Post-Conflict Tajikistan: The Politics of Peacebuilding and the Emergence of Legitimate Order by John Heathershaw

Author:John Heathershaw [Heathershaw, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Ethnic Studies, Social Science, Political Science, Regional Studies, General
ISBN: 9781134014170
Google: ynF4AgAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2009-05-07T12:41:31+00:00

The SDPT as an internationalised political party

The SDPT, as the youngest opposition party and a party of the intelligentsia, rather than a regionally based party, is a particularly strong example of a party which exists in an in-between space. The SDPT began after a meeting between various opposition party representatives who were excluded from the 2000 elections, including Ramatillo Zoirov, leader of Adolat va Taraqqiyot (‘Justice and Progress’) and Shokirjon Hakimov, a member of the Congress of Popular Unity of Tajikistan.41 By this time Zoirov had also become a senior advisor to the President and this facilitated the eventual registration of the party in 2002.42 However, he was quick to assert his independence from Rahmon. He resigned from his position in response to the 2003 referendum which allowed the President to be elected for two further terms in office and publicly argued that, as the referendum was illegal, Rahmon’s presidency legally ended in 2004.43

After this falling out with Rahmon, the SDPT found itself in the in-between space of the internationalised ‘opposition’. Hakimov, the deputy chair, characterises the party as ‘intelligent, secular, democratic opposition’ (Hakimov 2005: 2). It has gained supporters in this mould, having a few thousand registered members, professionals and NGO administrators, from Dushanbe, Sughd and Badakhshon. Hakimov notes that because members face ‘pressure’ from the authorities and may lose their job, the party tries to recruit those who ‘in economic terms are relatively independent’ (ibid.: 4). Its membership has stayed relatively small and it stays afloat partly because many of its leaders run NGOs which subcontract for international organisations. Zoirov, for example, has often worked as a consultant for the International Community including for the UNTOP dialogue project, the PDC (UNTOP 2001a: 16). Hakimov observes, ‘as for us all avenues [to government] are closed, we are able to participate in the projects of International Community’ (2005: 6). Here, international programmes serve as an alternative to, not a conduit for, real politics.

On the other hand, this involvement with international actors has entailed the further exclusion of the SDPT from the corridors of power. Dilbar Samadova, SDPT deputy chair in Khujand, cited how the party in Khujand has been increasingly marginalised:

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