Kyrgyzstan is gearing up to introduce legislation that would oblige its president to wear a national pointed hat on diplomatic trips following a national uproar.
On Monday a parliamentary committee supported the proposal – which will also see fines levied for insults to the felt hat – the first step towards the legislation’s introduction for a general parliamentary vote.
The bill is a result of a furore that erupted in late 2017 when a dog was photographed wearing an Ak-Kalpak hat at a dog show.
The headpiece, which is usually white, has a special place in the Central Asian country, revered so much that it has its own national day.
The four-panelled hat symbolises “the peaks of the magnificent Kyrgyz mountains, forever snow-capped”, a former presidential adviser, Topchubek Turgunaliyev, explained to AFP last year.
Patriots called for the dog’s owners to be punished for insulting the hat, triggering heated debate in the parliament, which passed a law to give the Ak-Kalpak hat its own honorary date in the calendar – March 5 – in 2016.
Critics say that officials devote too much time to populist initiatives rather than fighting graft and pushing through reforms in one of the poorest nations of the former Soviet Union.