INTRODUCTION
Kazakhstan has entered a new historical period.
This year, with my Message, I announced the start of the Third Modernization of Kazakhstan.
So we launched two major processes of renewal - political reform and economic modernization.
The goal is known - to enter the thirty developed countries of the world.
Both modernization processes have clear goals and objectives, priorities, methods for their achievement. I am sure that everything will be done on time and as efficiently as possible. But this is not enough.
I am convinced that the large-scale transformations that we have begun must be accompanied by the anticipatory modernization of public consciousness. It will not only complement political and economic modernization - it will be their core.
It should be noted that over the years of Independence, we have adopted and implemented a number of major programs.
Since 2004, the “Mениdeni Mra" program has been implemented, aimed at restoring historical and cultural monuments and objects on the territory of Kazakhstan.
In 2013, we adopted the program “Halyk tarikh tolynynda”, which allowed us to systematically collect and study documents from leading world archives on the history of our country.
And today we must begin a larger and more fundamental work.
Therefore, I decided to share my vision of how we together take a step towards the future, change public consciousness in order to become a single nation of strong and responsible people.
I. ABOUT NATIONAL CONSCIOUSNESS IN THE XXI CENTURY.
Before our eyes, the world begins a new, largely obscure, historical cycle. It is impossible to take a place in the advanced group while maintaining the previous model of consciousness and thinking. Therefore, it is important to concentrate, change yourself and, through adaptation to changing conditions, take the best of what the new era carries.
What, in my opinion, was the main drawback of Western models of modernization of the XX century in relation to the realities of our time? That they transferred their unique experience to all peoples and civilizations without taking into account their features.
Even heavily modernized societies contain codes of culture whose origins are a thing of the past.
The first condition for the modernization of a new type is the preservation of their culture, their own national code. Without this, modernization will turn into an empty sound.
But this does not mean the preservation of everything in national self-consciousness - and that which gives us confidence in the future, and that which leads us back.
The new modernization should not, as before, look arrogantly at historical experience and traditions. On the contrary, it should make the best traditions a prerequisite, an important condition for the success of modernization.
Without reliance on national-cultural roots, modernization will hang in the air. I want her to stand firmly on the ground. And this means that history and national traditions must be taken into account.
This is a platform that connects the horizons of the past, present and future of the people.
I am convinced that the most important mission of spiritual modernization is the reconciliation of the various poles of national consciousness.
I would single out several areas of modernization of consciousness of both society as a whole and each Kazakhstani.
Competitiveness
Today, not only an individual, but the nation as a whole has a chance of success, only developing its competitiveness.
This means, first of all, the nation’s ability to offer something advantageous in price and quality in regional and global markets. And this is not only a material product, but also knowledge, services, intellectual products, and finally, the quality of the labor resource.
The peculiarity of tomorrow is that it is the competitiveness of man, and not the availability of mineral resources, that becomes a factor in the success of a nation.
Therefore, any Kazakhstani citizen, like the nation as a whole, must have a set of qualities worthy of the 21st century. And among the unconditional prerequisites for this are such factors as computer literacy, knowledge of foreign languages, cultural openness.
Therefore, the Digital Kazakhstan program, the trilingualism program, and the cultural and confessional accord program are part of preparing the nation (all Kazakhstanis) for life in the 21st century. This is part of our competitiveness.
Pragmatism
Modernization is impossible without changing a number of habits and stereotypes. There are many examples of genuine pragmatism in our history.
Over the centuries, our ancestors have preserved a unique ecologically correct way of life, preserving the habitat, the resources of the earth, very pragmatically and economically spending its resources.
And only a few years in the middle of the last century, the irrational use of resources led to the disappearance of the Aral Sea, the transformation of thousands of hectares of fertile land into zones of environmental disaster. And this is an example of an extremely unpragmatic attitude towards the environment. So the former national pragmatism turned into wastefulness.
On the path of modernization, we should recall the skills of our ancestors. Pragmatism means accurate knowledge of one’s national and personal resources, their economical spending, and the ability to plan one’s future.