Thirty years since its adoption, it still features major contradictions

Осы мақаланың қазақша нұсқасын оқыңыз.

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Adopted on August 30, 1995, Kazakhstan’s Constitution has always featured a dualistic nature: On paper, people have the power, but in reality the president is the only one who can wield it. This structure laid the foundation for an authoritarian political culture, where rights and freedoms are only spelled out in the text, but not actually implemented. What followed was chronic dissatisfaction with the political situation, deep social inequality, and weak legitimacy of the ruling class. And this keeps the Constitution in a state of permanent crisis.

Kazakhstan’s first Constitution was adopted in 1993. Then-President Nursultan Nazarbayev said it was crafted “for the people” although it did not allow citizens to directly manage their political lives. Still, it was not the Basic Law behind today’s super-presidential form of government.

The democratic effect of the first Constitution translated into representation: People could be elected to the Supreme Council, the parliament inherited from the USSR, without strict restrictions or specific affiliation.

Plus, according to the 1993 Constitution, the legislative and executive branches of power were considered equal. This angered Nazarbayev. He did not like to share power, which made it difficult to pass laws, determine the composition of the government, and draw up the budget. From the outset, the former president was looking for a way to introduce a different Constitution.

But first the Supreme Council needed to be abolished. It was riddled with deputies skeptical about Nazarbayev’s drastic market reforms.

After the dismantling of the Supreme Council in March 1995, the powers of the parliament were temporarily transferred to Nazarbayev. This meant that the president could rule by decree. In other words, since March 1995, the Constitution in Kazakhstan was effectively suspended. The new constitution was adopted by referendum only five months later.

The 1995 parliamentary coup was perceived by Nazarbayev’s opponents as an unconstitutional move. However, they were unable to unite their efforts and stop it.

As a result, Nazarbayev adopted more than 140 “market laws” that sharply worsened the socioeconomic situation of citizens. The principles of the social state were effectively abandoned and thousands of enterprises were privatized in favor of his family members and close businessmen. As a result, millions of citizens were left without work or with extremely low incomes, which were immediately eaten up by galloping inflation.

In the following years, Nazarbayev repeatedly amended the Constitution. The amendments constantly expanded presidential powers and limited citizens’ freedoms, both in the right to express political dissent and in the right to material well-being.

A second constitutional crisis emerged during Qandy Qantar (Kazakh for ‘Bloody January’, the violent repression of popular protests in January 2022). At the time, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev declared a state of emergency to resolve the inter-elite conflict and quash the mass unrest caused by a worsening socioeconomic situation.

After the referendum in June of the same year, the constitutional order was finally restored, but with some changes. These were supposed to be a response to citizens’ demands to put an end to authoritarianism, towards greater social justice.

The amendments were presented by state propaganda as a triumph of democracy. The president would share more powers with the legislature, although the parliament was becoming increasingly isolated from citizens.

New norms to regulate the land and its mineral resources were presented in the same spirit. While most on paper these belong to the people, land and resources are in fact owned by state companies and the business elites associated with them. Crucially, the proceeds from their use and sale only benefit a small part of society.

The promise to expand the political participation of citizens, voiced against the backdrop of the referendum, turned into a complete deprivation of the right to collectively express discontent. After changing the procedure for holding rallies, the state almost immediately banned any protest activity, except for choreographed rallies.

The hope for a fair life has gradually been shattered by the deterioration in the quality of life of most citizens. It was large business owners who benefited from housing and communal services tariffs deregulation. Conversely, the VAT increase will transfer the tax burden to ordinary Kazakhstanis. As always, strikes of workers demanding an increase in income are ignored.

The Constitution has always contained a dualism. The Constitution endows Kazakhstanis with rights and freedoms, but in reality does not prevent various state institutions–chiefly, the president–from neglecting them. It also enshrines people’s right to work and have a decent life, but in reality condemns them to wander freely in an economy that still offers few well-paid jobs and guarantees of a better life.

The authorities may continue to perceive this document as an erase board on which they can write whatever they want, only to later interpret it differently or erase it altogether. But the dualism inherent in the Constitution will always push people to challenge the existing injustices. And this tension has already spilled over into the protests in Zhanaozen in 2011 and Qandy Qantar in 2022.

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