Minister Abdenov given bag of eggs in Uralsk

Maksat Aisautov taking a bag of eggs to the ministerSerik Abdenov, the RoK Minister of Labour and Social Protection, said that in the city of Uralsk, West Kazakhstan Oblast, people are against the pension reform.

“In all regions people have unanimous negative reaction to the pension reform. And this is not the goal of my life – to increase the pension age for women. It is not easy for me to meet people who are strongly against it," said Abdenov on May 4 during his meeting with the public of Uralsk.

Abdenov visited Uralsk to explain to the public the pension reform in Kazakhstan. The issue of increasing the pension age of women has grown into the main topic of discussion.

The meeting started with the minister’s speech about advantages and the necessity of this reform. In their responses the public quite openly expressed their opinion about the reform.

Vassily Shamin said until recently this reform was referred to as “mere rumors,’ but now it is forced down on people. The RoK Ministry of Social Protection should be called “the Ministry of Attack on People”. I call all men to support the idea of reducing women’s age down to 55 and for men to 60.”

The public reaction to the reform was negativeA very delicate moment emerged when an opposition activist Maksat Aisautov took eggs from his bag saying:

“I am not going to throw eggs at you, you don’t deserve it. I don’t want to spend 7 days in police. Please give this bag to “Zero 1” (meaning the president of Kazakhstan - WKT) and walked to the minister with an intention to handle the bag, however was intercepted by plain-clothed security and taken away.

The minister showed no reaction to this, but the governor of West Kazakhstan Oblast Nurlan Nogaev said: “Do not turn this meeting into a theatrical show and don’t’ get carried away.”

The meeting continued and there were voiced questions from those not happy with the reform, which, not surprisingly, stayed unanswered.

Uralskaya Nedelya