Party chairperson blog

I grew up in a village in Zhambyl region. My father was the chief veterinary doctor, my mother was a nurse and midwife. It was an ordinary life: a rural school and summers on the жайляу.

Since childhood I could not accept it when someone hurt those who were weaker. I always stood up for them, even when I knew it might cost me. I do not know where it came from; I simply could not do otherwise. Now I think this is what eventually brought me into politics. Politics is, in essence, an attempt to solve what concerns everyone, not only yourself.

In sixth grade I saw an announcement in the newspaper Ulan about admission to a physics and mathematics school for gifted children in Almaty. For a boy from a village, it felt like a ticket to another world. I did not think it was not for me. I am grateful to my mother for supporting me. I went, applied and was accepted. Since then I have had one simple habit: when you see a door, try to open it. Most often, it opens.

The idea of creating a political association first appeared during my student years. The history of Alash and the legacy of Turar Ryskulov said the same thing: when personal responsibility becomes a common cause, something truly changes. But at that time there was no experience and no resources. So first came business. I earned my first serious money from the topic of my diploma: implementing electronic document management, which I later introduced in the Presidential Administration. There I saw from the inside how large systems work. I understood that good intentions alone are not enough. You need an instrument, and you need people who want the same thing.

Then something happened that changed everything.

In 2012 we lost a child. Doctors said the illness was connected, among other things, with ecology, food and environment. We had opportunities, good clinics and everything necessary. But it did not help. Something broke inside me. I understood one very simple thing: you cannot buy a separate clean sky for your family. Air, water and land are shared. If they are poisoned, everyone suffers, no matter how much money you have.

From that moment, ecology stopped being something distant for me. It became personal.

In 2015 I studied at Skolkovo on the Executive MBA program. There I came to another understanding: ecology is not charity. Countries and companies that think about it today become stronger tomorrow. It is simply a different horizon.

Looking back now, I see how the desire to develop, a sense of justice and the understanding that ecology is about the country's future went hand in hand for years. At some point they became one. I did not think about it that way then. I simply lived, worked and thought. But this is what eventually brought all of us to a common cause.

In 2016, together with like-minded people, we created the Environmental Alliance. In 2019 we began working on creating a party. At that time Olzhas Omarovich Suleimenov joined us: a poet, public figure and the person who once helped close the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site.

Olzhas Suleimenov supported us immediately. That mattered. It was not about a famous name, but about a signal: people who care find each other.

We submitted registration documents 18 times. Each time we were refused. But there were people beside me who believed in success as much as I did, and that did not let us stop. In August 2022 we finally received permission. On September 23, 1450 people from all over Kazakhstan came to the founding congress. Many were young. That day I understood: when an idea is real, people come by themselves. That is how the green party Baytaq was born.