Chapter 22
Spiritual leadership came more easily. A spiritual leader must not be wealthy, or at least not seen to be wealthy. And, above all, a spiritual leader doesn’t need to think. He evades difficult questions, replying that he doesn’t understand you, or asking you why you are saying this. He prefers simple truths, such as ‘bringing the sum of all human knowledge to every person on the planet’.
And then Jimbo meets Karim Massimov, Prime Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan. To understand the Republic of Kazakhstan, we have to understand the postmodern dictatorship. It is quite unlike a traditional dictatorship: there are no firing squads, no chain of gulags, no forced labour. There are no parades of munitions and goosestepping soldiers, no overt and explicit cult of personality. The regime’s goal is at all costs to avoid comparisons with traditional dictatorships like North Korea or Cuba. It uses modern methods of marketing to promote itself as an evolving or reforming democracy. It powders its nose through a global support system utilising ‘public relations’ agencies in the West, it pays large sums of money to high profile Western public figures who are willing to use their reputation to lend legitimacy to the regime.
Jimbo hears about Kazakhstan after Ting Chen, chair of the Wikimedia Foundation, returns from a trip to Almaty in a state of excitement. Ting had been invited by an organisation called Wikibilim, set up by three college friends, Rauan Kenzhekhanuly, Nartay Ashim and Timur Muktarov. Wikibilim had achieved great things for the Kazakh Wikipedia.
Wikipedia was the ideal vehicle for the ambitions of Wikibilim, and for the ambitions of the regime. It was a perfect way to promote the regime as a reforming and modernising democracy. And it would be supported by Wikipedia. It could easily be presented as encoding the liberal values of freedom from authority, establishment and censorship that were central to the Wikipedian faith. It would be perfect for the regime’s face in the West .
Yet Jimbo has spoken publicly against censorship in China, Saudi Arabia, and other countries. “I am working hard both publicly and behind the scenes to push for greater openness and freedom of speech worldwide”. Should Wikipedia openly support a project run in a totalitarian county? Many Wikipedians think so. Why should Wikipedia shut down in languages spoken in totalitarian countries? Wikipedia is an independent, objective, neutral, and ‘quite propaganda-resistant medium'. “In any debate, Wikipedia supports the side that speaks the truth”.
Can good people work with a bad regime? It is a vexed question, and cannot be answered by any simple truth.
