Azerbaijan, Baku, Feb. 8 / Trend V.Zhavoronkova /
Despite that the new government of Kyrgyzstan was approved almost two months ago, Kyrgyzstan is still not functioning as a parliamentary republic, the U.S. expert on Central Asia, Bruce Pannier said.
"It is difficult to say that Kyrgyzstan is functioning as a parliamentary republic yet because parliament hasn't done much of anything," the expert of Radio Liberty, Pannier, wrote in an e-mail to Trend.
The new Kyrgyz government headed by Prime Minister Almazbey Atambayev was approved in mid-December. Changing government in the republic from presidential to parliamentary occurred after the overthrow of former President Kurmanbek Bakiyev in April last year: the decision has been made by the President of the transitional period, Rosa Otunbayeva, and approved in a referendum in the summer.
Despite that the parliament started work in mid-December, according to observers, they have done too little work: still the budget for 2011 has not been approved in the country.
According to the expert, the criticism of the parliament's activities by opposition politicians such as Feliks Kulov reflects the mood of an increasing percentage of the population.
Lack of consistency of the republic's government has already previously been proved by that the parliament, leaving many problems unsolved, went on the New Year holidays, says Pannier.
"There were and still are high hopes for this government but there is little sign the deputies are getting down to work," he said.
According to Pannier, opposition claims that the current government will be short-lived may be true. Maybe after the next meeting, the population will have some hope, but at the moment the situation is disappointing, said the expert.
Also, Pannier said that the threat of destabilization is really growing in the south of the country, and it may increase with the onset of the warm season.
However, talking about the low efficiency of the parliament, it needs to mention the work of President Rosa Otunbayeva: according to Pannier, she is a different story.
"She has been active inside Kyrgyzstan, traveling around the country and warning the country is facing a serious security threat in the south. Otunbayeva made some major changes in Kyrgyzstan's internal security forces - the Committee for National Security and the Interior Ministry," said the expert.
According to Pannier, she is taking the situation seriously and trying to get the government to start moving forward, unfortunately, she has not succeeded in convincing the MPs to start moving.