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Falling Dominoes: Kyrgyz People Overthrow Their Dictator

Ross G. Kaminsky - 3/26/2005

I'm pretty good at geography and even I couldn't show you Kyrgyzstan on a map. Still, the news of a popular uprising against yet another autocratic, oppressive regime is good news for us all. For the record, Kyrgyzstan is west of China and south of Kazakhstan. According to the CIA Factbook, it's about the size of South Dakota. It has a population of about 5 million peope, of which about 75% are Muslim and most of the rest are Eastern Orthodox Christian. It has a literacy rate on par with the West, 97%, and an equally incredible HIV rate of less than 0.1% (in 2001). The country is mostly agricultural, but has some industry and mining. The average GDP per capita, however, is only $1,600, placing the country's economy squarely into the Third World, with half of the population living below the poverty line despite having put through somewhat better market reforms and regulations than Central Asian nations.

The precipitating event for the nearly bloodless revolution seems to have been the Kyrgyz government's stupidity in doing the same things that just recently brought down the Ukrainian government: Interfering in an election in so large and obvious a way that the people simply refused to stand for it.

The Kyrgyz people certainly learned from the "Orange Revolution" in the Ukraine who themselves took courage from the progress in Georgia, Moldova, Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as from the words of George W. Bush's second inauguration speech.

It is ironic that for decades, the West was afraid of the "domino effect" of countries becoming communist and then infecting their neighbors with that affliction. No President (and few citizens) before W, with the possible exception of Ronald Reagan, believed the same effect could occur with the spread of democracy. The talk of people naturally wanting to be free was just that - empty talk, until George W. Bush came to power.

The key to Bushist Ideology is that the more democracies there are in the world the safer we all are. Democratic, capitalist countries don't want land or slaves, they want customers and markets.

Kyrgyzstan may be small, but it's still important as a symbol of what people can do when they strive for freedom and that such values can take root in a Muslim country.