Saitova N.А., associate professor of Political Science department, al-Farabi KazNU, Republic of Kazakhstan

statement of the culture of tolerance:

kazakhstan experience

With gaining of independence Kazakhstan has entered into the new historical stage of development which is characterized by deep transformations in all spheres of public life within the revival of national and religious self-consciousness. The strive of Kazakhstan to provide the peaceful neighborhood of the representatives of different nationalities and confessions, to preserve stability in society finds reflection in flexible policy of the state. The main prerogative of this policy is the culture of tolerance.

It is not incidentally, that head of state N. A. Nazarbayev determines the strengthening of civil peace and harmony, conducting of interfaith dialogue of representatives of various religions, strengthening the ideological and political consensus of political system and society through the expansion of the sphere of the integrating values and reducing the sphere of separating values as political condition of successful implementation of reforms at the new stage of Kazakhstan way.

Today we can state high tolerance of the Kazakhstan society. What factors are the cornerstone of tolerance of the Kazakhstan society? According to the leading experts investigating this subject there are some factors that pave the way to its establishment.

The first factor is the history community, deep-seat soviet internationalism, which joined the all people living on the Kazakh earth.

The second factor is with gaining of independence of the country the general choice of citizens of Kazakhstan is the dynamic movement of society toward the way of democracy and progress.

The third factor is the mentality of the title ethnos of the country. Kazakhs, being the successors of nomadic culture, throughout the millennia have showed the adaptation opportunities under constantly changing external conditions. Besides, the Great silk way lying through the territory of Kazakhstan was the binding bridge of interaction of civilizations of the West and East. It made ancestors of Kazakhs tolerant in relation to representatives of other cultures and religions. And today, taking into consideration its internal conditions of multicultural society and a geographical arrangement on a joint between the East and the West, is also vital to Kazakhstan to promote the ideas of intercultural dialogue.

The fourth factor is - the values, common for all Kazakhstan ethnos, among which the independence, honoring the seniors, respect for a family, care of children, cordial hospitality, neighborliness. The statement of tolerance in the Kazakhstan society is closely connected to the statement of democratic values which are the most important motivation of political behavior of social communities, elite, leaders. These are the rights, freedom of the person, democratic principles and a form of a political system and development of society, participation of Kazakhstan citizens in policy, expression and realization of their interests, etc. The President N. A. Nazarbayev has told that: "If we want to become respected and competitive country, we have to be the united and solid nation that will be integrated by the general values, with the harmonious language environment, the nation which is directed in the future, but not in the past» [1].

Currently, in the country it is provided a unique opportunity for representatives of various ethnos to keep the cultural heritage, originality, traditions, language . Effective standard and legal and conceptual bases of an interethnic consent are created. The constitution of Kazakhstan guarantees the protection of interests of all citizens irrespective of ethnic, racial, religious or other origin. Its norms pave the foundation for the trust and mutual respect between all ethnic groups" [2]. It is important to note also the fact, that representatives of various ethnos and nationalities actively work in the sphere of public administration.

The main all-system properties of social and economic and political development of the country for a long prospect are presented in the Message of the President of Kazakhstan to the people of Kazakhstan "Kazakhstan way-2050: The common purpose, common interests, the common future". A main objective is to - create the society of prosperity on the basis of the strong state, developed economy and opportunities of general work, entry of Kazakhstan into thirty of most developed countries of the world [3].

Integrative potential is put in such ideas as the Homeland community, a community purpose, a community of interests, participation of all population in the destiny of the country, uniqueness, originality of the Homeland in the world community, etc. in the patriotic act "The Eternal Land".

The political meaning of given approach is great, as it contributes to joining of different nationalities, in to education of feeling of belonging in them to the common state, it will mobilize them for performance of the common social and economic tasks arising before them.

The general principles of creation of the prospering Kazakhstan as common deal of all inhabitants of the Republic, regardless of their ethnic origin, are defined in the Doctrine of national unity.

