Turkmenistan's President For Life.

[Clutch]

http://in.news.yahoo.com/061221/32/6ahnr.html


TURKMENISTAN'S QUIRKY president-for-life, Saparmurat Niyazov, has died unexpectedly, throwing the energy-rich Central Asian state into political uncertainty. Solemn news broadcasts on Turkmen state TV announced on Thursday that "Turkmenbashi (leader of the Turkmen) the Great" had died of cardiac arrest, complicated by diabetes, but offered few details about what may lie ahead for the isolated desert nation of five million.

It might seem a bit late, but there had to be at least one more reactionary fuck to croak before the new year. Many of us were hoping it would be Atila The Hen (Maggie Thatcher). I, for one, was pleasantly surprised. :)

[Nothing Human Is Alien]

I wonder if the gold statue of him that rotates to face the sun is still working... :lol:

[Nothing Human Is Alien]

"I admit that there are too many portraits, pictures and monuments of me. I don't find any pleasure in it, but the people demand it because of their mentality.” - Saparmurat Niyazov

[Andy Bowden]

This guy is ace. He rivalled Kim Jong Il in the crazyness stakes. He renamed April and bread after his dead mum, and banned young men wearing beards and the playing of billiards :lol:

[Nothing Human Is Alien]

dont forget about closing libraries outside of the capital cause "farmers dont read".. or naming days of the week and melons (!) after himself and his mother..

[Andy Bowden]

To be fair it wasn't all light hearted fun though. He also replaced nurses with army recruits and abolished the state pension.

[Sugar Hill Kevis]

Originally posted by Compañ[email protected] 05, 2007 04:54 pm
I wonder if the gold statue of him that rotates to face the sun is still working... :lol:
what happens when it goes dark :huh:

[Lamanov]

Originally posted by [email protected] 06, 2007 02:41 pm
what happens when it goes dark :huh:

It transforms into a warewolf and roams the dark streets of Tashkent until sunrise.

[RedGeorge]

This guy first came to power as General Secretary of the CP when the country was the Turkmen SSR. I don't know if he was always mad, but he certainly went that was after the Soviet Union broke up.

[LSD]

There goes the last "president for life", in a lot of ways a throwback to an earlier era. Modern despots relly on phony elections and bureaucratic management rather than grandiose titles and cults-of-personality.

Aside from Saudi Arabia, pretty much every regime in the world now holds itself ostensibly accountable to some governmental mechanism or another. And even Saudi Arabia itself is starting to introduce (limited) elections procedures.

So whoever takes over in Turkmenistan, it's much more likely that they'll follow the Putin model than the Niayzov one.

Open dictatorships just aren't "cool" anymore...

[Severian]

Originally posted by [email protected] 06, 2007 01:20 pm
There goes the last "president for life", in a lot of ways a throwback to an earlier era. Modern despots relly on phony elections and bureaucratic management rather than grandiose titles and cults-of-personality.

Aside from Saudi Arabia, pretty much every regime in the world now holds itself ostensibly accountable to some governmental mechanism or another.
So did Niyazov, and for that matter Stalin and Hitler. Also, almost every regime in the modern world claims to serve the common people; few proclaim themselves to be aristocratic or plutocratic. Truth is, the personality cults and grandiose titles can go right along with all that.

Niyazov's successor-for-now, whatsisname, promised there would be "democratic" elections....along the same lines as those Niyazov conducted.

But the regime's probably going to be somewhat less stable without him; that's one of the limitations of the personality cult as a means of regime stability.

[Guerrilla22]

Originally posted by [email protected] 06, 2007 07:20 pm
There goes the last "president for life", in a lot of ways a throwback to an earlier era. Modern despots relly on phony elections and bureaucratic management rather than grandiose titles and cults-of-personality.

Aside from Saudi Arabia, pretty much every regime in the world now holds itself ostensibly accountable to some governmental mechanism or another. And even Saudi Arabia itself is starting to introduce (limited) elections procedures.

So whoever takes over in Turkmenistan, it's much more likely that they'll follow the Putin model than the Niayzov one.

Open dictatorships just aren't "cool" anymore...
No, fortunately there's still Aleksandr Lukashenko in Belarus and Nursultan Nazarbayev in Kazakstahn. These nutty authoritarians, posing as democractically elected leaders make life more interesting for us all.

[Red October]

i didnt know a cult of personality could extend into renaming bread...the dude sounds like a total nutter.

[Sankara1983]

I think it would be difficult for someone named "Gurbanguly Myalikkuliyevich Berdymukhammedov" to build his own personality cult, what with the title "Turkmenbashi" already taken.

[Guerrilla22]

I've now taken over the title.

[Dimentio]

It's almost sad that such a great comedian have died :(

[Knight of Cydonia]

Originally posted by [email protected] 12, 2007 01:40 am
It's almost sad that such a great comedian have died :(
word

[Keyser]

Good riddance to bad rubbish!

Yet another bloody tyrant snuffs it.

:D