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Good observation. Especially regarding how people tend to make business decisions (which make certain people richer).

When you ask if people are corrupt or just don’t know what makes a better business sense I am more inclined to pick the latter without completely dismissing the former. Do you think officials would not find to make money with the wireless communication option? I am sure there are a number of ways you could make money (especially if equipment is bought in China) since the supply chain is as complex as the land line.

Plus I don’t believe Tajikistan has so many engineers to maintain that number of relay stations across the country. Could land line be cost-effective in the short term after all?

I agree with you that corruption in Tajikistan is the main impediment towards a more progressive state and it is the duty of the world community to educate those in power about the devastating effects of this phenomenon on the country and the ruling party itself.

And I do not believe that even changing the current government could do any good as such behavior is rooted deep inside the mentality of the population: You get to power in order to use it and benefit from it in any way you can.

Ordinary Tajiks can do little at this point as they are uneducated about their basic human rights and are economically and politically dependent on the ruling party. Anything they deserve to receive under their human rights (including political stability in Tajikistan) they percieve as a privilige bestowed upon them by the current government.

All in all I’d say the problem of Tajikistan is that of perception and human rights education. Once that tackled I am positive that corruption will resolve itself.

Here’s an example of how corruption wastes money, trust and limits progress: Tajiktelekom (the state telecoms provider) wants to commit $15million to putting a landline payphone in every village. Any sane person would realise that this is money down the drain: why spend so much on excessively priced copper wire (for example) when a more realistic and cost-effective project would be to enable mobile communications in every area, something akin to the Grameen Bank project in India. Doesn’t that make you think that someone in Tajiktelekom has a vested interest in this project rather than an interest in the country’s development??? Either that or someone has a basic misunderstanding of what makes good business sense?

Let’s not even mention the government’s decision to cut off electricity across the country for several days in December whilst working on the hydroelectric power station…

And so I’m afraid I don’t see quite such an optimistic view. 15 years down the line, it’ll either be Rakhmonov still in power or one of his cronies. The tiny middle class will not have grown much; there will be richer people and more corrupt people, and the number of poor will remain the same. I wish I could be more positive…

Actually I also believe that Tajikistan will be better off 15 years from now. The good thing is that our government knows what we need and knows what direction to go. The only thing they are missing is WAYS to get there. I wish they visited this blog and learnt what other people think about the WAYS.