Issue No. 592
Culture
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27 June - 3 July 2002 Issue No. 592 Culture |
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 | Recommend this page | ||
Plain Talk
The International Herald Tribune recently carried a sponsored section on Kazakhstan, on the occasion of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia. The heads of 16 Asian and Central Asian states took part in the first summit of the conference.
Those four pages of publicity brought back memories of my first visit to Alma Ata, the capital of Kazakhstan, to organise and participate in a conference of Afro-Asian Writers. I was at the time deputy secretary-general of the Afro Asian writers movement.
That was in the late sixties and Kazakhstan was still part of the Soviet Union. We chose Alma Ata -- spelt Almaty in the IHT -- because of its historic role as a crossroad between East and West, at the centre of the Silk Road, the ancient trade route that linked China to the West. The route carried not only goods but ideas.
China received Nestorian Christianity and Buddhism (from India) via the route which extended 4,000 miles. The route was gradually abandoned with the loss of Roman territory in Asia but in the 13th and 14th centuries it was revived under the Mongols and Marco Polo used it to travel to China. More recently UNESCO made the Silk Road one of its world heritage sites.
But back to Alma Ata as I saw it in the 1960s, Kazakhstan then was a Soviet satellite ruled by a party heirarchy. Kazakhs were almost nomadic, the horse still an important means of communication. As a gathering of writers we were given royal treatment, yet one could not fail to notice the totalitaraian nature of the state. Kazakh intellectuals talked to us about the constraints imposed upon them.
And so I had a pleasant surprise when I went through the aforementioned section of the Herald. What impressed me most was the message that came out of the meeting: dialogue among nations is a step towards peace. I was particularly interested in the Eurasian Media Forum where media experts examined the challenges facing the Eurasian region in the new information age. The Forum was attended by representatives from Cambridge University, the International Journalists Unions Confederation, the Associated Press Television News, the BBC and other news, radio and T.V. companies.
The Forum was organised by the young daughter of President Nazarbayev, who acts as the chair person of the board of directors of the Kazakh Khabar Broadcasting Agency. In an interview about the results of the Forum she thought the results were positive. The objective was to show the world what Kazakhstan is about, "the hospitality of our people". This I can vouch for. Even during the time of the old regime we were met with love and kindness from the people.
Answering a question about how freedom of speech and freedom of the press in Kazakhstan compare with the countries of the region, she had this to say: "No doubt Kazakhstan is the first and the best. If you ask me where I would like to live I would choose Kazakhstan. What is interesting is that many of the international organisations dealing with human rights, freedom of the press and so on prefer to have their headquarters not in Tahkent, Ashkabad or Dushambe, but in Almaty."
During the summit some interesting facts emerged. President Nazabayev pointed to ensuring freedom of the press as one of the main challenges facing the media in the Eurasian region. "In our constitution," he said, "we prohibited censorship and encouraged freedom of speech. Besides, we have replaced the state monopoly over mass media and laid new legal and economic foundations for development in the informational sphere."
Much as I loved Kazakhstan in the 1960s, that love is now combined with admiration and respect. Within just over a decade there has been such an amazing volte face. I hope that one day I shall see for myself this miraculous emergence of a new independent, democratic Kazakhstan.
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