Uzbekistan: authorities intend to fight with discontent of the population with spirituality
The President Shavkat Mirziyoev acknowledged that “artificial instability and protest moods are being observed in some regions”. He made such a conclusion on January 19 during a video conference on the cardinal improvement of the system of spiritual and educational work, strengthening the cooperation between state and public organizations.
The leader of the country has reasons for concern. Almost two months, there was a subzero temperature in the country. The cyclic power cutoffs and an agonizing lack of gas supplies in the country have caused popular outrage: people blocked roads and burned tires in protest. Demolitions of houses in winter, even in the capital, residents of flooded villages in Syrdarya region, who didn’t receive adequate compensation, increased the protest mood in society.
The authorities decided to confront the discontent with the help of rhetoric familiar to the citizens of Uzbekistan since Karimov’s era of rule. The President emphasized that the biggest threat is indifference and negligence; in minimizing the social problems observed today, there is not enough participation of the older generation in education, there is insufficient public control. According to the President’s logic, now time requires a scientifically grounded analysis of the social and spiritual situation in society. “It is the absence of such approach to the organization of spiritual and educational work that doesn’t allow achieving the expected results,” such was the message of Mirziyoev.
The head of state didn’t specify how to fight with anthropogenic disasters, but focused the participants’ attention on priority tasks. In order to promote the national idea, increase the efficiency of spiritual and educational work, and further develop literature and culture of reading in society, a Fund for the Support of Spirituality and Creativity will be created on the basis of the public foundation “Ijod”.
In this regard, 120 billion sums ($ 11.4 million) will be allocated, which will go to the effective implementation of spiritual and educational work, the development of national literature. Of this amount, 90 billion sums will help the development of the spiritual and educational sphere in the regions; the Writers’ Union will receive 20 billion sums, and 10 billion sums will be spent on “effective organization of spiritual and educational work on a national scale”.
