Workers World July 13, 2000: Mongolian People’s Revolutionary Party sweeps election

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------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the July 13, 2000 issue of Workers World newspaper -------------------------

Mongolian People’s Revolutionary Party sweeps election

By John Catalinotto

The Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party swept back into office in that landlocked Asian country's national election July 2, winning 72 of 76 seats contested in parliament. It had only held 26 seats in the outgoing parliament.
The MPRP is the party that led Mongolia during the period from 1921 to 1990, when it was closely allied economically and politically with the Soviet Union. It held onto office there until 1996. Though Mongolia's economy was based on raising livestock--with more livestock than people--the country had been run on socialist principles for seven decades.
The counter-revolution that overturned socialist governments in Eastern Europe and the USSR also opened up Mongolia to capitalist penetration. The MPRP went along with the early pro-capitalist changes, but tried to install them slowly. It lost the 1996 elections.
A new "reform" government--meaning an outright pro-imperialist puppet regime--let the International Monetary Fund dictate Mongolia's development and cut all social programs.
The combination of "savage capitalism" and two years of severe winters and drought killed 2 million head of livestock and threw large sections of Mongolia's 2.4 million people into abject poverty. Under the old pro-socialist government, the herders could get aid. Under capitalism, they faced starvation. An overwhelming majority voted to reject the pro-capitalist reforms.
Immediately after its sweep, the MPRP promised free education for orphans and children of poor herder families.
The MPRP's leader, Nambariin Enkhbayar, said, ''Mongolians are realizing these magic words like 'privatization' don't bring a better quality of life automatically.'' He indicated he would seek to renegotiate the terms of IMF aid to Mongolia
Enkhbayar gave notice the MPRP would roll back the industrial privatization program that was a centerpiece of the outgoing government.

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