Understandably, and inevitably, as March 24 approaches revolution fever is once again running high, both in Kyrgyzstan, and internationally, as the recent crop of conferences and seminars such as this one at LSE on February 28, particularly in the UK and USA, broadly on the theme “Kyrgyzstan’s Tulip Revolution One Year On” testifies to.

As anticipated, March 24 has been declared a national holiday, with the official name being “Day of the Peoples’ Revolution” (one could argue for “People’s” as well, if one were following more nationalist trends) after options such as Adakhan Madumarov’s “Day of National Renaissance and Unity” were ruled out.

Speaking about March 24 of last year, Feliks Kulov commented:

Our nation saw the events of March 24 as a true peoples’ revolution, and we do not have the right to take that status away from it. Whether we have justified its expectations in such a short period of time is of course a completely different question.

Whether or not the events of March 24 were a revolution, coup, elite change or something else is largely a moot point. What is far from being a merely academic matter are assessments of what has changed in Kyrgyzstan since Akaev’s overthrow. It may well be a different question, as Kulov put it, but it is one that people are increasingly looking for an answer to. And here an open letter below sent round on the KelKel Yahoo Groups e-list makes a good point:

To the President of the Kyrgyz Republic,
The Jogorku Kenesh of the Kyrgyz Republic,
The Government of the Kyrgyz Republic,
Communities and the Mass Media

Representatives of Young People Against the Celebration of March 24

We, representatives of young people, consider that a day should be designated a national holiday if it has brought tangible benefit to the country.

The aim of the revolution was the improvement of social, economic and political life, the renewal of the old authorities with new faces, the changing of the Constitution of the Kyrgyz Republic, and the accountability of the authorities before the people.

At the present time not one of the expectations listed above has been met. There has been no rejuvenation of the authorities, except for a change of elites; there has been no improvement in the socio-economic life of the people. The people were deceived in their expectations, and there is no point celebrating March 24 for them. This day is worth celebrating only for those people who participated in the change of elites!

We are against the designation of March 24 as a national holiday.

Abdurasulova Gyulshaiyr,
Baidaliev Akylbek
Abdykadyrov Zamirbek
Jusuvalieva Elmira
Isakmatova Nargiza
Erkinbaeva Akyljan
Aitbaeva Chinara

Rhetoric and gestures are all well and good - and undeniably an important part of both nation- and state-building. But when people are left with a sense that there is little or no substance behind such words and there is a widespread perception that conditions in Kyrgyzstan are certainly no better and possibly even worse than under Akaev, it is very easy to see why March 24 could be a very bittersweet celebration for many.