We are reminded of the quote by Winston Churchill, when considering the news of upcoming elections in Russia and Pakistan (??):
"Democracy is the worst kind of government, except for all others."
Benazir Bhutto, the former Pakistani prime minister, intensified pressure on President Pervez Musharraf today by claiming that she will no longer hold power-sharing talks with the military ruler.
Ms Bhutto, who returned from eight years in self-imposed exile last month as an outcome of American and British backed power-sharing talks, told the general to lift a state of emergency.
Speaking against a backdrop of Lahore’s 16th century Badshahi mosque, Ms Bhutto welcomed Gen Musharraf’s promise to hold elections before Jan 9 but said they could not be free and fair if held under emergency rule.
"How can they be fair?" she said, adding that the announcement of a deadline for elections "is a good development, we welcome it, but we feel there is a lot more ground to be covered."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/11/12/wpak312.xml
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Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin may (or may?) not be able to run for a third term by the Russian constitution, but he is not out of the political running.
Saturday [3 November] marked the official start of campaigning in the Russian parliamentary election.
Russians will elect 450 members of the lower house of parliament, the State Duma, when they vote on 2 December.
The support of President Vladimir Putin means one party is already virtually assured of a comfortable victory...
Critics also cry foul over changes in the law since the last election."Voters are no longer allowed to cast their ballots against all candidates."
A party used to have to get 5% of the vote to win seats in parliament, now it is seven.
That being the case, recent opinion polls suggest only United Russia and the Russian Communist Party will pass the threshold.
The BBC has full coverage of the Russian Duma elections, a sidebar article suggests that Putin may be aiming to make the Prime Ministership the most powerful position in government, after he is termed-limted out of the Presidency.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7076277.stm
Depsite the fact that both Pakistan and Russia are uneasy allies of ours, cleary neither state would get an answer of "yes" if one follows the State Department's document entitled "What is Democracy?"
http://polazzo.stuysu.org/what_is_democracy.htm
3 comments:
At least Mr. Musharraf said he would hold elections and leave the army, though I'm not crazy about his continued ignorance of the Pakistani Constitution.
Russia, on the other hand, is a giant mess. They've tried monarchy, communism, totalitarianism, oligarchy, and kleptomaniacal democracy (in that order). And with talk circulating about making Mr. Putin the Tsar (Hear that? That was Nicholas II turning in his grave), it looks like its all back to square one again. These are two of the most messed-up countries on the planet when it comes to government.
I recently watched "The Fog of War." One of the eleven lessons was "To do good, one must be prepared to engage in evil." I agree strongly with this statement, but we need to draw the line at some point. When we're dealing with an authoritarian state, we should avoid outright friendliness and interact with them mainly on an as-needed basis
I agree with Garret, and I think we should follow that policty with everyone. Be friendly with democracies, be tolerant of others, and unless they pose a DIRECT threat to us, I think we (the United States) should keep our big, bossy, over involved butt out of it.
BREAKING NEWS
MSNBC News Services
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Democracy Crushed? Bhutto's assassination at campaign rally kills first woman ever elected to lead a Muslim nation. We'll have a new post later when more details become available. -- Mr. W.
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RAWALPINDI, Pakistan - Pakistan opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was assassinated Thursday in a suicide bombing that also killed at least 20 others at a campaign rally, a party aide and a military official said.
The death of the charismatic former prime minister threw the campaign for the Jan. 8 election into chaos and created fears of mass protests and an eruption of violence across the volatile south Asian nation, which has nuclear weapons and a support base for Muslim extremists.
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