When it broke free from the Soviet orbit in the early 1990s and established itself as a free nation between two autocratic giants, Mongolia was hailed as an inspiring young democracy. In recent years, however, Mongolia’s scorecard on democratic values has wavered.

Organisations like Transparency International and Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) have downgraded Mongolia in key areas, citing entrenched corruption, hostility towards the media and barriers to forming a political party.

“On a number of the indexes in terms of human rights, unfortunately, we have had a slippage in the past,” Bulgantuya Khurelbaatar, Mongolia’s deputy speaker of Parliament, said in an interview with bne IntelliNews.

“Though we see an increase in the economy, we are also seeing downgrades on the corruption index, from 110th place to 121st. And in terms of the democracy index, we also had a slippage of around 20 places. Also, in terms of the press freedom index, there are also slipbacks,” she said.

The Mongolian public has not taken these setbacks lightly. Anti-government rallies periodically form on Ulaanbaatar’s central square. Commentators on social media (and some mainstream media) are laying bare the cracks forming in democratic institutions.

“This new generation [of politicians] is worse than the old one,” Sumati Luvsandendev, head of Sant Maral Foundation, a polling and research group, said in an email.

“They are worse due to a shortage of experience, a complete lack of principles and a genuine belief that whatever they do will have no consequences to them.”

Sumati believes politicians have given certain freedoms a backseat in their drive to boost the economy and stimulate job growth.

“Despite what they say about democracy, in reality, they are intensively copy-pasting the Chinese system, which is favoured by the elite [seeking] ‘stability’ in power,” he said.

The English-language UB Post newspaper in Ulaanbaatar was also critical in a recent front-page article, describing Parliament as a rubber stamping tool for the ruling Mongolian People’s Party (MPP). 

Government – an editor for the paper said – is eroding civil rights and discrediting members of Parliament who speak out.

Bulgantuya wants to stop the backsliding in the development of democracy in Mongolia (Credit: Instagram page, Bulgantuya Khurelbaatar).

Bulgantuya, a Yale graduate, is taking the criticism in stride, speaking openly to the media about democracy challenges while adding that it’s high time for the backsliding to stop. She is part of a cohort of lawmakers attempting to strip away rules and regulations that have put democratic values in a chokehold.

The democratic reversal has spanned years, Bulgantuya says, with layer upon layer of regulations building up over successive administrations, creating a system that no longer works for the average citizen but is instead geared to benefit ministries and political agendas.

Part of the problem dates from an earlier era when Mongolia was a Soviet client.

“Before the 1990s, most of these legislations were drafted [with the belief] that the state is the main player, state rights have to be higher and bigger, the structures would have to be bigger and higher, and that kind of mindset is unfortunately still kind of enshrined in some of the lawyers,” Bulgantuya said.

The top-down system allowed corruption to fester and become entrenched. Third-party observers have documented environmental, social justice and human rights violations.

Last year, Amnesty International urged “members of Parliament to improve Mongolia's national human rights record, to ensure that the state does not commit human rights violations and remedy past abuses.”

First, red tape needs cutting and existing laws on the books need rewriting.

“Many of our laws, especially in the banking and finance sector, or human rights laws, are from the 1990s to early 2000s. They need to be updated to keep up with the modern pace of life,” Bulgantuya said.

Implementing reform will require a reset in perspective, said Bulgantuya. Lawmakers must keep in mind who the laws are meant to serve. When drafting laws, she says officials need to ask themselves: is the law serving to increase the powers of the state, or is it serving to increase the rights of the people.

The goal should be to make state agencies function in a way that promotes equity, transparency and fairness for the public, she said.

Officials say addressing these challenges is a work in progress. Much of the change has been triggered through a series of reform packages made by the Great Hural, Mongolia’s Parliament, which recently expanded from 76 members to 126.

The hope is that the expanded number of representatives could help initiate the needed reforms. Certainly, diversity has increased. The rules include mandated gender parity for party lists, which helped to increase female representation to 25%, up from 17% in the previous legislature. Disabled people likewise have an increased presence in Parliament.

Jargalan Batbayar, one of the women recently elected to Parliament, says the fact that this Parliament looks so much different than previous legislatures is an advantage and change will be easier to achieve. The focus is on both economic and political freedoms.

“Our caucus members will focus on specific laws targeting these two areas, and hopefully we will be able to make some changes,” Jargalan said.

Legislation recently passed includes the “Parliament 2.0 - Three Pillars of Excellence Policy” law, designed to create a “human-centred” legislative environment, instead of one that seeks to increase government power.

“The creation of laws that place human rights at the heart of the legislative process is the goal, along with fostering a legal environment in every law draft that reflects and protects citizens' rights, ensuring a just society,” said Bulgantuya.

The legislation won’t fix Mongolia’s problems overnight. Years of lax oversight created the deep hole Mongolia has dug for itself – it could take years for the democracy and transparency indexes to revert back to an upward trajectory.  

Freedom indexes show where work is needed. Reporters Without Borders dropped Mongolia’s score from 59 to 51. Its world ranking fell from 88th place to 109 out of 180 countries.

Improving its ranking on corruption is another area of focus. Mongolia’s Transparency International score dropped from 37 in 2015 to 33 last year, placing it 114th out of 180 countries.

Parliamentary public hearings that expose fraud have increased recently, a sign that officials are taking accountability more seriously. Recent rule changes now allow Parliament to call in members of the public, the judicial system and other areas for testimony. 

Hearings have been initiated on various fraud cases related to banking, coal and medical supplies. Hearings on air pollution are ongoing to determine impacts and who is to blame for Ulaanbaatar’s persistent wintertime smog. Some of the cases have resulted in jail time for a handful of politicians.

New rules have also been set up to prevent officials from using state coffers as their own personal piggy banks. Officials and their families, for example, can no longer take government-subsidised loans or education grants. Legislation has also passed to protect whistleblowers who expose corruption.

While officials remain optimistic that reforms will improve democracy scores, the media and some observers are cautious.

“So far, I have not seen any big change in how parliament operates that would somehow lay the ground for advances in transparency, human rights, anti-corruption, etc,” Julian Dierkes, a Mongolia expert at the University of Mannheim, said when asked about recent reforms.

Bulgantuya acknowledges that the reforms have been slow to implement. Corporations – some of them owned by members of the ruling party – spend time behind the scenes trying to derail anything that threatens an end to a system that has supported them for years.

“It's very difficult to expose them,” Bulgantuya admits. “It's very difficult to even bring them to justice when sometimes even the judicial system is involved with the corruption or they have benefitted from the corruption.”

“I think it will take some time. But whether we like it or not, this needs to be exposed,” Bulgantuya said.