Foreign experts shared opinions on Kazakh constitutional reform
"In twenty-five years, Kazakhstan has achieved tremendous success in building the country under President Nursultan Nazarbayev. Nazarbayev has a strong control over political processes both from a formal point of view by means of broad presidential powers enshrined in the Constitution , and in informal - by using the respect as the first President. But Kazakhstan has also announced its intention to become one of the 30 developed countries. And the recent decree on constitutional reforms indicates understanding that in order to achieve this, Kazakhstan should gradually reform its decision-making structure in order to ensure a more even distribution of powers between different branches of government. In particular, it means a move from a president focused system to one that implies greater influence of Parliament and Government ", - said Dr. Svante E. Cornell, Director of the Institute for Security and Development Policy.
According to him, these efforts will play an important role in Kazakhstan achieving its ambitious goals in the next few decades.
"Historically, on their way to democracy, different countries went through different stages. For Europe, and even Canada, it took quite a long time, in some cases centuries, to build truly democratic societies. It's amazing how in only 25 years, thanks to the outstanding initiatives, in particular of President Nursultan Nazarbayev, changes on the way to democracy happened in Kazakhstan. The recent initiative on constitutional reform is not only evidence of foresight and incredible pro-activeness of the President, but it is also a fulfillment of the promises he made many years ago that adoption of such important decisions requires transparency" this opinion shared Canadian researcher and teacher, professor Frank Albo.
He noted that redistribution of powers to other branches of government, representatives of the public always has always had a positive effect.
"I am really looking forward to these changes, as I for a long time have admired Kazakhstan's development. The solution is very timely and it will lead to outstanding results", he concluded.
Jordan Constitutional Court President Taher Hikmet shares the opinion of Canadian expert.
According to him, in a democratic state, legislative and executive authorities should have full independence cooperating in certain aspects although maintaining a certain separation of powers.
"Relations between Parliament and Government should be defined as equal, none of these branches should prevail over the other. This naturally requires that the role of Parliament should be strengthened, and all actions of the Government are carried out under parliament control. In these constitutional relations in the event of disagreement between the branches President acts as arbitrator", said Mr Hikmet.
Ex-Minister of Agriculture of Jordan Saeed Al-Masri said the main factor ensuring the success of such measures is that independent authority is empowered to freely choose its members.
"Let's start with legislature its members must be elected by the people of Kazakhstan. With regard to the executive power, the President stated it clearly when he recommended resorting to the authority of the party in the Parliament when appointing a Prime Minister and the subsequently forming the Cabinet with Parliament's assistance. The President is aware of the security vulnerability in the coming years, so the army, police and intelligence services must remain under exclusive control of the President. It should remain that way as long as the world is experiencing chaos and is exposed to blind extremism", said Saeed Al-Masri.