Just Like You Imagined

Apparently my hope that the Love/NotWar thing was some sort of ARG or mass-enlightenment movement was way too naïve. The word on the street, courtesy of the same source as last time, is that "The event was organized by Lu. Bold, current chairman of MRPAM* and MP candidate from Khan-Uul district of UB."

*The Mineral Resources and Petroleum Authority of Mongolia, within the Ministry of Trade and Industry. This is the entity that is responsible for regulating the extremely contentious and potentially mind-bogglingly lucrative mining industry in Mongolia. Mr. Bold is thereby something of a bigwig in the crazy world of монголын улс төр.

As has been suggested, the timing of this is rather curious. To elaborate for my readers who don't know, as this isn't usually a politics-oriented blog, the next general election is expected to fall sometime between the 20th and 30th of June. Campaigning in Mongolia is restricted to within one month of the election, but touchy-feely "oh, but it's not political" PR is not. Mr. Bold just scored himself some votes well in advance of the campaigning period (whose earliest possible day would be week after next), and I played into his hands by blogging about it.

I've met the guy, and he seemed rather intelligent, and has again exhibited his cunning. However, even if I did feel reckless enough to express an opinion on a Mongolian politician in this space, it wouldn't matter much as both of the (by far) largest parties currently in Parliament have jointly and in public expressed their intention to be of the same mind on politics of mining. Mr. Bold himself is a perfect example of this collaboration, being a member of the opposition party, yet in control of such an economically vital institution, even if he did take his post long before the aforementioned public declarations.

I don't want to take a side in the mining debate. I don't want to inadvertently promote any particular candidates or parties in the upcoming election. However, I think I can probably get away with pondering out loud the timing of the public actions of certain big players in the electoral run-up.