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DE RUEHTA #1339/01 2170755
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 050755Z AUG 09
FM AMEMBASSY ASTANA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 5961
INFO RUCNCLS/ALL SOUTH AND CENTRAL ASIA COLLECTIVE
RUCNCIS/CIS COLLECTIVE 1817
RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
RUEHKO/AMEMBASSY TOKYO 1884
RUEHUL/AMEMBASSY SEOUL 0843
RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING 1182
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RHEFAAA/DIA WASHDC
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC 1369
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC 1278
RHMFIUU/CDR USCENTCOM MACDILL AFB FL
RUEKJCS/JOINT STAFF WASHDC
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 2416
RUEHNO/USMISSION USNATO 2732

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ASTANA 001339 
 
SIPDIS 
SENSITIVE 
 
STATE FOR SCA/CEN, SCA/PPD, ECA, DRL 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
 
TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM ECON SOCI KDEM KPAO KMDR KZ
 
SUBJECT:  KAZAKHSTAN:  "NEWSWEEK" GOT IT WRONG ON KIMEP 
 
¶1.  (U) Sensitive but unclassified.  Not for public Internet. 
 
¶2.  (SBU) SUMMARY:  In an on-line article appearing August 1, 
"Newsweek" magazine accused the Kazakhstani government of 
suppressing Western-oriented education at what is arguably the 
country's most prestigious university.  The article reports that 
governments in Russia, Belarus, and Central Asia have cracked down 
on Western-educated professors and the spread of their "dangerous 
ideas," like democracy and freedom of speech.  About Kazakhstan, 
"Newsweek" got it wrong.  While there remain problems in the areas 
of democracy and human rights, Kazakhstan's admirable record in 
promoting Western education among its young people is not one of 
those areas.  END SUMMARY. 
 
¶3.  (SBU) "Beware of Big Ideas" in the August 17 issue of "Newsweek" 
(published August 1) took aim at governments in the New Independent 
States (NIS), which reportedly have pressured Western-style 
universities that they accuse of imparting "dangerous ideas" to 
students who might lead so-called color revolutions similar to those 
that occurred in Ukraine, Georgia, and Kyrgyzstan.  Some of these 
governments are indeed suppressing Western-style universities in the 
NIS, but the article, covering universities in Central Asia, Russia, 
and Belarus, undermined its overall credibility when it went after 
Kazakhstan on this score. 
 
¶4.  (U) "The situation is probably worst at KIMEP" (the Kazakhstan 
Institute of Management, Economics and Strategic Research), the 
article averred, "which has laid off 30 Western professors and axed 
an EU-funded program on local government and political science." 
Quoting professors who allege they were fired for speaking out 
against the university's corrupt practices, the article dismissed 
KIMEP's claim that the professors were let go for financial reasons 
by noting the university "did manage to find $10 million for a new 
building this year."  KIMEP students, writes "Newsweek," know what 
really happened.  Says one, "We were taught Western values of 
democracy and the meaning of freedom of speech.  That doesn't fit 
the Soviet mentality of Kazakhstan." 
 
¶5.  (SBU) If "Newsweek" had done more research and fact-checking, it 
would have learned that KIMEP was started in Almaty by Kazakhstan's 
President Nursultan Nazarbayev in 1992 with the express purpose of 
exposing Kazakhstani students to Western-educated professors.  When 
the government-run university was approaching bankruptcy in 1997, it 
was turned into a private joint-stock company, owned 60 percent by 
its current president, Korean-American economist Chang Young Bang, 
and 40 percent by individuals in the government.  (The university's 
funding comes from private sources, 90 percent from tuition.)  When 
KIMEP earlier this year faced the possibility that Nazarbaev's own 
minister of education, Zhanseit Tuymebaev, would stand in the way of 
the university's reaccrediation, Nazarbaev himself intervened to 
maintain KIMEP's standing. 
 
