Mongolian PM Out of Office

Left-wing members of Mongolia’s parliament ousted a Harvard alum from his post as prime minister last week. A master’s degree in public administration from the Kennedy School of Government didn’t save Tsakhia Elbegdorj from being booted out of office by the Mongolian People’s Revolutionary Party (MPRP).

The ten MPRP ministers in Elbegdorj’s 17-member cabinet walked out last week, and the country’s parliament, known as the Grand Hural, voted last Friday to dissolve the government.

That ended the first-ever coalition between the formerly Communist MPRP and Elbegdorj’s own Democratic Party.

MPRP originally had exactly half of the 76 seats in parliament. The Democratic Party had just 28, but Elbegdorj ruled as prime minister as part of an agreement with the rival faction.

Last week, though, MPRP formed a majority after it offered cabinet seats to the three minor parties.

“It’s a kind of coup d’etat,” Elbegdorj said in a phone interview Wednesday night.

Elbegdorj said he probably irked his MPRP counterparts as a result of his anti-corruption efforts, which targeted several MPRP officials.

“I think MPRP felt threatened by my policy to pursue the cleaning up of the government and cleaning up of the country from corruption,” Elbegdorj said.

Even as his tenure comes to a close, Elbegdorj said he was proud of the accomplishments he has made since coming to power in August 2004. He cited the praise that President Bush lavished on his country during a November trip to Ulan Bator.

Mongolia sent over 100 soldiers to Iraq, and Bush praised the “fearless warriors” from Elbegdorj’s country.

Elbegdorj rose to fame as a leader of the pro-democracy protests that began in Mongolia in 1989 and led to the fall of that country’s Soviet-backed regime the following year.

The future Harvard student founded the first independent newspaper in Mongolia.

“Our paper created fresh air for democracy, fresh air for freedom of speech,” Elbegdorj said.

Elbegdorj served as prime minister for about three months in 1998. He later came to Harvard to hone his management skills at the Kennedy School.

But even though he is out of office again, Elbegdorj isn’t about to return to student life.

“I’m sitting in my office now, and I am clearing my office for the next new prime minister,” he said Wednesday night. “My plan for the future is I will continue to fight corruption.”

The man who will mostly likely be stepping into Elbegdorj’s office is Miyegombo Enkhbold, the MPRP chairman and former mayor of Ulan Bator. Elbegdorj won’t be joining his rival’s coalition.

“We had a coalition agreement and MPRP actually broke that,” he said.

But Elbegdorj said that his Democratic Party would mount “constructive opposition.”

A phone conversation with a reporter in Cambridge provided Elbegdorj with a welcome respite from his political woes, the Harvard alum said.

“Even though there is disruption, I am very happy you called,” he said, as he reminisced about his Kennedy School days.

“In school, everything is plain, and in real life, sometimes it’s very different,” Elbegdorj said. “In real life, you confront real problems, real challenges.”

Elbegdorj came to Harvard in 2001 as a fellow of the Mason Program, which brings leaders from developing nations and transitional democracies to the Kennedy School for a year of study.

Past Mason Fellows include Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, and outgoing Bolivian President Eduardo Rodriguez Veltze.

—Staff writer Lulu Zhou can be reached at luluzhou@fas.harvard.edu.