Home >> Middle East >> Arab World  Email  Print Middle East: Polls Alone Don't Make A Democracy Ahmed Jazouli, PhD - 10/15/2005 Whenever elections are held in any Arab country, there is the fear of the Islamist majority. Democrats are ready to turn to dictators when assumptions give these movements an up-coming strong force !!
Where periodicity of elections is respected, most of the political parties wait for the campaign to try to rally people to their theses. At this time it’s too late. Building democracy is a daily work. The communists used to believe in “the popular political party.” Democrats need to do it in the best way; popular but democratic also. As they are harsh defendants of civil and political rights, they should struggle every moment to promote these values, which should face stereotypes and traditional cultures.
Enjoying from common prayers, Islamists meet five times a day and may turn the Friday prayer to a weekly wide meeting that may gather thousands of supporters. With their headquarters’ internal activities and limited public meetings, democrats may be unable to get the majority in a fair and transparent electoral process. They should revisit “the organic intellectual” theory of Antonio Gramsci, which suppose that the intellectual militant should cling to social classes and leave his ivory tours.
Good governance principles are not applied to political parties yet. International institutions such as the World Bank and the UNDP are encouraging governments and the private sector to implement good governance methods while managing affairs, but the political parties are ignored. These are the main instruments for democracy. We cannot imagine a democratic system of government without democratic parties. Therefore, promoting capacity building of these constituents of the political field is one of the main tasks of any democratic approach that aims consolidating the state of law in MENA countries.
Democracy as a whole is not relative. Everyone, including democrats, should acknowledge the Islamist movements’ right to try to govern once getting the majority. The fear that Islamists may ban civil and political rights is legitimate. The weight of historical dark files such as mutilations, denying women’s rights and muzzling the press is obvious. So, Islamists should govern and respect human rights including to right for the opposition to their government to express itself freely and try to be the majority after the elections that should follow. To attend this aim, citizens shouldn’t be kept outside; they should be included in the whole process through the appropriate programs of promoting democracy and human rights that should be considered national values and their violation has to be a red line for all.
Democrats should be aware that democracy doesn’t start with polls automatically. Without a political equilibrium between opposed political tendencies, democracy may end there.
|
