Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj - Democratic Movement

Democratic Movement

During his studies in the USSR, Elbegdorj learned about Glasnost and concepts such as freedom of speech and economic liberties. After returning to Mongolia, he met with other like-minded people and tried to present those ideas to a wider audience, despite attempts of repression from the Politburo and threats by his employer to lose his job. When giving a speech at Young Artists’ Second National Congress on November 28, 1989, in the end of his speech, Elbegdorj said that Mongolia needed democracy and appealed youth to collaborate and organize together to establish democracy in Mongolia. He told the audience “We consider that Perestroika is a timely and brave step. Youth’s contribution to this revolutionary matter is not by supportive talks but by certain work. Our contribution is our objectives to be fulfilled. Our objectives are: “…following democracy and transparency and contributing to glasnost, … and to support truthful progressive power…for this…These are the objectives of an initiatives’ group. The group should be an organization that works. After the congress I hope we’ll gather and discuss and you’ll participate in this. The organization shall be based on public, voluntary and democratic principles.”

The chairman of the congress stopped Elbegdorj's speech and warned him that he could not say such things. It was 1989 and Mongolia was already a communist country for 68 years. During that time, it was alleged that one out of two people was an unofficial spy of communist party that would oppress people who express different opinions than socialism and communism. During the break of the congress, two young individuals met Elbegdorj and the three agreed to initiate a democratic movement and to secretly spread the news to other young people. Later the three, including Elbegdorj met and united with ten other individuals and they are known as the Thirteen Leaders of Mongolia's Democratic Revolution.

At that time, Elbegdorj was a correspondent of army newspaper Ulaan Od. When he came back to work after the youth congress, the news about Elbegdorj's "wrongdoings" at the Young Artists Congress already had reached the newspaper. The director of the newspaper warned Elbegdorj that he would fire Elbegdorj if he participated in any activities outside of work and to do anything out of communist and socialist ideological lines. Despite the warning, Elbegdorj and his friends began to secretly meet with other young people in the circle auditorium of the National University of Mongolia and discussed about democracy, free market economy and what they knew about the prohibited subjects of that time and began to draft a plan to organize a democratic movement. They met many times and brought new friends and new supporters to join them secretly. One night they put ads of their open demonstration in streets.

On the morning of December 10, 1989, the first open pro-democracy demonstration met in front of the Youth Cultural Center in Ulaanbaatar. There Elbegdorj announced the creation of the Mongolian Democratic Union. Over the next months the activists led by Elbegdorj and others continued to organize demonstrations, rallies, protests and hunger strikes, as well as teacher's and worker's strikes. Activists were met with growing support from much of Mongolia, both in the capital and the countryside and the union’s activities led to other calls for democracy all over the country.

After numerous demonstrations of many thousands of people in the capital city as well as provincial centers, MPRP Politburo - the authority of the government eventually gave way to the pressure and entered negotiations with the leaders of the democratic movement. In February 1990, the chairman of Politburo Jambyn Batmönkh of MPRP’s Central Committee decided to dissolve the Politburo and to resign on March 9, 1990. Thus paving the way for the first multi-party elections in Mongolia. Elbegdorj announced this news to the hunger strikers and the people that gathered on Sukhbaatar square at 10PM on that day after the negotiations between leaders of MPRP and Mongolian Democratic Union. As a result Mongolia became the first country in Central Asia to embrace democracy.

As a Member of People’s Congress, Elbegdorj co-drafted and co-adopted Mongolia's new Constitution on January 13, 1992. The new Constitution guaranteed human rights, democracy, freedom of religion, and free speech. An international intellectual once referred Elbegdorj as "Mongolia's Thomas Jefferson.