Abusing Democracy
Recently, Russia’s President Vladmir Putin said that he (and Russia) welcomed Hamas as the “legitimate” electoral “choice of the Palestinian people.” The choice that the Palenstinians made was to elect a terrorist organization hell-bent on destroying Israel and imposing Islamic law. The election of a party of Islamofacists does not legitimize the election for freedom-loving democracies. Heck, even South Korean’s Kim Jong-il is the “democratically” elected President of North Korea. Does Putin also believe that the spectacled Jong-il is the leader of a “legitimate” government?
Unfortunately, is some countries representative democracy, instead of empowering the citizens with freedom of religion, movement, and dignity, has metamorphised into an aegis of the dictator state that repels critcism from true representative democracies (e.g., United States, Great Britain, and Australia). For many dictators, creating a democratic republic is a form of legitimatizing their totalitarianism among their own people as well as in the eyes of the United Nations. The democratic emphasis, especially at the United Nations, is placed on the voting “process” rather than the outcome of that process. The election of terrorists and dictators is not a democratic victory for freedom–it is a triumph of oppression.
Democracy does not always produce freedom. However, freedom can only be found in democracy. This is moralistic quandry that the United States (and the coalition allies) have seen in Iraqi elections. The democratic transition in Iraq had gone remarkably well. However, if Islamic law is allowed to predominate in any fashion–particularly in the Iraqi constitution–the effort to democratize Iraq could turn out poorly in the long run. Because of that possibilty, it is essential to for the United States to support factions within Iraq that allow freedom of religion and speech and who openly oppose the radicial Iraqis who would rather blow up children than express their opposing viewpoint in a more humane manner.