¶6.  (SBU) For more than three years, KIMEP has been working closely 
with the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC), 
which accredits such institutions as Harvard and MIT, to gain the 
prestigious association's accreditation of KIMEP.  NEASC, which 
conducts annual, on-site reviews of KIMEP's progress, has 
recommended that the university, as one of the conditions for 
accreditation, sell all shares of the university and put the 
proceeds into an endowment.  KIMEP is working towards this goal. 
After she visited KIMEP in 2008, Louise Zaks, NEASC's associate 
director, said, "I am impressed by [KIMEP's] accomplishments of the 
last two years.  There's always room for improvement, naturally. . . 
. I engaged in some lively and . . . productive discussions all 
week.  The faculty and students were vocal in their support of the 
institution and its vision." 
 
¶7.  (SBU) As to the charges leveled against KIMEP in "Beware the Big 
Idea," the biggest idea with which KIMEP was wrestling last year was 
a possible $7 million shortfall due to projected declines in 
enrollment, rising salaries, and possibly losing two tax cases 
brought against the university by the government.  The university 
won its cases in court and radically restructured its budget, laying 
 
ASTANA 00001339  002 OF 002 
 
 
off professors with the highest salaries and lowest number of 
students.  Most of the 33 educators let go had Western degrees. 
Still, the university retains some 300 faculty, about a third of 
them with Western degrees. 
 
¶8.  (U) The $10 million mentioned in the "Newsweek" article for a 
new structure was not "found" this year.  It has been obligated in 
tranches over three and a half years under capital expenditures in 
KIMEP's budget, available online, for its new academic building. 
 
¶9.  (U) And the EU program that "Newsweek" reported KIMEP had axed? 
The university's public administration department currently teaches 
a local government course, which is not EU-funded.  The only EU 
program KIMEP administrators can find in the institution's history 
is a course on local government funded through TACIS in 1999-2000 at 
KIMEP's College of Continuing Education.  The course ran for one 
year and ended. 
 
¶10.  (SBU) None of this is to say that KIMEP, like most 
universities, does not experience bouts of internecine faculty 
warfare, questionable management, and student unhappiness over 
tuition hikes.  Nor is Kazakhstan's overall education system free 
from serious corruption.  But that's a far cry from alleging in 
"Newsweek," as does Alexei Malyshenko from Moscow's Carnegie Center, 
that "Nazarbayev . . . is afraid  that 'KIMEP graduates [will] join 
the opposition, and that is the reason behind the [firing of] 
Western professors.'" 
 
¶11.  (U) President  Nazarbayev has no history of opposing 
Western-educated professors; on the contrary, he has always been 
strongly in favor of Western education.  In addition to founding 
KIMEP, Nazarbayev in 1993 initiated the "Bolashak" ("Future") 
Program that seeks to place 3,000 Kazakhstani students at any given 
time at universities abroad, primarily in the United States and 
Europe, at government expense to prepare a new generation of 
non-Soviet leaders.  Currently, 3,034 students are studying abroad 
on the program, according to its administrators.  Since the program 
began, 1,514 students have graduated from U.S. programs, and 871 
students are currently enrolled at American universities.  In 
privately funded education, Kazakhstani enrollments at American 
universities have risen steeply. 
 
¶12.  (U) President Nazarbayev also has appointed a more progressive 
rector at Kazakhstan National University in Almaty, and the Ministry 
of Education and Science is building the Astana New University, 
scheduled to open this fall, which will employ Western professors to 
teach engineering and technology solely in English.  Further, 
Nazarbayev stood behind recent legislation that makes it easier for 
foreign professors to teach in Kazakhstan by eliminating the need 
for work permits in the field of education.  (Stemming from the WTO 
negotiations, the new legislation still needs to be vetted by the 
Ministry of Education and Science.) 
 
¶13.  (SBU) We know from private conversations with senior U.S. 
journalists that there is a degree of dismay about the "new 
Newsweek" that has chosen "big-picture" articles over traditional 
reporting of the news.  We would wish "Newsweek" hadn't thrown out 
the baby of fact-checking with the bathwater of traditional 
on-the-ground reporting.  The problem with this article is that too 
many who read it without inside knowledge will accept it as 
accurate.  It is not.  "Newsweek" got it badly wrong about 
Kazakhstan's KIMEP. 
 
HOAGLAND