Dr. Khalid Al-Shafi
The situation seemed so static, sometimes lifeless, yet what was unthinkable or impossible to imagine oozed out like musty secretions.
What is right before our eyes is far less than what is invisible; curtains were raised on the conflict, giving an open invitation for every faction to join in the turmoil.
Every single term we used to hear, such as freedom, democracy and equity, has given way to bitter realities. We rapidly became feuding sects and tribes demanding each other’s heads.
This can apply to Iraq; Syria; Yemen; Egypt; Tunisia; Morocco, and Jordan. It can also apply to some gulf countries between Arabs and Kurds; Muslims and Christians; Sunnis and Shias; government and opposition; Muslim Brotherhood and Salafists, and liberals, leftists, secularists and nationalists.
Concepts got mixed, and perhaps we could not understand the concepts since there were included Arabic language dictionaries.
Some people believe that democracy is only about election turnout. Tragedy befalls when decision-making is only based on the number of votes in any given situation. This is called the tyranny of the majority. This tyranny constantly does away with every chance to realise democracy in any human society.
The simplest definition of democracy is the rule of people. In reality, however, the term might have more than 300 definitions. Regardless of definitions, real practice is what counts, as practice may lead to success or vice versa.
When we take a glimpse at successful democratic experiences, we can find that the common factor among all these experiences is the ability to manage differences in the light of compatible constitutional and civil mechanisms and guarantees.
Customary democracy is a civil contract whose first clause is the devolution of power through the ballot box. However, getting 50 percent of votes plus one vote does not give any party or candidate the majority. Despite this, a result like the aforementioned one can determine many things. But the bottom line is that this result can in no way give the winning party or candidate the right to suppress freedoms or meddle in people’s personal life.
The majority may become the minority through the same ballot boxes. This is why the majority of today does not have the right to suppress the right of the minority to become the majority one day. Until the majority learns how to respect the minority and acknowledges its rights, there is no democracy according to Syrian writer and intellectual George Tarabichi.
Tarabichi used to clarify that if democracy is misused it will backfire and may become one sort of tyranny. It can turn into a “dictatorship of numbers” like Indian-American journalist and author Fareed Zakaria puts it.
Democracy got Socrates executed. It was exploited by tyrants and dictators as Benito Mussolini (Italy) in 1922, Adolf Hitler (Germany) in 1933, Francisco Franco (Spain) in 1939, Augusto Pinochet (Chile) in 1973, Saddam Hussein (Iraq) in 1979, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali (Tunisia) in 1987, Mohamed Hosni Mubarak (Egypt) in 1981, Bashar Al Assad (Syria) in 2000, Ali Abdullah Saleh (Yemen) in 1978 and many more tyrants in Africa, Asia and Latin America did.
While criticising the term “majority”, Tarabichi asked, “What would have happened if the Hindus had imposed themselves on the culture of the Indian society claiming that they are the majority?”
“What would have happened if the Hindu nationalist party, Bhartiya Janata Party, had announced that it would not organise a coup, it would just stand for elections for the sake of democracy, but since the Hindus are the majority, their language, culture and religion should prevail, and the Islamic minority should succumb?”
The biggest lesson in democracy that the Arab world should learn is that revolutions erupt to prevent monopolies of power, regardless of who makes these monopolies: one person, one group, or one party.
The situation seemed so static, sometimes lifeless, yet what was unthinkable or impossible to imagine oozed out like musty secretions.
What is right before our eyes is far less than what is invisible; curtains were raised on the conflict, giving an open invitation for every faction to join in the turmoil.
Every single term we used to hear, such as freedom, democracy and equity, has given way to bitter realities. We rapidly became feuding sects and tribes demanding each other’s heads.
This can apply to Iraq; Syria; Yemen; Egypt; Tunisia; Morocco, and Jordan. It can also apply to some gulf countries between Arabs and Kurds; Muslims and Christians; Sunnis and Shias; government and opposition; Muslim Brotherhood and Salafists, and liberals, leftists, secularists and nationalists.
Concepts got mixed, and perhaps we could not understand the concepts since there were included Arabic language dictionaries.
Some people believe that democracy is only about election turnout. Tragedy befalls when decision-making is only based on the number of votes in any given situation. This is called the tyranny of the majority. This tyranny constantly does away with every chance to realise democracy in any human society.
The simplest definition of democracy is the rule of people. In reality, however, the term might have more than 300 definitions. Regardless of definitions, real practice is what counts, as practice may lead to success or vice versa.
When we take a glimpse at successful democratic experiences, we can find that the common factor among all these experiences is the ability to manage differences in the light of compatible constitutional and civil mechanisms and guarantees.
Customary democracy is a civil contract whose first clause is the devolution of power through the ballot box. However, getting 50 percent of votes plus one vote does not give any party or candidate the majority. Despite this, a result like the aforementioned one can determine many things. But the bottom line is that this result can in no way give the winning party or candidate the right to suppress freedoms or meddle in people’s personal life.
The majority may become the minority through the same ballot boxes. This is why the majority of today does not have the right to suppress the right of the minority to become the majority one day. Until the majority learns how to respect the minority and acknowledges its rights, there is no democracy according to Syrian writer and intellectual George Tarabichi.
Tarabichi used to clarify that if democracy is misused it will backfire and may become one sort of tyranny. It can turn into a “dictatorship of numbers” like Indian-American journalist and author Fareed Zakaria puts it.
Democracy got Socrates executed. It was exploited by tyrants and dictators as Benito Mussolini (Italy) in 1922, Adolf Hitler (Germany) in 1933, Francisco Franco (Spain) in 1939, Augusto Pinochet (Chile) in 1973, Saddam Hussein (Iraq) in 1979, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali (Tunisia) in 1987, Mohamed Hosni Mubarak (Egypt) in 1981, Bashar Al Assad (Syria) in 2000, Ali Abdullah Saleh (Yemen) in 1978 and many more tyrants in Africa, Asia and Latin America did.
While criticising the term “majority”, Tarabichi asked, “What would have happened if the Hindus had imposed themselves on the culture of the Indian society claiming that they are the majority?”
“What would have happened if the Hindu nationalist party, Bhartiya Janata Party, had announced that it would not organise a coup, it would just stand for elections for the sake of democracy, but since the Hindus are the majority, their language, culture and religion should prevail, and the Islamic minority should succumb?”
The biggest lesson in democracy that the Arab world should learn is that revolutions erupt to prevent monopolies of power, regardless of who makes these monopolies: one person, one group, or one party.
