logo

Tehran:

Esvand 25 / 1402





Tehran Weather:
 facebooktwitteremail
 
We must always take sides. Nutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented -- Elie Wiesel
 
Happy Birthday To:
Shalom Abrahamson,  Neda, Razi....,  
 
Home Passport and Visa Forms U.S. Immigrations Birthday Registration
 

Sowing seeds of democracy is Bush's victory in 'war on terror' - -

By Amir Taheri

SOWING SEEDS OF DEMOCRACY IS BUSH'S VICTORY IN 'WAR ON TERROR'
by Amir Taheri
Gulf News
November 17, 2004

Special to Gulf News

The Arabs already call it "the democratic show", and don't quite know how to deal with it. Some hope it will just go away while others are suspending judgement until they see more. Still others hope to bury it under an avalanche of cynical jokes.

We are, of course, talking about President George W. Bush's plan for the democratisation of the Middle East and North Africa. Bush first launched the idea in a speech in Washington in 2002. Last June he presented a more structured plan at the G-8 summit in Sea Island, Georgia.

Next month the plan will be discussed at a joint meeting of G-8 foreign and finance ministers with their Arab counterparts at a conference in Rabat, the Moroccan capital.

According to the meeting's agenda, the aim is to examine ways of "consolidating the commitment of Middle East and North Africa to fruitful co-development and the harmonious strengthening of the process of political, economic ad social reform." Ooops!

This is, of course, diplomatic code language. What the president means is more straightforward: the Middle East and North Africa region is virtually the only part of the world still out of the mainstream of democratisation we have witnessed since the end of the Cold War.

Again, it is the only part of the world where international terrorism still enjoys not only a popular base, but also quite a bit of sympathy and support from the ruling elites.

Bush thinks those two facts are inter-connected and that democratisation should be regarded as an integral part of his " war on terror".

During the US presidential election, the Democratic Party candidate Senator John Kerry ridiculed the idea that the "war on terror" could end in a definitive victory. Bush, however, is offering something with which to measure success or failure in the "war on terror."

That measure is the spread of democracy. If, by the end of Bush's final presidential term, there are more democracies in the region, he could claim that he has achieved some success. If not, he will have to admit failure.

The Bush plan is opposed both by the ruling elites who fear losing their privileges and powers and a variety of oppositionists who use anti-Americanism as the key element of their political message. One may wonder why opponents of the despotic regimes should be hostile to the Bush plan.

The reason is that in most Middle Eastern countries the Islamists dominate the opposition at times in coalition with the remnants of the left.

While these people wish and work to overthrow the established order, the last thing they want is that it be succeeded by a pluralist democratic system in which they would not be able to impose their brand of despotism. In some cases they are even prepared to forge alliances with the current despots to prevent democratisation.

Seen the ferocity

We have seen the ferocity with which the Islamists tried to prevent presidential and parliamentary elections in Algeria throughout the 1990s.

The only elections they would accept would be based on "one man, one vote, once. Their slogan was "min al-sanduq il al-sanduq" (from the box to the box), meaning "from the ballot box to the coffin". They murdered thousands of candidates and voters.

Today, we can witness the Islamists' fear of free elections in both Iraq and the Palestinian territories. These days the same Algerian slogan is scribbled on the walls of towns in Iraq's so-called Sunni Triangle.

A statement issued by the self-styled Islamic Coalition of Iraq last Thursday put it plainly: "It is the sacred duty of all true believers to prevent the holding of any elections by using whatever means necessary."

The other day we also witnessed the same fear of elections as gunmen provoked a shootout in Gaza to prevent Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian presidential candidate, form starting his election campaign.

The despots and the Islamists fear free elections. This is why there can be no progress in this "zone of darkness" until the holding of free and fair elections is recognised as a legitimate instrument of people's participation in decision-making at all levels.

Almost all the countries in the region now conduct some form of elections. But in most cases they manage the elections to make them a plebiscite for present policies and policymakers. In Iran, elections are fixed in a simple way: no one can stand as a candidate unless approved by the authorities and, ultimately, the "Supreme Guide".

Even then, the so-called Council of Guardians has the power to cancel the results of any elections that it might not like. In some countries single-candidate elections, controlled by the ruling party, are the mode.

In other places where elections are reasonably free the powers of the local councils and/or parliaments that they produce remain so limited as to be negligible. In one or two countries women are prevented from standing for public office and voting in pervert elections is conducted in advance.

Nevertheless, the overall picture as far as elections are concerned is encouraging. Today, even the most reactionary elements of society that regarded elections as "a Jewish-Christian trick" to divide Muslims are prepared to pay at least lip service to the practice.

More importantly, elections of an acceptable nature, though certainly not fully free and fair, have become part of life in a number of countries.

Many now ask: if the Afghans did it, why not us?

Next January it will be the turn of Iran and the Palestinian territories to hold elections. The success of those elections will be of crucial importance in advancing democracy in the region.

Iraq is the first major country in the Arab heartland to hold free elections. Success in Iraq could send shockwaves through the despotic regimes in neighbouring Syria and Iran. The success of elections in the Palestinian territories would have great symbolic importance.

Bush would be wrong to assume that his "democracy plan" can succeed through a one-size fits all approach.

The 25 countries concerned are at different stages of social, political and economic development differences that must be reflected in any attempt at encouraging them to reform.

Some of these countries do have internal mechanisms for reform and change mechanisms that could be strengthened through diplomatic, political, cultural and economic aid from the United States and i



    
Copyright © 1998 - 2024 by IranANDWorld.Com. All rights reserved.