User:Tsagaan Tsaas/Amarbayasgalan Dashzegve

Amarbayasgalan Dashzegve (born November 27, 1981 in Gobi-Altai, Mongolia) is a Mongolian politician with a center-left, social democratic political ideology. He is the Secretary General of the ruling Mongolian People’s Party and upholds Mongolia’s independence, freedom, justice, solidarity, and fundamental national interests.

Amarbayasgalan was elected to an unprecedented fourth term as Secretary General of the Mongolian People’s Party in 2021. He was also the youngest Citizen’s Representative elected in 2008 (at 26 years old) as well as being the youngest head of division at the Mongolian People’s Party Secretariat (at 27 years old).

Early life
Amarbayasgalan Dashzegve was born on November 27, 1981 in Gobi-Altai province, the fourth and youngest child of Dashzegve Duger, who devoted his life to the agricultural sector serving as director of Gobi-Altai’s cooperative called ‘Sixty years’ as well as headed the Mongolian People’s Party local branch. Based on his wealth of experience and knowledge in animal breeding and dairy farming, Dashzegve introduced in Mongolia a highly productive meat and dairy cattle herd "Norwegian Red", as a result of cross-breeding with selected Norwegian strain. Amarbayasgalan’s mother, Norjin Lkhamjav, worked as a teacher, educating thousands of students.

Education
Amarbayasgalan studied in Gobi-Altai’s secondary education school number 1 from 1988 to 1998. From 1998 to 2002, he studied at the Mongolian University of Science and Technology, graduating as a telecommunications and data engineer. In 2012, he graduated from the National University of Mongolia majoring in political sciences.

Professional career
Whilst studying full time, Amarbayasgalan started working as a marketing manager at ‘Soyombo Printing’ LLC, a publishing company founded by his older brother. From 2000 to 2009, Amarbayasgalan headed the Marketing department of Mongol Post, improving the company’s bottom line.

Political career
Amarbayasgalan became a member of the Mongolian People’s Party in 1998 at 18 years old. He went onto become a leader of the 37th Party cell in Bayanzurkh district in 2007. Following his success leading the 2008 Parliamentary election campaign activities, Amarbayasgalan became the youngest Citizens’ Representative to be elected in 2008, at 26 years old.

As a young leader with innovative political approaches, Amarbayasgalan was appointed as the Head of the Communications and public relations division of the Party by the then Secretary General of the MPP Khurelsukh Ukhnaa.

In 2012, Amarbayasgalan was re-elected to the Ulaanbaatar city Citizens’ Representative Council. At that time, the MPP was in opposition, having lost the local and national elections. Amarbayasgalan was elected leader of the opposition at the Council, earning a reputation among the Party members as a decisive and outspoken representative.

Public health initiatives
During his tenure as the leader of the MPP caucus at the Citizens’ Representative Council, he managed to get the authorities to invest 1 billion MNT for the purchase and installation of liver transplant surgery equipment to the National Cancer Center of Mongolia, which was a historic event for the country that leads in liver cancer incidences worldwide. This marked the beginning for Mongolians to get liver transplant surgery, a service, formerly acquired at high rates abroad, provided free of charge since the beginning of 2018. A team of 64 liver transplant surgeons led by Chinburen Jigjidsuren, an honorary member of the French Academy of Surgeons, has undergone advanced training in developed countries and are performing liver transplants in Mongolia.

Pioneering national solidarity
The Mongolian People’s Party underwent several name changes in response to the various socio-political situations throughout the past century. From 1921 to 1925 the Party was called the Mongolian People’s Party, followed by the Mongolian People’s Revolutionary Party (1925-2010), finally reinstating its original name of Mongolian People’s Party in 2010, followed by a structural change. When the Party changed its name from MPRP to MPP, dissidents established a new political party with the name of MPRP, which had functioned until 2021, when the agreement to merge the two parties was concluded. Amarbayasgalan is credited with pioneering the efforts for the merger of the parties throughout many elections and successfully carrying out this act of solidarity.

The struggle for justice
In 2011, on the 90th anniversary of the founding of the MPP, the Party leadership, led by the then Chairman Batbold Sukhbaatar, offered their deep condolences to the relatives and offspring of the victims of political persecutions for the first time. This was reaffirmed by the current Chairman Oyun-Erdene Luvsannamsrai in 2021, both expressing their desire to strengthen social justice and prevent the recurrence of political and other forms of repression. At the same time, the 30th MPP Congress fully supports and implements initiatives related to fighting corruption, which is on par with political persecution in terms of disruptions to the social system and stifling opportunities for many people. The Congress also resolved to strengthen the culture of human rights through the reform of legislations and the legal environment, improvement in the attitudes of civil servants, strengthening democracy with meaningful participation of citizens, as well as strengthening the parliamentary system.

Re-elected Secretary General
First term. Upon assuming the responsibilities of the MPP Secretary in charge of preparations for the 2016 elections, Amarbayasgalan set up an efficient structure to organize the election campaign, expanded the public relations team, and implemented a strategy based on research and opinion polls results.

After the MPP won a landslide victory in the 2016 parliamentary elections, he was appointed Acting Secretary General on July 28, 2016.

Having declined numerous offers to become a member of parliament or government to stay as Acting Secretary General and leading the Party into the local elections, Amarbayasgalan recalled later that he followed his father’s advice to continue his career as a party official.

In an interview to a newspaper, Amarbayasgalan said: “I decided to employ the political power and opportunities provided by the position of the Secretary General to implement major reform policies that would fundamentally change society.”

Second term. The 7th MPP Conference appointed Amarbayasgalan as Secretary General on December 12, 2016. His innovative approach to nominating candidates to local elections and skillful organization of the elections campaign resulted in victories in 20 provinces out of 21, and in six municipal districts out of nine.

