Oh my gosh, don't you think President Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan looks like a slightly younger version of our Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew? It's almost like a splitting image.

Interestingly, Kazakhstan has a bit of similarity with Singapore: rich country with political power concentrated in one party and one person. But one visible difference is that we don't have portraits of LKY or LHL plastered at every street corner.



According to Transparency International's Corruption Perception Index 2006 ranking, Kazakhstan ranks 111^th amongst 163 countries for corruption with a score of 2.6 (0 indicating highly corrupt state and 10 least corrupt). Nursultan Nazarbayev is believed to have transferred at least US$1 billion worth of oil revenues to his private bank accounts in other countries.

As for his family, one of his three daughters (Nursultan only has daughters) Dariga is thought to be groomed for future leadership. But their relationship seems to have soured recently, in part due to her criticism of her father's administration.

Drama? This family has that too. Dariga's husband Rakhat Mukhtaruly Aliyev who was a diplomat was accused of an alleged kidnapping and forcibly divorced by Dariga when he accused his father-in-law of vote rigging. But many believe that this incident is more about money and power rather than democratic principles.

From Wikipedia's post:
And interestingly, one son-in-law is a First Deputy Chairman of the national holding company Samruk which manages several state-owned companies.

This is the country to watch for potential future political dramas of soap opera proportion.

BBC News - Kazakhstan's low-key personality cult

Labels: international, politics