An odd assortment of tyrants, oppressors and war criminals masquerading as champions of democracy stand exposed by their unsavory behaviour.
Elites in Western societies are in panic. Elections are no longer yielding the results they had hoped for.
The elite and media outlets never tire of proclaiming the virtues of freedom and democracy in the West. They denigrate others that do not conform to their way of life. How much freedom and democracy are there in the West and what is the nature of these notions? We look deeper.
After each election in the West — Barack Obama’s first election as president of the US in 2008, Jeremy Corbyn’s election as leader of the British Labour Party in Au-gust and the recent election of Justin Trudeau as Prime Minister of Canada — much euphoria is generated.
America has the best democracy money can buy. This has become even truer with the latest Supreme Court decision. America is now an oligarchy rather than a democracy and the highest court has confirmed it.
The people of South Africa have once again reposed confidence in the African National Congress but there are challenges ahead both from the Democratic Alliance (DA) and the Economic Freedom Front (EFF) that have made inroads in urban and rural areas respectively.
Even circumspect Canadian journalists have been forced to speak out against the award given Harper’s record of shutting human rights organizations and riding rough shod over democratic norms. Bob Hepburn of the Toronto Star wrote on the editorial page: “Stephen Harper’s democracy award a sad joke on Canadians.”
During the course of the past 18 months the world in general and the Muslims in particular were watching the movement of people and the counter-movements of regimes.
Democracy is a much used and abused term. It is essentially a tool in the hands of the rich and powerful to legitimize their ill-gotten gains.
Western governments not only claim to have the best system — democracy — they also want to export it to the rest of the world. They send observers to other countries to ensure free and fair elections. Yet the claimant to the strongest democracy in the world — the US — has a serious democratic deficit. Its two party system is easily manipulated by people with money.
Every four years the world watches the political soap opera of the US presidential elections with a combination of amusement, bemusement and incredulity as the world’s most powerful nation, and the supposed flag-bearer of democracy, lays open its true nature. Although the polls are not due for over a year, the formal process began months ago, with Barrack Obama having announced the start of his re-election campaign in April.
Islamic movements, intellectuals and activists long tended to have a love-hate relationship with democracy. On the one hand, democracy has been associated with the aggressive, brutal, exploitative, hegemonic policies of the post-colonial Western power.
Islamic movements, intellectuals and activists long tended to have a love-hate relationship with democracy. On the one hand, democracy has been associated with the aggressive, brutal, exploitative, hegemonic policies of the post-colonial Western powers, the cynicism, manipulation and dishonesty of Western politics and the increasing moral degeneracy of individualistic and hedonistic Western societies.
Delivering democracy has become the all-purpose justification for every crime perpetrated by Western governments against other people...
Democracy is undoubtedly the most commonplace and widely accepted political concept in the modern world. It is barely an exaggeration to say that it has achieved the status of a universal myth; very few people in the world dare challenge the principles associated with it, and most accept it...
“India is an idea whose time has come,” declared Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh recently. The lofty statement, tailor-made for diplomatic conference rooms, suggests that India has emerged as a mature democracy and major nation state on the global stage...
HOW DO WE TELL THE WORKERS? THE SOCIOECONOMIC FOUNDATIONS OF WORK AND VOCATIONAL EDUCATION by Joe L. Kincheloe. Pub: Westview Press, Boulder, Colorado, 1999. Pp. 450. Pbk. US$28.00. By Yusuf Progler
The neo-cons’ commitment to promoting democracy in the Muslim world was quietly discarded after Hamas’s victory in the Palestinian elections in January 2006, when they finally realised what most observers had been saying all along: that free elections in Muslim countries would almost invariably result in governments that the West would not like because they would promote the concerns and interests of their own people above those of Washington.
The West's commitment to liberalism and democracy has always been a convenient façade that falls apart at times of crisis. People have freedom so long as they do not need it; the West is tolerant only to the point that people conform to its prevailing values and policies.
