Inheritance is inequality, give a chance to knowledge and skill

In media parlance a silly season is when nothing much happens in areas that usually provide the daily fare of newspapers which thus have to fill their pages with stuff that is good only to fill pages. I’d guess this is why, in the days preceding the beginning of the Spring session of Parliament, with the excitement over Oyu Tolgoi gone and that over Tavan Tolgoi failing to gel in the absence of an identifiable villain, one Mongolian newspaper published long interviews with two former Prime Ministers on successive days, even though neither usually gets much mention in its pages any longer.

Both interviews were instructive, but I am aware that what I read in the English translation may very well be quite removed from what the honourable gentlemen said in the original. Also, I came to Mongolia after both of them left office and so do not know much about their achievements and failures, or what they stood for when they held that important and respected office.

Honored Economist D.Byambasuren sees the Oyu Tolgoi agreement as not just an unmitigated disaster for the country but also as an epitome of perfidy. It struck me to be curiously short on specifics while being very generous with allegations of malfeasance involving all present leaders, reading more like a has-been’s lament for what has not been.  He did say he had no direct evidence of any wrongdoing but was nevertheless sure that inducements to individuals and not interest for national interests had led to the agreement.

Mr.M. Enkhsaikhan is the founder-leader of the National New Party which wants a new Constitution “based on patriotism and nationalism”. There is nothing wrong with the idealism behind either, but a headlong gallop along history will show us the perils of limiting souls by geography. The sort of values Mr. Enkhsaikhan appears to prefer is likely to end up in ger and better flag-saluting and not much more.

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