Democracy and responsibility Middle East News Online
April 15, 2002
By Tariq Shadid, MDI sometimes wonder if people, who are citizens of one of the Western democracies, stop and think, every now and then, about what it would be like to live in a state that is ruled by a dictatorial regime.
It is probably extremely hard to imagine being in that situation, if one has never experienced the hardships of lacking basic human rights. People living under dictatorial rule continuously find themselves following their governments orders instead of their own wishes, swallowing their pride instead of nourishing it, and often lacking the luxury of assuming that disease, crime and traffic hazards are the only risks that are threatening their safety.
These governments remain in power, not by the choice of the people, but by a policy based on instilling a constant fear of imprisonment, torture or even death, into the hearts of their citizens.
On the international level, if a dictatorial ruler decides to seek political advantages by siding with another nation in a conflict, or by waging war against a neighbouring country, there is no choice for the citizen but to accept that ruler's "wisdom".
In contrast, in a democracy, protests can be waged on a variety of platforms, ranging from the streets up to the parliament, where the people are represented on the basis of their own participation in the elections.
In short, even if a totalitarian government has views that represent the opinion of only a tiny fraction of the population, it will still be able to carry out its goals without the mandate of the people. In sharp contrast, in a true democracy, the actions of the government definitely reflect the will of the people.
The advantages of a democratic system are obvious, and there should be little doubt that the process of democratisation is an inevitable development in a people's history, that can only commence after outgrowing and overturning existing totalitarian systems.
However, one aspect of democracy seems to be systematically ignored, in a world where democratic countries happen to be the most influential powers within the global community.
What is often overlooked, is that citizens living in a democracy bear a collective responsibility for their government's actions, since their government consists of representatives that were elected by the people.
In a dictatorial system, this concept of responsibility barely holds any validity. Although around 200,000 Iraqis found their premature deaths in the massive bombardments conducted by the Coalition forces, it is quite likely that a tremendous majority among them would not have voted for the invasion of Kuwait, if only they had been presented with a choice. The "if" here, however, is purely hypothetical, since freedom of expression or dissent is practically non-existent under Saddam Hussein's rule.
Nonetheless, these innocent people were sacrificed in the name of US and European economical interests, without a single word or action of consideration for their lives. In this respect, there are striking similarities to the total indifference towards the thousands of innocent Afghani civilian casualties, who died in the recent US bombardments.
It is obvious that holding the Iraqi people responsible for the invasion of Kuwait, is very difficult to justify, since the war they were dragged into, like the previous Gulf war against Iran, was by definition initiated by their dictatorial regime.
However, when a democratic regime wages a war, based on the infringement upon another people's sovereignty, the situation is entirely different. Here, the concept of the people's responsibility becomes of vital importance.
An excellent example is Israel, where the Israeli people elected the current Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, mainly because of his promise to tackle the "Palestinian problem" with harsh measures.
Therefore, when this elected Israeli government perpetrates war crimes, which it has been doing for the past 18 months on a daily basis, the responsibility for these actions lies almost directly with the Israeli citizen. The Israelis cannot hide behind Sharon's fanaticism, or claim that they have no power over their leader.
In fact, he can only remain in power if the people continue to grant him the mandate to rule the country. In this democracy, the people's influence on the Israeli government is such, that they could alter their state's policy within a matter of days, if they wanted to.
Sadly, a poll conducted by the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies and published in Ha'aretz on March 12th, reveals that 46 % of Israeli Jews favour the "transfer" of Palestinians out of the illegally occupied West Bank and Gaza.
This "transfer", which is a misleading euphemism for ethnic cleansing, is currently one of the hottest topics of discussion within Israeli government circles. While such an extremist public opinion is already worrisome in any type of governmental system, it represents, in a democratic system particularly, a clear and present danger.
It seems that most people in the Western world are assuming that the actual effectuation of such a horrendous policy is a highly unlikely scenario. This attitude is reflected in the Western world's passive attitude towards the inhumane conduct of the Israeli army in their brutal repression of the Palestinians living under illegal military rule.
This assumption of Israel's "responsible behaviour" is probably based on the erratic notion, that democracy is synonymous with civilized conduct, and high moral standards.
One only needs to study the conduct of democratic powers like Israel and the United States throughout history, to find that this automatic attribution of high moral standards to any Western-style democratic nation is not only an aberration, but a dangerous misconception, that allows democratic governments to act according to their own people's racism without restraint.
Let us not forget that the human rights abuses taking place at this very moment, are the full responsibility of the Israeli citizens who elected their leaders to perform these heinous tasks.
For this same reason, if Ariel Sharon perpetrates the full ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians, he will be doing so with the full support of half the Israeli nation, and unfortunately for the Zionists, they will not be able to say "Wir haben es nicht gewusst" ("we did not know").
© 2002 (Middle East News Online).