It should be noted that, if at the beginning of the 90th of the XX century in Kazakhstan it was dominated an approach to formation of national idea on an ethnic basis, from the middle of the 90th it is observed the transition to civil values. For instance, the design of five principles offered by Nursultan Nazarbayev in January, 2001 at a meeting with the public in Astana might be presented as an example. The first principle of equality of all components of the Kazakhstan people is reduced to the observance of ethnic and language equality and, as a result, satisfaction of their needs for social and economic, political, spiritual equality in compliance with provisions of the Constitution of the country. The second principle is conformed with situation and a role of the title nation with which the formation and development of the Kazakh statehood is connected. The third composed national idea, according to N. A. Nazarbayev is the "religious identity of the people" because "God is Common, and the ways to Him is different". The fourth principle is related to the education of law-abiding of Kazakhstan citizens. The further development of small and medium business is defined as the fifth principle of national idea. We believe that nobody will deny that all proclaimed principles express national interests and are urged to consolidate the society, to inhale the confidence in people, to give them the chance to realize the creative potential of unity [4].

At the same time, we think that real composed elements of such peculiar "idea frame" capable to provide consensus communication between adherents of various ideological beliefs, world outlook orientations, ethnic and religious origin supplement with the high principles of freedom, the law, a consent and justice. They are results of centuries-old searches of world social thought, the basis for dialogue and synthesis of ideological preferences of various ethnos..

The valuable basis, the foundation and source of qualitatively new type of the political culture adequate to democratic transformations is the public, national unity, first of all, an international consent. It is very important in multiethnic environment, because it does not allow the assimilation of the ethnos, exclusion it from society, incorrect using ones in favor of others, also to determine the basic values of social development.

It is very important that it was attempted to give an accurate definition to the concept of "national unity" in the Doctrine which, possessing the certain universal characteristics becomes, at the same time, bears in itself the unique Kazakhstan features. The national unity is understood as integrity of existence of ethnic communities as a part of the common state.

The doctrine on its way to achieve the main objective which is the creation of the common civil nation, allocates the achievement of high level of self-identification of citizens of the country with the Republic of Kazakhstan, formation of effective system of interaction of state agencies and civil institutes in the sphere of the interethnic relations, development of a state language, preservation and development of ethno-cultural, language identity of the people, and also fight against extremism, radicalism and human rights violations [5].

The results shown by Kazakhstan in the sphere of economy, social and political development are certainly based on interethnic peace and harmony which from the date of gaining the independence became a cornerstone of reforms and progress. In multiethnic Kazakhstan neither economic reform, nor social growth, deep democratization of political system, and in general the development was impossible at suspense of issues related to the interethnic relations.

The history convincingly proved that where the political nation acts as an ideal state there is formed the huge economic potential, and the social progress is clearly visible. In this regard the ethnic and cultural diversity of Kazakhstan is absolutely fairly considered as a strategic resource of development of the country, a condition of its entry on equal terms into community of the most developed states.

It is remarkable that today, Kazakhstan is one of the first countries which in a difficult times of global contradictions managed to make idea of a spiritual consent as a real force. Despite the difficulties of the first years of independent existence, Kazakhstan became in 1992 the venue of the I World congress of a spiritual consent. Since then the October,18 is noted as Day of a spiritual consent in Kazakhstan.

The Assembly of the People of Kazakhstan (APK) created in 1995 became one of the main tools of an international and interfaith consent. There are 818 ethno-cultural associations, 46 ethnos have the ethno-cultural centers in its structure. In 2008 it was adopted the Law "On Assembly of the People of Kazakhstan" that does not have analogs in the world.

In 2007 within the constitutional reform the Assembly acquired the right to elect nine deputies of Mazhilis of Parliament. This right should be considered as the constitutional mechanism not only of the representations of interests of ethnic groups in Parliament, but also as the statement of culture of tolerance in power structures.

