Mongolia's Glittering Crisis

It began not with a policy collapse or a violent crackdown, but with a cascade of Instagram posts swiftly deleted but not before they metastasised across the Mongolian internet featuring luxury handbags, designer blazers, and a brand-new Volvo SUV.

- BY NILANTHA ILANGAMUWA

The woman posting was not a celebrity or heiress, but Uguumur, the fiancée of Temuulen, son of the Prime Minister Luvsannamsrain Oyun-Erdene. The bags were from Chanel and Dior; the blazer from Miu Miu, worth nearly $5,080; and the vehicle, a $50,800 Volvo. There were also glimpses of Canada Goose shopping bags and documented accounts of private international travel displays of opulence that struck a nerve in a country where the minimum wage remains under $203 per month, and a staggering proportion of the 3.5 million population subsist beneath the poverty line.

The scandal's imagery amplified by economic malaise, rampant inflation, and rising urban disenchantment set off a chain reaction. The hashtagged outrage morphed into rallies, the rallies into sit-ins, and by the third week of protests, thousands had amassed outside the State Palace demanding not merely answers, but resignations. They got one. On 3 June, Prime Minister Oyun-Erdene was forced to resign after losing a vote of no confidence in parliament. Out of 126 legislators, only 82 participated in the secret ballot. Just 44 voted in his favour, falling far short of the 64 required to maintain power. The man who once rode to office as an anti-corruption reformer was undone not by policy failure but by the public perception of private decadence.