According to a Russian tabloid, Aysultan Nazarbaev, the Kazakh President’s grandson, is going to the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst. He will start training on April 17, and is likely to spend a year and a half in the UK – a choice heartily endorsed by Nazarbaev Sr.
A stint at the prestigious academy, whose motto is ‘Serve To Lead’, could go a long way in preparing the 18-year old for grander things in life – an illustrious political career, perhaps? He might learn a thing or two about efficiency, prudence, and the fabled stiff upper lip attitude.
Granted, Sandhurst these days is not a bastion of virtue it used to be, lurching from one scandal to another. Young Aysultan should take heart in his mother’s life credo, which is “Kindness, decency, and acute sense of justice”.
Nazarbaev Jr. would be the first member of the top Central Asian political elite to experience the beauty and hardship of army life. The only exception to this pattern is the President of Tajikistan, Emomali Rahmon, who fondly remembers his days as a sailor in the Soviet Pacific Fleet in the 1970s.
‘Service in the Armed Forces is an excellent school of courage, fortitude, manliness, and physical and spiritual strength’, says Rahmon.
This might be an interesting study: how extensive was study at Sandhurst among Middle Eastern, African, Central Asian elites and what effect did it have?
By: John on March 16, 2009
at 2:31 am
Off the top of my head, Ayub Khan was at Sandhurst. Did him a lot of good, too – an officer and a gentleman, shiny boots, and all that. The academy appears to be the in thing for the Gulf royalty at the moment http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-400145/Royals-line-Sandhurst-parade.html?printingPage=true
By: Burundukhan on March 20, 2009
at 6:05 am