20167: Durban: Dysfunctional Democracy in Wash Times (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Lance Durban <lpdurban@yahoo.com>

Rather interesting op-ed forwarded to me by a relative who adds
this preface:

I was impressed with this piece by Georgie Anne Geyer in the
March 8th, 2004 edition of The Washington TImes.  Without saying
Haitians aren't ready for democracy, Geyer sets out a cogent
critique of recent U.S. foreign policy misteps and her sound
argument for democratic development first and democratic
mechanism second...  I hope you can place it on Corbett because
it really needs to be read by the purists.

Here's the article:

        D Y S F U N C T I O N A L   D E M O C R A C Y
                             by Georgie Anne Geyer

Haiti presents a strange modern case study.  For many, the chaos
in that poor land represents a rebellion not against tyranny but
against "democracy", the supposed solution of all human ills.
What are we to make of this?

Haiti, an overpopulated and environmentally ravaged country of 8
million, began falling some weeks ago into West African-style
violence.  Meanwhile a curious debate began here.

Jean-Bertrand Aristide, after all, had been elected president
twice, and the argument in Washington was we must save this
democratic presidency.  Once, in 1994, we had intervened
militarily to bring him back.  The clever little pop-eyed priest
had been tremendously popular with the masses.  All true.

But that first argument, put forward by parts of the
administration, Democratic candidate Kerry, and the Black Caucus
-- that "street thugs" should not be allowed to overthrow a
"democratically elected president" -- did not hold.

And by last week, an American-French deal found foreign troops
in Haiti and the deceptive Mr. Aristide knocking on the doors of
the Central African Republic for asylum.

"You have this real dilemma of how do you defend constitutional
democracy when the democratic leader is part of the problem,"
wondered bernard Aronson, former State Department official and a
leading analyst of the hemisphere.

He answered that question be making two points to me:
 (1) An election alone does not create a democracy,
      although it's a good beginning.
 (2) And simply being elected doesn't give one the
      right to violate people's rights.

"It's complicated," Mr. Aronson said.  "At what point does a
democratic leader forfeit his right to rule?  What Haiti needed
was a Nelson Mandela, and what it got was a Robert Mugabe."

I would take it a little further.  We're way too tied up with
the magic word "democracy."  It's almost like the ancient
alchemists who thought they could make gold from common metals:
The modern one-note Americans, rife in this adminstration, who
insist only the mechanism of democracy is important are the
modern political alchemists.

Yet, while forms of democracy are surely desirable everywhere --
I prefer the less purist phrase "representative government" --
the mechanism of electing leaders doesn't mean much without the
cultural, legal, social, economic and psychological stuff of
democracy.

In fact, the tyrants of Germany, Yugoslavia, Rwanda and many
other countries were duly elected; many of the most stable and
progressive countries of today (Singapore, Oman, Tunisia) have
evolving authoritarian or autocratic regimes.

The respected American ambassador to Haiti, James Foley, said
this week there are "tremendous lessons" to be learned from the
recent American experiences in Haiti.  As American and French
troops now attempt to bring relative order to a far-gone
country, here are some of those lessons:

*  The Hippocratic Oath suggests: "First, do no harm."
   This same maxim can be applied to development of
   poor nations.

The United States, Europe, and the United Nations almost
casually destroyed the entire warp and woof of civil society
with their foolhardy embargo of the island nation between 1991
and 1994.  In the name of restoring democracy and an Aristide
presidency, the embargo destroyed all the small but thriving
industries there (baseballs and textiles), leaving Haiti with no
economy at all.

Then in the name of free-market globalization, we dumped cheaper
American rice into their market, destroying their rice
agriculture.  Finally, when Mr. Aristide ran phony parliamentary
elections, we froze $500 million in international loans that
would have improved roads, education, health care and water
supplies.

*  Beware, once again, as in other parts of the world, the
   ethnic -- and in this case, racial -- lobbies.

One of the players that kept Mr. Aristide in power -- and did
not work to ameliorate his strange behavior and use their power
to force him to act democratically -- was the Congressional
Black Caucus, many of whose most prominent members served
uncritically as Aristide cheerleaders in Washington.  There are
many stories of payoffs by Mr. Aristide, through his lucrative,
exile-serving phone company, to prominent Democrats, including
former caucus members, some of whom have openly served as
lobbyists for him.

*  Be careful of getting too far away from your history.

The United States got so wound up in faraway places with no
cultural or historical relationship or ties to America in the
last few years that it neglected its true responsibilities,
which are solidly in the Western Hemisphere -- no matter what
the grandiose dreams of world empires are here in Washington.

All in the name of democracy -- in Iraq and Afghanistan.

*  Finally, be intensely aware the countries that have made it
(add Taiwan, South Korea, Slovenia, and Botswanna to the list
above) are the ones that without exception put democratic
DEVELOPMENT first and the democratic MECHANISM second.

This time the spiral downward is so intensified we have an
apocalyptically failed state.  Gangs and thugs rule the street.
Legitimacy is a mere wraith of died hopes.  Where does one find
our vaunted "democracy" in all of this chaos?

       ---------------------------------------------
Georgie Anne Geyer is a nationally syndicated columnist.