Open Government Uzbek-Style

What seemed a remarkable experiment in more open government in Uzbekistan has had a decidedly lukewarm reception.

Provincial governors started appearing live on television in November to answer questions put to them by members of the public, but jaded viewers had seen it all before – the questions were clearly pre-arranged and touched on uncontroversial themes.

Local government officials are appointed from above and are made not accountable to the community they serve, so any kind of transparency is a novelty. As always in Uzbekistan, the only reason it happened was that officials higher up ordered their juniors to do it.

TV audiences were unimpressed. One observer in the capital Tashkent noted that all the questions touched on soft issues – social provision, for example – and had clearly been set up beforehand.

Since other aspects of government repression have not eased, few viewers would risk putting their heads above the parapet even if they were allowed to question officials freely.

“People believe that after if they were to ask a governor an ‘inconvenient’ question, they might end up in prison,” Rasuljon, a viewer in the western city of Bukhara, said.

He added that he had no confidence the authorities were serious about acting on concerns that people raised.

A media-watcher in the country said a pretence of seeking people’s views was unlikely to work in country rigidly controlled from the top down by President Islam Karimov, and where democratic instruments are lacking.

“There’s no point expecting a flood of questions from people,” he said. He describing the time-honoured methods used to simulate spontaneity, saying, “The TV station managers will force the journalists to round up questions any way they can, and set real people up to call in to the live show.”

Even if their appearances are highly orchestrated, the governors who appear on live TV will still have to watch their step.

“Officials are fearful about discussing any problems that affects society. They might say the wrong thing, get dismissed and even prosecuted,” the media-watcher said.

This article was produced as part of IWPR's News Briefing Central Asia output, funded by the National Endowment for Democracy.

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