From wiki -
As President-for-Life of Turkmenistan, he had issued many unconventional decrees, such as:
* In March 2004, dismissing 15,000 public health workers in wide-ranging cuts that particularly targeted nurses, midwives, school health visitors and orderlies[10]
* In April 2004, urging young people not to get gold tooth caps or gold teeth, suggesting instead that they chew on bones to preserve their teeth[11]
* In February 2005, ordering the closure of all hospitals outside Ashgabat, saying that if people were ill, they could come to the capital; also ordering the closure of all rural libraries of Turkmenistan, saying that ordinary Turkmen do not read books anyway[12]
* In November 2005, ordering that physicians swear an oath to him instead of the Hippocratic Oath[13]
* In December 2005, banning video games, stating that they were too violent for young Turkmen to play
* In January 2006, Russian media reported[14] that he had ordered to stop paying pensions to 1/3 (more than 100,000) of the country's elderly people, cutting pensions to another 200,000, and ordering to pay the pensions received in the past two years back to the State. This has supposedly resulted in a huge number of deaths of old people, who may have had their pension (ranging from US$10 to US$90) as the only source of money. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan strongly denied [15] these allegations, accusing the media outlets of spreading "deliberately perverted" information on the issue.
* In September 2006, the Telegraph reported[16] that Turkmenbashi had issued a new pay scale for Turkmen teachers, which was to come into effect in October of that year. Until then, teachers who wished to avoid being put on the lowest grade of pay or even sacked, would have to write a newspaper article praising Turkmenbashi and have it published in one of the two newspapers of the country.
* In October 2006 Turkmenistan will set free 10056 prisoners, including 253 foreign nationals from 11 countries on Night of Omnipotence. Niyazov said: "Let this humane act on the part of the state serve strengthening truly moral values of the Turkmen society. Let the entire world know that there has never been a place for evil and violence on the blessed Turkmen soil"[citation needed]
