an international organization to join the State Agency on Tourism because he wanted to help his country. After a year of enduring corruption and petty thinking, he wants to try a different government agency BISHKEK 00000387 002.2 OF 003 before giving up for good. He says it is not surprising that few other USG alumni work in the government. FEAR OF BEING LABELED AN "AMERICAN SPY" -------------- ¶7. (C) An alumnus of the FLEX program who recently joined the Kyrgyz Presidential Administration's economic office says he is willing to put up with a low salary and political games (to include inter-clan competition),but is most worried about being labeled an American spy. He says that he works to hide all of his affiliations with the United States because they could cause him to be ostracized or even fired. ¶8. (C) One alumnus, currently working as an Embassy FSN, says that he and other alumni would publicly defend America if they did not feel that the tide in Kyrgyz society was turning against America. He is grateful to America and wants his fellow Kyrgyz to know the truth about the country and people, but feels that the Kyrgyz mass media and government force people to choose their allegiances between Russia and America. He believes it is safer to worry about his job and family at a time when there is so much pressure to oppose America. ¶9. (C) Alumni are otherwise prospering in Kyrgyzstan, and several have been useful partners or interlocutors for the Embassy. Former Vice-Prime Minister Elmira Ibraimova was a rare case of someone who rose far in the Kyrgyz government after studying in the U.S. Ibraimova, though, told the Embassy that she did not want a visitor from Washington to mention her time on the Muskie program in America when he came to see her at the Kyrgyz White House. Azamat Kasybekov, a graduate of the Murrow program and journalist for the leading Vechernii Bishkek newspaper, has written several positive and high profile pieces on the U.S., including a detailed response to a Russian television program that made outrageous claims about the U.S. Base and Embassy in Kyrgyzstan. POLITICAL GOSSIP AND TALES -------------- ¶10. (C) Alumni at the reunion were happy to share gossip about those in the government. One alumnus, who works at the ARIS community development organization, claimed that President Bakiyev is worried about a possible Presidential campaign by former Vice Prime Minister and former ARIS director Ibraimova. Bakiyev used an unprecedented Presidential order to plant an unqualified crony atop the organization, over the heads of foreign donors, to keep Ibraimova from using past ties in the organization with regional politicians for political use. The alumnus said that Presidential Chief of Administration Usenov visited ARIS offices to explain the personnel move and warn the staff against helping Ibraimova. ¶11. (C) Another alumnus, who works for a French NGO in Osh, claimed that Bakiyev surrogates in the south of Kyrgyzstan have started promising more jobs for southerners in the government as part of the President's re-election campaign. The alumnus said the unofficial campaign slogan is "since Bakiyev became president, we have taken 60% of the good positions, but if he is re-elected, we will get 80%." The alumnus believed that such promises are only heightening tensions with the North, and the promises are readily accepted as truth by many in the South. ¶12. (C) Yet another alumnus said that Maxim Bakiyev, the son of the President, recently visited the Talas region to expand his alleged business empire there. According to the alumnus, having heard the story through family living in the region, cotton farmers in particular were told that they will no BISHKEK 00000387 003.2 OF 003 longer be free to sell their crops where they want and to whom they want. Maxim is setting a new, lower price and has arranged for one network of buyers that will report to him. Local speculation is that Maxim has cut a deal with a daughter of Uzbek President Karimov to sell the Kyrgyz cotton across the border to Uzbekistan. The alumnus said Maxim is able to get away with this scheme thanks to the collusion of local officials, whom he pressures and possibly bribes into working with him. COMMENT -------------- ¶13. (C) Alumni are clearly put in a difficult position, having been selected for their motivation and potential, yet being forced to deal with corruption and cronyism on their return. The allegations of corruption and anti-Americanism from within the government fit with what we hear elsewhere. Though alumni cope with this by focusing on local projects, rather than government service, we continue to see evidence that they are making a positive difference at the grassroots level. We remain optimistic that the investment in exchange programs will, over time, pay off at the strategic level with enhanced understanding and support of the United States and our goals in Central Asia. GFOELLER