In December, amid sub-zero temperatures, thousands of Mongolians turned up in Sükhbaatar Square in the capital, Ulaanbaatar, to protest about rampant corruption, and for a moment the Asian democracy, sitting uneasily between China and Russia, looked as though it might crumble.
That this would have mattered to the west is shown by the number of European politicians who since have travelled to the capital, including not just Emmanuel Macron, the French president, but Polish president, Andrzej Duda, the German foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, and her French counterpart, Catherine Colonna.
Mongolia, with a population of more than 3 million, is not strategically important, but is rich in coal, copper and critical minerals including uranium that France needs for its nuclear energy. Hundreds of international investors were in the capital at the weekend for an economic forum.
One serious blight holding the country back, and making it more dependent on its two big neighbours, is corruption, according to Nyambaatar Khishgee , the minister of justice, who has been tasked with cleaning up the country’s act.
Two scandals in particular – a four-year heist involving coal exports to China, and the abuse of cheap education loans by politicians and their associates – have led to deep discontent. Nyambaatar, part of a new, younger generation of politicians not raised in the shadow of the Soviet Union, does not try to hide the scale of the crisis: “Ever since Mongolia became a democracy 30 years ago, an insider group regarded state funds and state-owned enterprises as a licence for personal gain.”
Nyambaatar is unequivocal that everything has to change. “Those protests changed the social environment dramatically, and one thing we understood is that we need to change the relationship between business, politics and economics.
“I was deeply shocked personally, because what became apparent was that over the last 30 years, the insiders basically had access to all this data, funds, and information, and took advantage of it. The idea that these funds were available on an equal basis to everybody was simply not true.
“Our economy is relatively small, but the insiders gained an advantage by using their political influence to get privileged access to all the public funds, investment, land permits.
“The aim now is to draw a line under the past 30 years, and make sure that in the next three decades there is equal access built around transparency. Nearly 30% of Mongolians live below the poverty line.”
The scale of the reforms under way in the areas of whistleblower laws, increased data transparency, political funding and the reform of state-owned firms is daunting. By one estimate, the anti-corruption strategy has more than 400 indicators. But the justice minister also admits that Mongolia can have any kind of perfect anti-corruption strategy on paper. What is needed is a vibrant civil society to make sure such laws are enforced.
He concedes that the president, Khurelsukh Ukhnaa, and his ruling Mongolian People’s party is meeting “huge resistance” from entrenched interests opposed to the reforms. There is also some cynicism that the party in power since 2016 is equipped to make the changes.
As part of the reforms, Mongolia is also changing the way its politicians are elected – moving to a mixed electoral system.
Nyambaatar says: “The old way of elections with 76 MPs was essentially money-driven elections. The idea is to have a parliament that represents the true diversity of people in Mongolia rather than a privileged few businessmen.” The reforms, including measures to attract more women MPs, should be in place in time for the next legislative elections next year. “We want a new parliament that is willing to drive this change. People who want to become MPs will have to make more of a choice and decide whether to become a politician, or to seek government contracts. They cannot do both,” he adds.
The hope also is that as a result of electoral reform, the opposition will have a voice in parliament, and not just in public squares.
Perhaps the best route to credibility is to track down the network of officials and politicians that defrauded the state over coal. In total, about 6.4 million tonnes of coal, worth $1.8bn, has not been registered by Mongolian customs since 2013 while being recorded by Chinese customs. Whistleblowers say corrupt customs officials registered coal-laden trucks as passenger vehicles.
The Justice Department is also using Interpol’s Red and Blue Notice system to locate suspects in a chase across the US, Malaysia, France and Australia. The former president, Battulga Khaltmaa, named as a suspect, headed for South Korea seven months ago, citing medical reasons.
Nyambaatar has faith that the public demand for change will be met. “Westerners have lived their whole lives in democracies. We have spent half of our lives caught in a totalitarian system and the second half our lives trying to live in a democratic society, and one of the lessons we learned is that in a democratic society, a change that is supported by the public always wins.”
