The election in Iraq was about giving some legitimacy to certain bodies of armed men who are to hold some sort of state power in the Kurdish and the Shiite areas, and how their masters will balance out competing interests and negotiate with the imperialist powers. They will then be using this as a basis, to subdue and buy off the rebellion in the Sunni areas. The result will be the resultant of the balance of forces.
At least something along these lines.
Chris Burford
----- Original Message ----- From: "Charles Brown" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <PEN-L@SUS.CSUCHICO.EDU>
Sent: Thursday, February 10, 2005 5:06 PM
Subject: [PEN-L] Thinking for Ourselves: What do we mean by democracy?
Thinking for Ourselves: What do we mean by democracy?
By Shea Howell Special to The Michigan Citizen
Within an hour after the closing of polls in Iraq, George Bush declared a
victory for democracy. Amidst bombs, bullets and threats many Iraqis, mostly
in the Shiite- dominated South and the Kurdish North, turned out to cast
their ballots.
Almost before the voting boxes were loaded into armored vehicles to be taken
to Baghdad, results were being announced. Anxious for good news, the Bush
administration released numbers claiming a 72 percent voter turnout.
The effort to use this election to vindicate a failed policy is predictable
in politicians. But the willingness of the American media to go along with
equating a flawed voting process with democracy is dangerous.
Democracy did not happen in Iraq. A vote did. Democracy is a difficult,
multi-textured process. It requires a rich context of public argument. It
means the engagement of people in debate, dialogue and conversation over
ideas that matter to them. It is the living process of people cajoling,
compromising and influencing one another as they advance ideas, challenge
friends, argue with relatives and reflect on experience. It happens as
people argue over what is important in their lives, about what they believe
and why.
Democracy happens in the public square. And there is no public square in
Iraq. People do not gather in public places to talk about their future. Most
are afraid to leave their homes. People do not sit in cafés and coffee shops
to argue over newspaper editorials that are critical of the government or
that pose new ways of thinking. The United States padlocked the doors of
those papers long ago. The Iraqi people do not hold public debates over
policies and public accountability. There are no town hall meetings,
candidate nights, or stickers on cars. Cars themselves were banned on voting
day. Candidates and polling places were kept secret for security.
These elections were a sign of how empty the context of democracy has
become. It has been reduced to the solitary act of casting a ballot. By
focusing on the balloting process and percentage of voter turnout, the media
perpetuates the myth that democracy is contained in ballots, not in a
vigorous public life.
The failures of this democracy are not in the votes but in every bomb and
bullet that sears through daily life. Democracy lives in the triumph of
words over weapons, of persuasion over force. In places and times when words
give way to violence, democracy is not disrupted, it is dead. No vote will
bring it to life.
In the easy equation of voting with democracy, the mainstream media placed
balloting on one side, violence on the other. It did not help us understand
that there is a direct link between these two opposites. In a country run by
an occupying power, where dissent is equated with terrorism, where the
public forum is circumscribed by guns and tanks, where every effort to put
forward an authentic voice risks bringing down the wrath of occupiers, and
where the decisions on the ballot have little meaning, a rich civic life is
impossible.
This election happened because Ayatollah Sistani pushed the administration
into it. Recognizing the possibility gaining a long denied dominant voice
for the Shiites, Sistani used his power to insist on these elections over
Bush opposition. He did everything to use the private space of the mosque to
get out the vote.
Shallow reporting that buys the Bush spin does nothing to help anyone
understand what is going on in Iraq. That we could mistake this vote for
democracy is a sign of how empty our own public square has become.
