By Peter Galuszka(Third in a series)
ULAN BAATOUR, Mongolia — Flying into this capital city nestled among treeless, light brown mountains brought back memories of a grimy, industrial Soviet city from 30 years ago. Along the tarmac are rows of cannibalized Antonov 2 biplanes used as crop dusters after World War II along with ubiquitous MI-8 helicopter workhorses.
The airport parking lot is also a blast from the past. As we struggle with our bags, Mongolian cab drivers scream at us for our business. My Russian-born wife springs into action. By turns playing one cabbie against the other and tough bargaining, besides touching off at least one fist-fight, she gets our fare down from 50,000 tegreg ($30) to 15,000 tegreg (about $12) in exactly 14 minutes — a masterful performance.
Downtown is a mix of Soviet and new destiny. The sidewalks are cracked lumps of ankle-twisting concrete. Local pedestrians will shove you out of the way. Mongolian drivers are hyper-aggressive, challenging other drivers to showdowns that can be measured in millimeters. Yet against the gels, yurts and Stalinesque buildings are scores of construction gantries providing testimony to Mongolia’s newest crossroads.
Freed abruptly from its decades’ long role as the Soviet Union’s 16th republica, Mongolia is struggling to position itself between a still-ambitious Russia and a fast-growing China’s with a ravenous appetite for raw materials. Mongolia needs foreign investment badly but has to shake off its bad reputation for lawlessness, corruption and a poor to non-existent infrastructure. As an attraction it has huge reserves of copper, gold and coal.
The best-known Mongolian, of course, is Genghis Khan, who conquered most of the Eurasian landmass in the 12th century. On the bright side, he brought a sense of law and order to his new empire, introducing such inventions as the diplomatic passport. But G.K. & Sons were among history’s most vicious killers. Their 12th century body county, taken together and adjusted for world population, would be about double that of all the people Hitler, Stalin and Mao slaughtered in the mid 20th century.
Mongolia has long been feared and abused by both China and Russia. It became a country in 1924 after the Manchus fell apart, but the Soviets were quick to force their influence. To make the point with his typical subtlety, Josef Stalin included Mongolia in his 1937 purges by accusing Mongolian Communist leader Gendel of collaborating with Chinese nationalists and the Japanese.
The result was the arrest of 56,000 and the execution of 20,000 to 30,000 Mongolians, about 40 percent of the population. The horrible event is marked at the Victims of Political Persecution Memorial Museum tucked away in a hard-to-find part of downtown that is being torn up for new skyscrapers to house foreign consulting, banking, mining and construction firms.
The museum is not for the squeamish. One exhibit shows the skulls (see
photo) of some of those executed. They were lined up precisely so one bullet would shatter the skulls of three or four victims. This particular batch of skulls shown in the photo was found in a mass grave in a remote part of Mongolian discovered in 2003.
Not everything in Ulan Baatour is horrible. Nearby is a museum of Buddhism with wildly creative art and there are plenty of monks around. Historically, Ulan Baatour (or “U.B.” in local parlance) rivals Tibet as a Buddhist religious hot spot.
Meanwhile, Mongolians are trying to take corrective steps for a better future. At a conference on foreign investment that I attended, Bayaratsetsev Jigmiddash, a legal advisor to the Mongolian government, says that progressives are working on as many as seven separate laws to upgrade the country’s courts and judiciary systems. Key reforms include creating a conflict of interest code for judges to follow and to require them to list their assets and bank statements, she says.
There’s more to be done on the infrastructure front. Despite its strategic location between two rich countries, Mongolia is stuck with ancient Soviet-style railroads and equipment. General Electric is said to be interested in building new locomotives capable of withstanding minus 50 degree temperatures and sandstorms. Likewise, the highway system is primitive or just doesn’t exist where needed. Many major highways have no repair shops or gas stations. About 40 percent of the truck fleet is obsolete.
It’s a classic chicken-or-egg problem. Foreigners won’t invest without rule of law. Without investment, there won’t be rule of law. As one wag suggested, one place to start educating Mongolians about what being modern means is on the highways where no one seems to understand what a rule or a law is or how to brake for pedestrians.
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