Empire of the Ring

-We have a higher approval rate than we expected. Exit polls show 87% of the approval vote.

Prime Minister Kasim was pleased that there was a higher approval rate than expected.

“13% is against federal incorporation.”

Those who voted against might be patriots who think national self-reliance was a priority over meeting appropriate standards of living or those who were privileged wanting to maintain their lives.

Even if it became a federal state, it would be a self-governing state maintaining its national identity, as well as enjoying the same social security benefits as the people of Kazakhstan in the future, except that it would lose its authority to exercise its defense and diplomatic rights.

-Wouldn’t there be natural opposition? I thought it would be a good thing to have a 70% approval rate, but 87% is amazing. It would be difficult to overturn the results, no matter how many overseas residents vote against it.

“Let’s wait and see the results. If the approval rate is lower than we thought, the problem could be complicated.”

The results of the vote, announced the next day, showed 85% in favor.

The approval rate was down about 2% from the exit poll in the aftermath of opposition votes from overseas residents.

Even considering the Uzbek people, who accounted for 15% of the population, and Russians who made up 1.1%, the approval rate was very high.

This made Tajikistan a federal state of the Kingdom of Kazakhstan.

Being a federal state did not mean that its economic situation would be well off right away, but the people of Tajikistan would be able to enjoy Kazakhstan-level welfare.

The poor country with less than 800 dollars in national income was being relieved of the burden of its foreign debt as well as receiving social security systems amounting to nearly 20,000 dollars.

This was because Tajikistan’s foreign exchange reserves were only 300 million dollars, and it could not pay the interest properly in the meantime.

The foreign debt was only 1.7 billion dollars, but it was an astronomical amount for Tajikistan’s capacity.

The Tajik people were in a festive mood after watching the results of the vote.

Now, even if they went abroad, they could proudly say that they were from the Kingdom of Kazakhstan and if anything happened abroad, everything would be easily resolved through the Kazakh Embassy.

This was because the royal family did not tolerate embassies that had neglected Kazakh citizens. The embassies would provide convenience for Kazakh citizens if they lost all their money and were in a situation to beg for food and money so that they can return home. Considering that only advanced countries provided such benefits, Kazakhstan was rumored to be taking care of its citizens regardless of race or ethnicity.

While the level of approval was overwhelming despite 18% of the 7.6 million people being of foreign ethnicities, Youngho was not very happy with the results.

He was expecting an approval rating of over 90% at the heart.

So, he was grilling Park Jong-il in his Oval Office.

“Have you done the operations properly?”

“That’s the kind of approval you can only see in a country with dictatorship. That’s not a possible figure in a democracy.”

“Did you find out who was against federal incorporation?”

It was a secret vote, but Youngho did not care about it.

“Aren’t you being too greedy? Why? Are you going to kick out those who opposed it?”

“It’s because they’re highly likely to be a rebellious party.”

“I checked the votes of each polling station, and there were a lot of dissenting votes in the Uzbek community, so there’s nothing to worry about. The Uzbek people who live in Tajikistan had been at odds over the border.”

Although it was almost a piece of wasteland land, the pride of nations had been at stake, and Central Asian countries had been growling at each other ever since their independence.

Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan’s border issue was cleared by Kazakhstan, but the border dispute between Tajikistan and Uzbekistan still remained.

“Then you want to be part of the Kazakh Kingdom.”

“Of course. They wanted to separate from Tajikistan, so why would they welcome a more powerful occupying force?”

“Hmmm... What do the Uzbek people living in Tajikistan think of our royal family?”

“There are no Central Asians who don’t like the Kazakh royal family. The opposition vote was because they fear that the Kazakh government will interfere. There’s no other reason, so we don’t have to consider them a rebellious force.”

“I see. What about the Tajiks living abroad?”

“68% approved while 32% was against it.”

“Which country had the highest approval rate?”

“It’s the Tajiks living in Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Afghanistan. It’s on the European side where there’s a lot of opposition.”

Youngho had a rough idea of why that happened.

Those living scattered in Central Asia were comparatively poor people who wanted to come back to Tajikistan immediately to receive the benefits from the Kazakh royal family.

People living on the European side were probably well off, so it was natural for them to want national independence.

“At this rate, there are very few disgruntled people about federal incorporation. If we persuade politicians and nationalists who had been the mainstream, Tajikistan shall be just like Kyrgyzstan.”

