MENA Revolts: Unfit For Democracy?

One of the most bigoted statements I’ve recently heard is that countries like the MENA are unfit or unprepared for democracy.

I’m glad to see New York Times’ Nicolas Kristof take up the cudgels against such arrogance.

Mr. Kristof writes,

“this line of thinking seems to me insulting to the unfree world. In Egypt and Bahrain in recent weeks, I’ve been humbled by the lionhearted men and women I’ve seen defying tear gas or bullets for freedom that we take for granted. How can we say that these people are unready for a democracy that they are prepared to die for?

“We Americans spout bromides about freedom. Democracy campaigners in the Middle East have been enduring unimaginable tortures as the price of their struggle — at the hands of dictators who are our allies — yet they persist.”

People who say this seem to think that the world owes them their privileges. They suffer from chronic delusions.

As Bill Bonner aptly writes,

World improvers are nice peo­ple. But they are ego­tis­ti­cal morons. They always want the best for humankind. How do they know what’s best for peo­ple on the other side of the planet? Well, they don’t. But they’re vain enough to assume that every­one wants to be like they are.

Exactly. World improvers are consumed by the conceit of the having to know better (when they don’t). And likewise believe that they hold the upper ground in the moral standings (again when they don’t) against the people of these nations.

They’re dead wrong.

As Mr. Kristof points out, people are actually risking life and limbs in pursuit of toppling the current political order to attain freedom.

Do these improvers honestly think that the lives of these revolutionaries are so cheap? Or that people revolting actually don’t know about what they’re doing? Or that these hapless people are better off living under tyrants?

Today’s MENA revolutionaries may not have a good grasp of what freedom really is, but this does not in anyway justify world improvers to make prejudicial claims about which nation deserves or don’t deserve democracy. “Judge not, that you be not judged.” says the Bible (Matthews 7:1)

We, in the Philippines, had our own experience of ousting a tyrant and an abusive leader. We just celebrated the 25^th anniversary last February 25^th.

Despite the less than idealistic outcome, as crony capitalism still plagues the country, chaos certainly has not been the outcome of the post-People power socio-political environment. Democracy, despite my protestations, has been a revered process here. The 2010 Presidential elections was marked by a high 75% voter turnout.

Also post-communist People Power revolutions in Romania, Georgia, Ukraine and others also did not turn these countries into failed states either.

And as human beings, we are no different from those in MENA despite cultural or religious variances—we all operate under the laws scarcity.

We have to be reminded that in contrast to the previous eons, today’s MENA revolutions have not been driven by ideology or by religion but about economics.

The outcome of these revolts may not end up entirely as a libertarian utopia, but this is just a step in the ongoing process towards decentralization.

I close anew with Nicolas Kristof, (bold highlights mine)

In the 21st century, there’s no realistic alternative to siding with people power. Prof. William Easterly of New York University proposes a standard of reciprocity: “I don’t support autocracy in your society if I don’t want it in my society.”

That should be our new starting point. I’m awed by the courage I see, and it’s condescending and foolish to suggest that people dying for democracy aren’t ready for it.

Indeed.