SPEECH BY PRESIDENT BATTULGA TO PARLIAMENTARY SESSION – 13 HIGHLIGHTS
President of Mongolia Khaltmaagiin Battulga delivered a speech to the plenary session of the State Great Khural (Parliament) of Mongolia on November 27th, 2020. Following are the highlights of the President’s speech.
1.
The issue of jurisdiction is not only a matter of a few judges, but is a matter of delivering justice and the founding stone of a just society; and a matter so broad in terms of impact, it makes consequential decisions that affect the whole population, as well as businesses.
2.
Whereas the case of former MP B.Undarmaa, who committed embezzlement of the Social Insurance Fund in the amount more than 340 billion tugrugs, had been looked over with a mere penalty payment, ordinary citizens who were charged and jailed for breaking-in, theft of 50 thousand tugrugs and smuggling of bear claws and hides have been asking for Presidential pardon.
3.
The State Great Khural has adopted a law, which allows dismissal of judge’s full rights in case the National Security Council issues a recommendation. Although the law is flawed in some ways, You should understand it was a timely and necessary decision by the Mongolian state in times of desperation.
4.
On my part in the reading of the amendments to the Constitution, I have personally renounced the lawful rights bestowed on the President to appoint the members and heads of the Judicial General Council and the newly founded Conduct Committee, a judicial disciplinary committee, basing only on the purpose of “delivering justice and building a just society”, and gave my full support for the related amendment. This would make sense to those, who have common sense.
5.
I am different from those Presidents, who had established and led a “tunnel of injustice”. I have never attempted or committed to increasing my full rights. I am in fact the first President to give up specific rights as a President. I will not permit or tolerate any political party, mining-related gang or group attempting to create a “tunnel of injustice”, or to protect or recreate such a “tunnel”.
6.
To give You a simpler explanation, the National Security Council issued the said recommendation in order to put an end to malfeasances of judges, who have gotten involved, for the sake of their personal benefits, in the wrongdoings of foreign nationals, who have ownership rights to a major mine, which is the people’s and the nation’s wealth that possesses the power to write-off loans of all pensioners, who suffer and bear the burden of loans backed by their pensions after their life-long dedication and hard work. The judges’ malfeasances undervalues the Mongolian statehood and puts the social and administrative structure in a substantial risk. The recommendation aims at reaffirming the principle of legal equality recognized in the Constitution, and intercepting any action, where [judges] might use their authority to influence any prosecution or other legal procedures, regarding their malfeasances.
7.
As the head of state of Mongolia, I disapprove the jurisdiction bill that has been presented to the Parliament. This bill is a conjoined copy of the currently functional laws, including the Law of Mongolia on Courts, and the Law on Judicial Administration, Law on Legal Status of Judges, and the Law on Legal Status of Citizen’s Representatives to Court, minus the advancements achieved by each of the mentioned laws. The bill takes a step backward by retaining some articles and clauses from the 2002 Law on Courts, which had been long ineffective, for the sake of [some lawmakers’] own personal interests. The bill has supposedly been formulated with insufficient scientific research and public and academic insights, and disappoints the public expectation for change and reform in the justice system.
8.
Legal reform is required for annihilation of all possibility, where a judge can influence another’s practice in any form, including illegal involvement and/or oppression, in order to facilitate judicial independence. Judge in judicial practice must abide only by law and be free of control and influence of others, including, but not limited to, the chief justice and other peers in the appellate or constitutional courts.
9.
In the last five to seven years, the state budget discussions excluded the topic of investment in the judicial system. This is a clear evidence of legislative and executive powers meddling with the judicial power. There can be no gratification for the Government’s conspiracy to pursue policies that increase the dependence of jurisdiction [from the Cabinet and Parliament], instead of efforts to improve quality of judicial service and working conditions. The bill raised by the cabinet is void of specific policies or provisions directed at ensuring judicial independence, and tends to refer to the matter with magnified generality.
10.
Full rights of the President of Mongolia are not full rights of citizen Kh.Battulga. Therefore, I regard this matter on behalf of many future Presidents.
11.
It is public knowledge that there has been no recorded change made to deliver justice, in spite of all promises of so-called “judicial and legal reform”.
12.
After a mild breeze of independence in the jurisdiction, persons and groups, who committed a series of crimes, such as conspired embezzlement of funds of the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Fund; theft of the Development Bank loan funds through companies they control; illegal ownership of an impossible number of mining licenses; ownership of offshore accounts; accumulation of taxpayers’ money in an incapable bank followed by liquidation of the said bank, which process allowed for yield of billions of tugrugs on their side and bankruptcy of taxpayers, which is also repaid by taxpayers’ money; money laundering through land ownerships, construction companies and non-bank financial institutions; and a crime against the state by conspiring with foreign nationals and companies, have been attacking meticulously to take over judicial organizations, and trying to invade the discussion of the bill on jurisdiction.
13.
The people of Mongolia does not merely wish, but expect to enjoy their rights to equality before the law. The answer to their expectation depends only on the farsighted will and effort of lawmakers, who possess the moral sense and skill to serve their citizens, on the basis of realistic judgment rather than oppressive behavior, and of common sense rather than prioritizing the interests of one’s own political affiliation.