DEMOCRACY

By March I will have been in the Middle East 6 times in 6 months. I’m there for business, politics, working with Universities, but also because it’s the most important and interesting place in the world at the moment. In the 1980’s we celebrated the collapse of dictatorships of the right and left. Eastern and Central Europe, South Africa, from Poland to Chile, dictatorships collapsed. People power and economic reality saw more democratic regimes installed in the Philippines, South Korea and Indonesia. Now there is only one undemocratic regime in the whole of the Americas, Cuba.

The last 12 months has again seen inspiring political change. Perhaps we have become a little weary of good news. Perhaps it’s so good we take it for granted. After all, we all saw Nelson Mandela dance, free at last. The Berlin Wall came down, the Soviet Empire imploded and retreated without a shot fired. Lech Walewsa, alongside Gorbachev, became Presidents and Nobel Prize winners. Within a few years each were unable to muster 2% of the vote in re-election campaigns. Does this show democracy is flawed - of course not, just as Winston Churchill’s defeat in 1945 at the peak of his power was not a rejection of democracy. The people demand different things of their leaders at different times. Now we have all witnessed the courage of thousands of people standing in the snow waiting to vote in Afghanistan. Their first election ever. The first ever direct election in Indonesia and a new President. A corrupt President in the Philippines was replaced and the new President re-elected by popular vote. The New York Times, on February 2nd, reported on the Iraqi election:

"At polling centres hit by explosions, survivors refused to go home, steadfastly waiting to cast their votes as policemen swept away bits of flesh." Despite cynical predictions by much of the world media, both Afghanistan and Iraq now have a much better chance, with a more legitimate government than before. Sure, the problems still remain, it’s not over, but it’s a time of hope amidst a sea of hate.

In the Ukraine, a battle-scared reformer, Viktor Yushchenko, after mobilising the people to protest a rigged election, is now President of a finally free Ukraine. A similar process in nearby Georgia resulted in a new President. Everyone held their breath as the Palestinians elected a new leader after the death of their long-time leader, Arafat. Less has been printed about local elections in Kashmir. Despite threats of violence by rebels and the assassination of a top contender for Mayor of the biggest city in the region, queues of people stood in line to vote. Militants have bombed election rallies, murdered several candidates, saying these elections are no substitute for self-determination. Kashmir’s most powerful woman politician, a member of the Indian Parliament, recently made headlines in the Middle East by saying in London, that Kashmir needed two things - peace, and its first McDonald’s restaurant. She was in London to promote tourism. It’s the first local election in almost 30 years. Saudi Arabia had its first-ever municipal election with 1,818 candidates running in the first round, with 646 standing in Riyadh, to fill half of its 14 seat council. Women were denied the vote, something condemned publicly by many candidates and respected public figures. It will be different next time, they promise. A pattern is emerging, a pattern of hope. Extremists threaten, bomb and maim but utterly failed in every case to stop this wave of optimism. And in the small kingdoms of the Middle East, dramatic change is evolving at a pace. Royals are mostly leading the change, constitutions written, elections are being introduced that will see constitutional monarchies evolve.

Democracy is on the march in Africa, Kenya and Nigeria stand out. In Togo, a military coup put a deceased President’s son in power. Not unusual, but what’s new, even historic, is that the African union’s leadership, which was once silent, compliant, even complicit over such affairs, now has a public policy of condemnation.

It’s a cliché, sounds trite but is true. No two democracies have ever gone to war, there has never been a famine in a democracy. Those of us who have democracy take it for granted. It’s hard to get people to vote in mature democracies. Those who have not these freedoms, stand in queues, braving the sun and batons to get to the ballot in Zimbabwe, the snow in the Ukraine and Afghanistan, and suicide bombers in Iraq. This must tell us and extremists everywhere something. Democracy is now the only valid, legitimate revolutionary force and it’s coming to a place near you and will be a splendid thing.