Third term. At the 28th Party Congress held on November 23, 2017, Khurelsukh Ukhnaa was elected Chairman of the Party while Amarbayasgalan was re-elected. His election platform included strengthening the party’s institution, reforming the party into a professional organization to end short-term planning only for election purposes, establishing research institutions and think tanks, working closely with the party’s grassroot members, and introducing innovative technologies towards digitalization of the party.

As a result, activities of the party branches at the primary and middle levels improved, all members of the party were enrolled in digital registration facilitating active participation of members in party activities and increasing the party membership from 212 thousand to 300 thousand members and supporters as of 2022.

His political career was not smooth. The atmosphere inside the party worsened in 2017 as 65 members of the Parliament, elected from the party, divided into two groups of 33 and 32. The challenging times of the Party’s internal disagreement led to the dissolution of the Cabinet and the dismissal of the Parliament Speaker in 2019. Learning from the past lessons, the Secretary General jointly with other leaders of the party, took a political decision to amend the Constitution through organizing public opinion polls, consultations with the party caucus in the Parliament, Speaker of the Parliament, the Party Chairman, Prime Minister, the Party Board and the Party Conference. The amendments to the Constitution envisaged a stable Government with an empowered Prime Minister. This was an important achievement in ensuring political stability in Mongolia.

Fourth term. At the 30th Party Congress in 2021, Oyun-Erdene Luvsannamsrai was elected Chairman of the Party, and the First Party Conference supported Amarbayasgalan’s fourth term as Secretary General on December 8, 2021. His main policy objectives are as follows:

1.	The Mongolian People's Party has been adhering to the social democratic vision since 2010. The 30th Congress of the Mongolian People's Party held in 2021 decided not to translate the term into Mongolian, but to use its scientific terms. The Mongolian People's Party has announced that its development policy would be based on the social democratic concept of ensuring the proper participation of the state and active engagement of citizen in the distribution of public resources and wealth for the common good, and providing access to quality health, education and social protection services to every citizen. Amarbayasgalan was the author behind this change as he chaired the working group to revise the Mongolian People’s Party’s program (aspirations).

2.	It was for the first time in Mongolian political history since 1990, that a political party labelled with corruption and official misconduct, especially the ruling party, initiated on its own progressive policies to combat corruption, official misconduct and bureaucracy. Within the framework of this initiative, the 30th Congress approved a number of provisions into the party's Charter, including the expulsion of politicians convicted of ethical, corruption and official misconduct crimes and non-provision of political support to such politicians. The MPP has launched an anti-corruption education program for party members at all levels. He is also a politician who has initiated many practical initiatives, such as legal reform and strengthening legal accountability.

3.	He has formed a team of professional researchers and lawyers to conduct a study of 318 laws in force in Mongolia and identified more than 800 articles with potential human rights violations. Moreover, he introduced advanced human rights policies in order to rectify the provisions potentially leading to violation of human rights in the above-mentioned laws and prevent the inclusion of such provisions the new laws to be enacted in the future, considering that justice cannot be established where human rights are violated, and set up the Institute for Human Rights and Progressive Policy. In this context, 30,000 party members are engaged in a human rights leadership program.

4.	In order to seek the opinions and thoughts of not only MPP members but the wider electorate as a whole, a social chat bot and a special hotline were established. The Party finances were also made public as of January 1, 2022, in accordance with the goal of improving financial transparency.

5.	 The Mongolian People’s Party has aligned its program with basic documents such as Mongolia's Foreign Policy Concept and National Security Concept, and has been expanding its cooperation with more than 40 political parties and 30 international organizations, including the Socialist International, the Progressive Alliance, and Network for Social Democracy in Asia within the framework of peaceful, open, independent and multi-pillar foreign policy in line with the main goals and principles of Mongolia's foreign policy. Political analysts and opposition politicians alike commend the MPP for enhancing its foreign relations and implementing ambitious goals of becoming a respected member of the international social democratic community.

Other experiences
Amarbayasgalan has held representative and leadership positions at various organizations, including:

•	2008-2018 Board member of the Mongolian Leftist Union

•	2009 Deputy head of the Mongolian Go Association;

•	2009-2014 Vice President of the Social Democracy Mongolian Youth Union;

•	2013-2016 Board member of the Capital City Institute of Design;

•	2015-2016 Vice President of the ‘Asian Khuleg Mongolia’ policy research institute;

•	2013-2018 Member of the Gobi-Altai local council.

Family
Amarbayasgalan lives with his wife and four children.

Personal interests
He enjoys volleyball, table tennis, basketball, go, and sport fishing.

Quotes
Quotes selected from MPP Secretary General’s speech at the 30th Congress of the MPP:

•	A political party is not a stepping stone for someone’s profit or position.

•	The MPP will work to provide equal opportunities for underrepresented groups such as women and people with disabilities.

•	The “digital transition”, utilizing the technological achievements of the 4th Industrial revolution, as well as based on cost-efficiency, creativity, and innovation, should be the priority of our party in the new century.

•	A total of 17 governments have been formed since 1990, marking the duration of each government at 1.8 years, which adversely affects the stability of public policy implementation.

•	Our mission is to be a party that collectively determines and implements long-term national development policies as opposed to short-lived parties with the sole purpose of winning in elections.

•	Party members involved in any crime, especially corruption, will not receive any political support.

•	Political party system reform is an issue not only for the Mongolian People’s Party. We call on all political parties to develop parties into public policy development institutions through strengthening multi-party parliamentary democracy, increasing the role of political parties in society, and expanding the possibilities for equal opportunities in political competition.

•	We will prioritize citizens’ economic and social rights such as living in a healthy and safe environment, having their health protected, being educated, and being employed.