President gets picky over portrait

MOSCOW - Any official or public venue wishing to hang a photograph of the President must clear it with his office first.

In a region not known for the modesty of its presidents, Tajikistan's Emomali Rahmon has issued an unusual edict: he wants all of his portraits taken down with immediate effect.

Local officials in the poverty-stricken country will now need prior approval before hanging posters, photographs or even carpets that feature Rahmon's image.

According to Rahmon, the personality cult in the country has got out of hand and from now on, any official or public venue wishing to hang a photograph of the President must clear it with his office first.

Most irritating of all, said Rahmon, were the local officials who hung pictures of themselves together with the President, trying to bask in reflected glory.

Portraits of Rahmon, with his puffy face and swept-back shock of dyed-black hair, adorn government offices and billboards across the country.

"In order to prevent showing-off in the ranks and eliminate misunderstandings among the population, I order that portraits and carpets with the images of local officials together with the President of Tajikistan be removed from all offices, public places and from along roads," said Rahmon in a directive.

He also asked authorities to remove thank you notes left by citizens at public monuments, expressing their gratitude to the President.

It is unclear whether his edict is part of a genuine effort to reduce the cult of personality that has flourished in the country, or simply a desire to stop local officials muscling in on his limelight.

A glance at Rahmon's official website suggests that the President has not had a sudden attack of shyness. The site features several books that he penned, one on the history of Tajiks, and one five-volume thriller entitled Independent Tajikistan and the Rebirth of the Nation, which are recommended reading for all Tajiks.

A further 22 hagiographical books by other authors are displayed on the website, all of which feature Rahmon on the cover.

Tajikistan, a mountainous country bordering Afghanistan and China, is the poorest of the 15 independent countries that emerged from the rubble of the Soviet Union.

More than half of the country's working-age men travel to Russia to find seasonal work in low-paid menial jobs.

The country still suffers from the legacy of a vicious civil war in the 1990s, from which Rahmon emerged as President.

Critics accuse Rahmon's Government of overseeing institutionalised fraud and corruption. More than US$1 billion ($1.66 billion) was siphoned off from the National Bank's funds, according to an audit by Ernst & Young, and loaned to people close to the bank's leadership.

The funds totalled an amount close to the country's entire annual budget.

Rahmon used to be known as Rahmonov, but in 2007 he dropped the Russified suffix. He issued a decree stating that from then on, it was illegal for newborn Tajiks to use surnames ending in -ov or -ev, which many people in the country had been using since Tsarist times.

Other unusual decrees included placing limits on the number of guests allowed to attend weddings and banning schoolchildren from using mobile phones.

POLITICAL IDOLS

BELARUS
Alexander Lukashenko is known as "the last dictator in Europe". Lukashenko tolerates little opposition and has said that he is grooming his youngest son, 5-year-old Nikolai, to take over from him.

TURKMENISTAN
Saparmurat Niyazov, better known as Turkmenbashi, built giant gold monuments to himself and renamed months of the year after his family members. his successor, Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov, promised reform but has established his own cult.

KALMYKIA
Kalymkia is ruled by the chess-mad buddhist dictator Kirsan Ilyumzhinov. President of the world chess body, FIDE, he built "chess city" at a reported cost of US$50 million ($83 million). Claims to have been abducted by aliens who put him in a yellow spacesuit.

UZBEKISTAN
The steely-faced Islam Karimov presides over one of the most unpleasant regimes in the world. Internationally isolated after troops shot dead hundreds of peaceful protesters in 2005.

- INDEPENDENT