President Shavkat Mirziyoyev announced seven national programs for the years ahead as Uzbekistan marked its 35th independence anniversary this week, and the list makes the hierarchy plain: socio-economic development gets the spotlight, while political pluralism, press freedom, freedom of conscience and other democratic elements are left off the page.
Who Gets Fed, Who Gets Managed
Mirziyoyev said the first program would improve public education, with a special focus on extending compulsory education to age six, supporting private kindergartens and having at least ten universities ranked in the top 1,000 higher education institutions in the world. Uzbekistan has 6.8 million students and 600,000 teachers in public mandatory schools alone. That’s a huge population to govern through schooling, and the state knows it.
The next programs concern improving public health and increasing longevity, transitioning to a high technology economy, ensuring high labor productivity, changing public attitudes toward the environment and addressing environmental challenges. The fifth program is set to ensure judicial independence and the rule of law. But the article notes a recent law allows the president’s daughter, who heads the presidential administration, to be directly involved in shaping the judicial system while having lifetime legal immunity for her actions with no accountability. So much for clean lines between power and justice.
Cybercrime, drug trafficking and human trafficking are also singled out for additional attention, though the article says concrete steps have not been outlined. The language is familiar: broad threats, vague remedies, and more room for the apparatus to expand itself under the banner of order.
Neighborhoods as a Delivery System
The sixth program identified mahallas as the “main customer (or commissioner)” of development. Mahallas are unique self-governing institutions established at the neighborhood level, and each household is part of a mahalla. As of 2021, there were 9,251 mahallas across the country. Mirziyoyev said, “The mood of our people, the well-being of families, the dreams and aspirations of young people, and the initiative of entrepreneurs are first and foremost reflected in the neighborhood.”
The announcement said district budgets, investment programs and infrastructure projects are developed based on the needs of neighborhoods. On paper, that sounds like local voice. In practice, the article says mahallas historically have played a distributing role rather than a commissioning one, carrying government policies down to the people rather than gathering and feeding social sentiments upward into the system. The proposed change would amount to participatory or needs-based local governance, but it would not give mahallas fiscal independence or a final say over budgets, which would remain under the central government.
That’s the catch. The neighborhood gets named as the place where life happens, but the money and final authority stay upstairs.
What the Regime Leaves Out
The last area of development focuses on a peaceful foreign policy and economic diplomacy. The article says the programs place emphasis on socio-economic areas that are safe for the political regime and that increased attention to these spheres will increase Mirziyoyev’s popularity and further consolidate power in the existing government. The democratic reforms that once came wrapped in promises have been pushed aside.
The article says the programs do not address areas in which Mirziyoyev initially promised reforms, particularly freedom of expression. His early promises on supporting journalists and allowing the press to become a true watchdog have undergone a clear backslide. The Diplomat has continuously reported on waves of arrests of local bloggers, including popular religious scholar and blogger Mubashshir Ahmad. Ordinary citizens are also regularly charged with crimes and sentenced to prison for expressing their personal religious views, sharing religious songs online that are not approved by the government or saying anything negative about the president or his family.
The recent law that expanded the authority of the presidential administration, headed by Mirziyoyev’s first daughter, Saida Mirziyoyeva, also prohibits “insulting the honor and dignity” of its officials and does not explicitly differentiate between healthy criticism and insult. That’s the kind of legal blur that keeps people guessing and officials protected.
The administration’s priorities are laid out plainly enough: keep average people happy by ensuring their basic needs are covered, while issues related to freedom of speech, mobilization and independent teaching and practice of religion have been set aside. The state calls it development. The article shows the bargain underneath it.