“We don’t need to persuade the corrupt politicians since they will face the consequences, or they will have to seek political asylum.”

“Why don’t we use a soft landing operation to reform state affairs as we have to maintain a transitional government for the time being?”

“Is this the judgment of the Intelligence Department?”

“Yes. The national support rate is high, but we can’t ignore the psychology of the people. If you use the hard-line policy, people might reject us.”

“Okay, the intelligence service should be in charge of that then. However, spread rumors that the law will be strictly applied to politicians and officials after the general elections.”

“Don’t worry, they’ll leave on their own anyway.”

***

As Tajikistan became a federal state, the conference room in Astana’s government complex was as noisy as a stirred-up hive.

There was a heated debate between the two groups calling for a Kazakhstan-level social security system to be implemented immediately and the group calling for a gradual expansion in line with the Tajik reality.

“It’s only about 7 million people, and it’s not too much of a burden even if the Kazakh-level social security is implemented. The Tajik people voted to become a federal state because of their desire to live a better life, and if we ignore it, will they follow our policies?”

“You have a point. I’m concerned about the moral hazard. There will be people who just want to receive unemployment benefits not trying to work.”

“Don’t you know how diligent the people of South Central Asia are? They survived the harsh conditions for thousands of years. They’ll never be satisfied with unemployment benefits.”

“Considering the price of Tajikistan, you can live a luxurious life with Kazakhstan-level unemployment benefits. Considering the economic situation, the Kazakhstan-level social security is nonsense.”

“It would be reasonable to meet their standards, but the Finance Ministry believes that if we bring it up to Kazakhstan’s level, economic growth will go up sharply.”

It was ambiguous to side with either side because both had a point.

“I don’t think the Tajik people want any visible changes right now. Even if they get the right benefits for Tajik’s economic conditions, they can get out of the bad environment like now, so it would be better to implement policies focusing on the vulnerables and gradually expand them. We are one of the pillars of well-being in Central Asia, but we don’t stand out compared to Western European countries.”

Kasim opened his mouth to clear out the arguments.

Kazakhstan also had so many occasions to spend money, and its pork-barrel policy on Tajikistan could have a negative impact on Kazakhstan’s economy.

Kasim, who had finished speaking, looked at Youngho to seek his approval.

“I think that’s a great point. Too sudden changes can cause confusion, so I think it’s better to expand the benefits gradually. We have to consider the impact on our economy. We need to increase our defense spending right now, so we can’t sacrifice our budget just to win the hearts of the residents.”

“Your Highness, that would be a great disappointment to the residents.”

“What the Tajik people want is the hope that they can live as well as the Kazakh people. There is one way to make sure of it. It’s by increasing the number of jobs.”

“Your Grace, it will inevitably cost us money to build factories.”

“The construction of the factories will be covered by royal funds. In the meantime, we’ve earned enough money from the royal gold mines.”

“Your Highness, that can’t happen again!”

Kasim looked shameful.

Without the help of the royal family, the Kazakh government’s reality was frustrating.

“I’m not just giving, I’m saying I’m going to invest. The royal family will eventually recover the invested amount from the profits generated by the factories. Could you find out what kind of factories would be plausible in each region?”

“I’m embarrassed to lean against the royal family every time. Your Grace.”

“Please don’t mind it. The Tajiks are our own people now.”

Youngho thought that it would be better for the royal family to step out because if it was left for the Kazakh government, it would take too long to process it.

He had reformed Kazakhstan’s bureaucracy several times, but he still did not like it.

Of course, it had changed beyond comparison with other countries in Central Asia, but it had been frustrating for Youngho, who was accustomed to Korea’s fast-track work.

It was fortunate that the corruption had disappeared, but it was still frustrating to see how slow the officials processed things.

Rather than leaving it to such officials, the royal family should step in for the benefit of the Tajik people.

Tajik residents did not vote for the Kazakh government but chose the Kazakh royal family, which had no political color.

Central Asian countries were said to be poorer than they used to be in the Soviet era.

The reason was that the people’s livelihood was on the back burner due to power struggles between corrupt officials and politicians. The local bureaucrats had come to power in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union, so it was hard to expect that they would work properly as what they saw and learned was corruption.

Even if the society was in a chaotic transition period after the collapse of the Soviet Union, it should have been cleared of its past a long time ago.

It was a little late, but it was now time to fix it.