Kazakhstan builds democratic model which is called integration in world practice. It is based on the understanding of the importance of both ethnic, and civil identity. All post soviet states which made nationalist trend as a basis of development at the beginning of independence have endured the bloody conflicts, manifestations of hatred and hostility, the consequences of which have not eroded this day. On the contrary, Kazakhstan initially headed for a harmonious combination of all interests, the rights and duties of citizens regardless of an ethnic origin. The principle was accurately designated as: "unity – in variety.».

The trust gives rise to trust. For the last years, all the possible real and hypothetical fears of ethnoses of our country for preservation of the originality have been removed. The created conditions for preservation of their languages, cultures, traditions provided high level of gratitude and reciprocal trust to the Kazakh people. As a result, the role of the Kazakh people as integrator, the thesis about the unity of the people, but not the nations have not met the slightest rejection from ethnic groups in the country [6].

The Kazakhstan institute of social and economic information and forecasting (KISEIP) together with PF "Fund of the First President of the Republic of Kazakhstan" within 3 years have conducted the monitoring sociological researches devoted to the most contemporary problems of life of the republic. Survey of the population was conducted in 6 regions of Kazakhstan: The southern Kazakhstan, West Kazakhstan, East Kazakhstan, Karaganda areas, and also in the cities of Almaty and Astana. Sample volume is the 1 400 respondents. Selection was quote. Quotas are set according to the population of regions, settlement type (area, and also the city village), a nationality, a sex and age.

The residents of Kazakhstan were offered to define their identity and to build its hierarchy. So, nationality stands in the first place, as 56% of respondents or the most part of the population of the country is on the first place consider themselves as the Kazakhstan citizens [7].

Historically, being the part of cultural continent of Islam, Kazakhstan does not interfere the development of all world and traditional religions. At the same time the President has underlined that tolerance for Kazakhs is not an academic, but practical [8].

As the world experiment shows, that one of the acute issues in the context of formation of the tolerant relations in multicultural society it is the problem of language equality. In Kazakhstan society the policy of an embodiment of the concept of trinity of languages is a condition of strengthening of the tolerant relations. After all, along with the acquiring the languages, traditional for our country, - Kazakh and Russian by the citizens, the attention is paid to language acquisition of the international communication — English which will allow to come to the new level of the international interaction in all spheres. Especially, such policy, actually, according to its content demands an integrated approach and coordinates with processes of socio-political and economic modernization of the country in general.

The state policy of not interference in inter-confessional activity of different religious communities and directing them to the positive dialogue and mutual understanding deserved an international recognition.

The results of the sociological survey conducted by PF "Center for Ethno-political and Humanitarian Researches" by request of the Ministry of information and culture of RK within the "Organization and Conducting Complex Research on Issues of Strengthening the Tolerant Consciousness in the Kazakhstan Society" project showed that about 40% of respondents, actually, consider the new religious trends with mistrust, and approximately the same proportion are indifferent to them.

In this regard, it is necessary to emphasize that according to the research results society is not satisfied with the work of mass media and educational institutions in the questions of training and covering of religious subject. In order to form the more active participation of social institutes in objective, correct and rather full covering of questions of religious subject in society is required.

As for socialization, at which the benevolent attitude towards representatives of other religions is set, according to the opinion of 60% of respondents the family is considered as a peculiar base of valuable orientations. It is necessary to note that tolerance in its broad sense as the synonym of goodwill, sincerity is, first of all, brought up, in a family, and in its narrow sense, as the neutral or positive attitude towards representatives of other ethnic and confessional groups, with more active participation of other social institutes.

Poll revealed the high level of satisfaction of the population with efforts of the President of the country on strengthening of an ethno-confessional consent – 93%, that is twice higher than other institutes of the power on average. It is substantiated not only by political policy of the Head of state, but also symbolical value of its figure – for many his actions are peculiar indicators of the relation of the state, a political regime in general to confessional variety.

The international and interfaith consent is the cornstone put by the Leader of Nation in the foundation of our domestic policy. This fact was confirmed also by the results of Conference of high level on tolerance and non-discrimination in Astana. Not incidentally, that in the world there started the talks about "Spirit of Astana" as about the created political and philosophical phenomenon, model of existence of societies and states in the XXI century, a symbol of general aspiration to the world order based on the principles of trust, a consent, mutual respect and unity in variety to variety.

