The Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (LKYSPP) hosted the fifth edition of the Asia Thinker Series (ATS) in Mongolia on 27 September 2019. Titled ‘The Ups and Downs of Direct Democracy: From Brexit to Facebook – Lessons for Mongolia’, the session was held at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Ulaanbaatar.
James Crabtree, Associate Professor in Practice, was joined by local experts on the panel including Sukhjargalmaa Dugersuren, Gender Advisor to the Prime Minister of Mongolia, Khatanbold Oidov, Senior Academic Researcher at the Mongolian Academy of Sciences and Johann Fuhrmann, Head of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation in Mongolia where they discussed the global affairs outlook and the use of direct democracy.
Setting the Stage – Global Democratic Recession and Use of Direct Democracy
As the world witnesses changes in the perception and practice of democracy, even the most developed democracies have seen lower levels of voter participation, falling membership of political parties and most importantly, declining trust in politicians and political institutions. In western countries, the perception that democracy is not delivering has led to an increase of populism and many problems associated with it. Mongolia, as one of the very few stable democracies in Asia, is not exempted from these global trends. With the 2020 parliamentary elections looming, Mongolia has, for many years, been at political crossroads as power sharing between the elected president and the government appointed by parliament has left the country in a deadlock every now and then. As a consequence, public frustration has risen over disputes holding back major mining and infrastructure projects, sometimes even over corruption cases.
Having previously worked with diplomats from Singapore, Oyu Vasha, representing the Mongolian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, kicked off the evening by praising the contribution of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in building political knowledge and raising awareness on pressing issues in Mongolia. She noted the timeliness of the topic considering the fact that a referendum on constitutional amendments has been considered multiple times during the past months in Mongolia.
The panel discussion started with Professor James Crabtree setting the stage with his views on how the rise of populism across the globe has created new types of challenges while changing technology has provided new opportunities as ways to practice direct form of democracy. The panel discussion revealed the importance of managing direct forms of democracy and integrating them into the system of government that already exists. Sukhjargalmaa Dugersuren, Gender Advisor to the Prime Minister of Mongolia, repeatedly pointed out that people are able to and should make key decisions only if they given enough information, time and freedom. In her view, Mongolia is not yet prepared to have national referendums due to technological, regulatory and transparency hurdles.
Up until today, Mongolia has had only two national referendums, the 1945 vote for independence and the 2015 referendum on mining contracts via short message service text messages.
Drawing on experiences from Germany, Johann Fuhrmann, Head of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation in Mongolia, praised the positive effects direct democracy can have on the local and provincial level, while noting that more risks and uncertainties are attached to plebiscites on the national level.
Dr Khatanbold Oidov, pointed out that democracy is not just about governance, it is about effective use of instruments that foster sharing and exchange of different views. He further emphasised that direct democracy is a tool to develop Mongolia’s democratic society for the future.
As the discussion progressed, it became clear that direct democracy is not problematic, but rather, homemade political issues that can be aggravated by means of participatory governance. In order to avoid mistakes made by other countries and to prepare Mongolia for possible future referendums, the panelists gave two suggestions:
- Improve education groundwork: Mongolia, in many ways, would be ready to make use of direct forms of democracy give itsunified society, large concentration of people in the capital city, one national language and having an educated and young population. The level of education also does not seem to be an issue, however older ways of thinking based on the country’s traditional values may hinder the progress.
- Increase participation and inclusion: Mongolians, as individualists, who value their core family unit, are far more concerned about personal as opposed to national interests. Therefore, participation and political engagement on all levels of society and are needed in order to build political culture. Direct democracy, especially on local and provincial level, could help to better include people living in provinces far out of Ulaanbaatar in the decision making processes.
Both the speakers and the participants of the event expressed their hopes for more of such professional and profound public discourse on the fundamental socio-economic and political issues in the country to provide wider perspectives and tighter cooperations among leaders from the public, private and socio-development sectors.