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Nursultan Nazarbayev. A scene from Nazarbayev.live documentary
Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev commented on succession of power in Kazakhstan in a documentary titled Nazarbayev.live aired on the national KTK channel July 4.
“One of the undoubted achievements of Kazakhstan is its internal political stability. However, it’s no wonder that many things in Kazakhstan depend on you, your decisions, your political will. One of your CIS counterparts said in a recent interview that he is concerned over what might happen when he is no longer in power. Do you have any reasons to be concerned?”, the journalist asked.
“It’s a good question. As a politician and president who has been in power for quite a while, I should think of what might follow. Any politician, any president does want his or her cause upheld so that everything wouldn’t be reversed. There have been many examples of things being reversed. Times of changes are the hardest times. One who initiates reforms always faces risks (…) therefore a reformer always thinks of what might follow later on”, President Nazarbayev said.
“There should be a sustainable system put in place that would be stable against the backdrop of a new leader’s arrival. Take, for instance, Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew (…) after ruling the country for 30 years, he passed on the power and all his vast experience to the young. Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, Prime Minister of Malaysia, did exactly the same after being in power for 20 years. He released power. And the political party formed in line with democracy principles keeps on electing the country’s leadership. A similar thing can be seen in the post-Yeltsin Russia. Of course, there have been some “zigzags”; however, these were peaceful transfers of power, President said.
“People tend to get used to one particular political and feel uncertain of what might happen after him or her (…) here in Kazakhstan we have been working to cultivate a truly cultured system of relations among people; the current generation of Kazakhstanis are aware of how the civilized world lives and works. I believe everything will work out OK”, President said.