ALMATY, Kazakhstan -- Kazakh President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev appeared to pour cold water on the culture of over-the-top praise from officials that had defined the personality cult of his predecessor, Nursultan Nazarbaev.
"I see it negatively. The reason is that I was brought up in a very specific context, where odes of praise were simply absent…. I would say that I have a lifelong natural immunity to this kind of performance," Toqaev said during an interview with state television channel Khabar in January 2022.
"But it seems you can't change our intelligentsia," he added, somewhat despairingly.
That last observation was borne out at a recent event held at an Almaty university to open a classroom in honor of Toqaev's father, Kemel Toqaev, who worked as an editor at communist newspapers and authored detective novels.
The discussion of the late Toqaev's work at the October 4 event turned into a praise fest in the Soviet tradition, with pleasant words also reserved for the president.
"Kemel Toqaev could not have imagined that his son would become famous at the international level, that he would become our head of state [after serving as] deputy to the United Nations secretary-general," said Zhanseit Tumeibaev, rector of Al-Farabi Kazakh National University (KazNU).
“He did not get to see these things,” Tumeibaev said of the writer who died in 1986. “But he has probably turned in [his grave] with happiness.”"
Kemel Toqaev was not unknown during the Soviet period and was regarded as something of a pioneer in the detective genre in communist-era Kazakhstan, with his writing earning him four editions of a prize co-sponsored by the Writer's Union and the Interior Ministry of the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic.
But despite his son's high profile in Kazakh politics throughout much of independence, he still falls short of being a household name in the vein of more celebrated authors like Mukhtar Auezov. And among the post-Soviet generation, recognition of the man is low, with KazNU students either not knowing of him at all or otherwise unable to say much about his professional life when asked by RFE/RL's Kazakh Service, Azattyq.
That fact -- and Kazakhstan's long experience with personality cults -- seemed to justify the question posed to Tumeibaev, the rector, by an Azattyq correspondent after the classroom opening had finished.
Would the university have honored Kemel Toqaev if he wasn't the president's father?
Lecturer Sacked, Not Sacked Amid Cult Debate
Ironically, given that the presentation was being held at the journalism faculty, Azattyq journalist Meyirim Bakhytzhan was physically manhandled by university staff as she tried to approach Tumeibaev.
After relenting to an interview, Tumeibaev soon grew irritated with the line of questioning, eventually grabbing the microphone and turning it back on the journalist.
"What is your goal here?" Tumeibaev demanded, before ending the interview.
The fallout did not end there.
By October 7, Dastan Qastai, a lecturer in the journalism faculty, said he had been dismissed following an inquest by the university's leadership.
"The university management is blaming teachers for the fact that independent media came to the event on October 4. For the next two days [after the opening] they interrogated everyone to find out who invited [independent media]. And their suspicions fell on me," Qastai told Azattyq.
Then-acting head of Qastai’s faculty, Manshuk Muqasheva, denied that he had been dismissed when contacted by Azattyq.
But Higher Education Minister Sayasat Nurbek acknowledged having to interfere in what had clearly become a tense situation, writing on Facebook that he had given the university "advice on the fact that teachers should not be dismissed or persecuted."
"I am pleased to inform you that there is currently no order to dismiss Dastan Qastai -- he will continue to work at the Faculty of Journalism," Nurbek wrote.
RFE/RL's Kazakh Service on October 9 reported that Muqasheva had been dismissed, citing a social-media post by Deputy Rector Lazzat Erkinbaeva. Tumeibaev, however, has retained his post.
After cruising to victory in the presidential election in November, Toqaev pledged that he would not rule past 2029.
The latest version of the constitution restricts future presidents to a single, seven-year term in office and prohibits close blood relatives of the president from obtaining political or state corporate jobs -- nods to the personal excesses of the Nazarbaev era.
For the moment, Toqaev has displayed a more understated leadership style than his 83-year-old mentor, who definitely had no immunity to bootlicking -- as lists of compliments directed toward Nazarbaev compiled by Azattyq attest.
Back in the day the current head of state was singing along with the rest of the choir.
In fact, on the very day that he was inaugurated as acting president in 2019, it was Toqaev who spearheaded a proposal to rename Kazakhstan's capital, Astana, as Nur-Sultan in honor of the man who had promoted him as a loyalist successor.
But after massive, bloody, and regime-rattling political unrest in January 2022, the Nazarbaev leadership cult faded quickly.
Anti-government protests led to one of the largest statues built for the strongman being torn down in the town of Taldyqorghan, while their aftermath saw the capital's former name restored.
Nazarbaev himself was stripped of his privilege-packed constitutional title, "elbasy," or "leader of the nation," and his family members and in-laws lost lucrative and powerful positions. One of them -- nephew Qairat Satybaldy -- fell so far that he was sentenced to jail in a corruption trial last year.
The Medals That Weren't And The Disappearing Documentary
With that backstory, it is unsurprising that many Kazakhs are loath to see any sort of new cult emerge.
And yet, as Toqaev pointed out, old habits die hard.
In July, Protenge, an investigative media outlet that specializes in scrutinizing public finances, spotlighted three short video clips paid for by the government of Eastern Kazakhstan Province and costing around $10,500 in total.
The clips were a hagiography, praising Toqaev's oratory, memory, "encyclopedic knowledge," and mastery of five languages, among other qualities.
But after Protenge wrote about the videos, they were promptly deleted from the YouTube channel of the regional media outlet that published them.
Protenge noted that the videos had not been popular, at any rate, racking up only a few thousand views and a number of critical comments.
In August, underlings were at it again, as local authorities from Zhetysu Province put out a tender for 50 carpets featuring Toqaev's image and 200 medals engraved with his father's face.
But when news website Liter.kz published a report on the tender, it soon vanished from the state procurement portal.
The timing of these initiatives is not an accident.
October 2 marked 100 years since the birth of Kemel Toqaev, and Ushtobe, a town situated in Zhetysu Province, is the Toqaev family's hometown.
To this end, Ushtobe gained a new town square named for Kemel Toqaev this month, with a monument featuring a book -- rather than a bust or statue of the man -- as its centerpiece.
A harmless dedication to a hometown hero and a pioneer of detective novels in Soviet Kazakhstan?
Maybe, if the tributes stop there.
But the trend still points to "a continuation of sycophancy -- a disease that we have been ill with for some time," according to political analyst Dos Qoshim, who spoke to Azattyq.
"It is cringeworthy and uncomfortable," Qoshim said, while admitting that he had grown up reading Kemel Toqaev's detective books.
