New currency - new problems

At the same time many discussions are limited to the misprint or to the solution of a problem - whether to issue them or not. However, a few people think about the development of different scenarios.

Let us revise them in detail.

The first scenario. The 2,000 and 5,000 banknotes with the already famous misprint are issued. Discussions start among the users, that is mainly among citizens of Kazakhstan, that divide them into pro et contra groups.

In this case the money will become a pretext for the long dispute about advantages of the state language and a necessity of its use everywhere.

It is quite probable that a part of the population will assert the following: if there is a misprint even on the banknotes that are one of the main symbols of the statehood, can it really be used everywhere? And in this case the supporters of the state language will have a difficulty answering this question. Such polemics can take place in the North, East, and West of the country.

And now we can consider the South, where the density of the population is higher than in other regions and the ethnic composition tends more to the wider domination of Kazakhs.

In this case there may be a dialogue between the elders, who will be indignant about the illiteracy of persons working at high positions in Astana.

But most of all these criticisms will be aimed at one of those, who presented the new banknotes to the parliament of the Republic, because the Chairman of the National Bank responding to such criticisms from the MPs said that it was simply a means for payment and that it had to be treated correspondingly. Actually it means that the banknotes with misprints are as good a means for payment as any other, so they have to be treated correspondingly.

Did he show due respect to the national currency that serves as a business card for the country, an attribute of its independence?

Taking into consideration the fact that there is also the President's signature on the new banknotes, a widespread opinion can arise that the head of state was not so attentive signing the banknotes. It can damage the image of our President.

The second scenario. The cancellation of the issue of the new banknotes. The public reaction is going to be positive. Moreover, the sympathies of the population will remain with the head of state, who must take this decision on the cancellation of the issue of the new banknotes.

At the same time, taking this decision, the guilty for this negligence should be found as well. It will cause several dismissals of high ranking officials (and it will be an objective necessity, because the population is not going to accept half-measures, that is if any decision is going to be taken on the cancellation of the issue of the new banknotes, the second part of it - the dismissals of the guilty must also take place.)

The second negative part of this scenario is the financial burden related with a new allocation of funds for the printing of new banknotes.

Moreover, many in Astana and in the regions will realise that several tens of millions USD received from the Kazakhstani tax-payers will have been simply wasted.

The second scenario looks as the most probable one today.

At the same time if on 15 November, on the day called "The Day of Financier" the new banknotes are issued with the misprint, it will become known not only in the Near Abroad...

Already today there are opinions that the issue of the new "deficient" banknotes on the eve of the 15th anniversary of Kazakhstan's Independence is an unpleasant fact not so much because of the grammatical error, but rather for political reasons.