Another viewpoint.

Given the vagaries of printing, mailing, and other such schedules, I am writing this Viewpoint on Sunday, January 23, 2005. It is a rather remarkable moment to be writing anything about democracy or democratically engaged citizens.

Perhaps most significant on the world stage, last week George Bush Jr. was sworn in for his second term as President of the United States, and spoke, in his inaugural speech, setting out his Agenda for Freedom including the following:

"America's vital interests and our deepest beliefs are now one. From the day of our Founding, we have proclaimed that every man and woman on this earth has rights, and dignity, and matchless value, because they bear the image of the Maker of Heaven and earth. Across the generations we have proclaimed the imperative of self-government, because no one is fit to be a master, and no one deserves to be a slave. Advancing these ideals is the mission that created our Nation. It is the honorable achievement of our fathers. Now it is the urgent requirement of our nation's security, and the calling of our time."

Even ignoring the touch of historical amnesia regarding masters and slaves, I am not enormously reassured that any American president feels that America's interests and beliefs include the freedom and rights of every person in the world ... except perhaps those few gays who want to be married; Americans who want universal health care or more money spent on education and social security; Iraqis who don't want a McDemocracy; and a few insignificant others. Organizing freedom for the world is a big task. Again, if one remembered the examples of history, one might remember that no empire has ever managed it before.

The most current example of the difficulties is playing out in Iraq. In a mere seven days, we will see an attempt at an election in Iraq for a 275-member Transitional National Assembly (TNA). Iraq does not have the foundation organizations, the locally generated community organizations--often described as the organizations of civil society--that are the foundation blocks of democracy. Instead, the "Coalition of the Willing" is attempting to drop democracy from above on a nation deeply divided by ethnic and religious differences. Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, insurgent leader, claims that democracy is the foundation for an "un-Islamic" state (www.cbc.ca) and calls on Sunni Moslems to attack anyone, especially the Shia Moslems, who dares to vote. Given the ongoing violence--approximately 60 people have been killed in the last three days--I would think that any Iraqi resident-citizen who ventures out to the polls deserves a medal for electoral bravery.

After the election, the TNA will have the task of preparing for the eventual transfer of government as well as security from the US and UK troops. Interestingly, the BBC Internet News reports that in aid of increasing security in Iraq, the US military "is planning to deploy robots armed with machine-guns to wage war against insurgents ..." These robots will be remotely operated by human soldiers giving orders to fire on the basis of images from the robots' cameras. Bob Quinn, a manager with the US-based company that helped develop the robots says, "there are plans to replace the computer screen, joysticks and keypad in the remote-control unit with a Gameboy-style controller and virtual-reality goggles". Now there's an image that certainly conjures up a stunning version of President Bush Jr's vision of freedom for the world ... Just think, all those children who people worried were wasting time playing with their Gameboys may well be training to ensure freedom for the world of the future!

As if these democratic high points were not enough to leave a person feeling somewhat pessimistic, on January 24, 2005, the United Nations is holding a special memorial session marking the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz and other Nazi death camps. Those liberations and holding the memorial session are, of course, good things. What is worrying, when considering democracy, is that Hitler came to power through a democratic election in which his Nazi Party won 44% of the vote (dmorgan.web.wesleyan.edu/materials/weimar.htm). People sometimes explain the Nazi win by noting that the Weimar Republic was being governed by a weak minority government with an extreme fear of communism and enormous economic problems. Well yes, but there have been many less-than-stable democracies in this world, and economic problems are hardly an excuse for support of a political party whose basic platform included extreme nationalism, exclusivity of citizenship, and expansion of the national land base. Hitler's election should be a constant warning to all of us, that flee elections by themselves are no guarantee of good government.

At the same time, today, Viktor Yushenko, was finally sworn in as President of the Ukraine after an electoral process that reads like a thriller novel: first an election with several candidates for president; then, a disputed run-off election between Yushenko and the favoured candidate of the existing, apparently corrupt, government; an Orange Revolution in which tens of thousands of Ukrainians camped out in the streets to indicate their belief that the run-off election had been rigged; dioxin poisoning, probably by the Ukrainian secret service; the decision of a courageous and politically-independent Supreme Court (take note Stephen Harper) that the run-off election had indeed been fixed; and finally, a re-run election watched carefully by observers from around the world. Neither as powerful nor as experienced a president as Bush Jr, Yushenko seems only to have promised his people the modest goals of reducing corruption and moving closer to the democracies of Europe.

And tiny note that it is, I can report (again via the BBC Internet News Service news http://news.bbc.co.uk) that two reformist candidates were elected, January 23, to the 42 seat Maldives governing assembly, and within a day, President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom was promising constitutional reforms --all this despite the devastation of the tsunami.

So from my viewpoint, the jury is out at the moment on the health of freedom and democracy in the world. At times, the news in this first month of 2005 has left me feeling as if the politicians, their bureaucrats, and the forces of nature are all conspiring to wreak maximum havoc on the ordinary residents of planet earth. On the other hand, the immediate, generous, and continuing responses of the ordinary earthlings to the varied problems of their fellow humans in providing financial and personal support for the tsunami-ravaged Asian countries as well as in democratic direct action like the Orange Revolution seem to suggest a reason for continuing to hold guarded optimism for our beleaguered world.

Several of the articles in this issue of LawNow also provide me with reason for hope. Keith Seel's article about building a society on the basis of values and ethics suggests that we can, in Mark Kingwell's words, build The World We Want. Linda McKay-Panos gives us a look at both the successes and challenges we Canadians have had and still have in balancing the needs, rights, and freedoms of minorities and majorities. Janet Keeping's article about building democracy in Russia and Dr. Whitaker's "Escape from Politics" that documents the decreasing voter turnout in Canada are less hopeful articles, I but do give notice about what still needs to be done to build better democratic institutions. And Shaunna Mireau gives us some tools to do that building. Finally, in the area of engaging actively in democracy, don't miss the interview with Simon Jackson, founder of the Spirit Bear Youth Coalition, that is presented in the School's In section of this issue. The concern, passion, articulateness, and understanding of political process shown by this 22-year-old Canadian give great promise that optimism for our own democracy and the world is still warranted.