The results of the sociological research "State and Prospects of Civil Society in the Republic of Kazakhstan" conducted by the Kazakhstan institute of strategic researches at the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan showed that, according to more than a half of respondents (59,1%) believe that the citizens can make Kazakhstan a prosperous country; nearly a half (49,7%) indicated the strong power; a significant amount of respondents (75,1%) consider that it is possible only within the powers only to the President. Readiness of society for the self-organization is quite high – 73,6% of respondents are ready to unite with citizens for the solution of public problems. On a question: Whether "You agree with the following phrase "In Kazakhstan there are more consent and unity, than disagreement and dissociation among the people" 55,8% of respondents gave an affirmative answers [9].

It is the prove that, despite the destruction of collectivist ideology, distribution of individualistic values in public consciousness, the people, in general, have kept goodwill and readiness for mutual aid.

State' efforts and the understanding of the people led to the fact that today the Kazakhstan society steadily develops. In the country dialogue platforms of cultures and religions are created and actively evolving, the role of whom is very important in objective, correct and rather full discussion of questions of religious subject in society, which is undoubtedly necessary for the further statement of religious tolerance in public consciousness.

In general, the strategy of Kazakhstan in the sphere of tolerance is multifaceted. However, in our view, the following steps are necessary:

- further development of pluralistic information space;

-the creation of the research centers, the edition of magazines, serial publications and methodical literature on problems of tolerance, the role and value of the cultural traditions and cross-cultural dialogue devoted both to experts and to wider audience;

-rendering the full support to the mass media setting education of youth in the spirit of tolerance and patriotism as their purpose;

- statement of common Kazakhstan civil and historical and cultural values, maintenance of the Kazakhstan patriotism, statement of the civil nation.

Thus, the principle of tolerance for Kazakhstan is not only the norm of culture, but also the state principle. The alternative to cooperation and equal partnership of all nations and nationalities living in the country does not exist. The culture of tolerance became guarantee of stability in the conditions of modernization of the Kazakhstan society.

At the same time, the strengthening of ethno-religious contradictions in various parts of the world, including in some neighboring countries might have a negative impact on an interethnic and religious situation. Penetration of various forms of extremism and radicalism into Kazakhstan from the outside presents the potential danger. The local social and everyday problems in society might take an ethnic coloring. These and other aspects demand a special attention, as from the state, and whole society. Further cultural development of tolerance remains a constant and important problem of the state and all civil institutes.

Literature

1. Nazarbayev N. A. Kazakhstan on a threshold of new breakthrough forward in the development. Message of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan to the people of Kazakhstan. – Astana, 2006. – P.35.

2. Constitution of republic of Kazakhstan. 30 August 1995 year. Official text. – P.4.

3. Nazarbayev N. A. Kazakhstan way-2050: Common purpose, common interests, common future. Strategy 2050. The Message of President of RK to the People of Kazakhstan «// http://www.akorda.kz

4. National Idea: Friendship, Brotherhood, Equality. – Kazakhstan thruth. - 20 January 2001 y.

5. The doctrine of national unity.- The legal newspaper.- 28 October 2009 y. – P.1-2.

6. Demidov A., Sharipov R. Integration of society into the post-totalitarian period. - Social sciences and present. - 1992. - № 3. - P.156-163.

7. Mukhamedzhanov B. G., Zhusupova A. Kazakhstan in the estimates of inhabitants and experts. Scientific-popular publishing house - Almaty: PF "Fund of the First President of the Republic of Kazakhstan», 2011. - P.49.

8. Religion: The tolerance rules. The formation of culture of tolerance and religious tolerance became the acute issue of new century // Kazakhstan thruth. – 2006.-15 March. – P. 3-4.

9. State and prospects of civil society in the Republic of Kazakhstan (the results of sociological research). – Almaty: KISR РК, 2010. – P.6-9.