Annas [Archives:2005/906/Press Review]
19 Dec.2005
Main headlines
– JMP to distribute five million copies of its initiative for the national reform in the streets
– Did the GPC miss its opportunity to declare reforms?
– GPC concludes its conference, young members in the General Committee
– While the president defends his party, Kuwait's representative warns the GPCs of corruption
– Amnesty International intends to sue the Yemeni government
– Killing mistakes in the JMP initiative
Columnist Dr Hosni Al-Jawshaie writes in his article to say the ruling parties in the Arab countries always chant the slogan of the peaceful transfer of power. This is rather stipulate in constitutions of some Arab regimes. However, the experiment and reality have in most of the Arab countries proved that this is just for local and international consumption and merely void words. This slogan is just meant to give opposition parties hope that they could attain power but on the ground, the slogan is inapplicable. Throughout half a century up until now, the Arab citizen has not seen any ruling party lost elections in the Arab countries. The Arab ruling parties practice all kinds of temptation, intimidation, and even killing to keep their easy or even sweeping majority heedless of constitutions, laws and democratic rules. These parties do not accept even criticism of their rude way for keeping power.
The wave democracy began to sweep some Arab countries after the American pressures since the reign of President Bill Clinton and those pressures greatly increased in the time of the rightist extremist president George Bush. Thus, those despotic rulers rode the wave and converted their regimes from the military dictatorships to the partisan dictatorship. In other words, the dictator ruler would not be the individual but the party. The facade democracy while the essence is the same one individual who runs the party and through the party manages the state. This type of rulers remained hiding behind the party and false democracy to rule for tens of years raising the slogan of the peaceful transfer of power via polling boxes. Such a slogan protects those rulers at the international level and before international committees that watch parliamentary or presidential elections. The reality is totally the opposite and that is what we have recently seen in elections of the largest Arab country. The ruling party there continued ruling for more than thirty years, marginalizing all the national forces that entertain the real majority and refusing the mere emergence of an opponent opinion. When an alternative force appeared to be capable of shouldering responsibility of governance and began gaining votes the ruling party then began to unmask its real dictatorial face in its worst image. Thus, succeeded practices of rigging and arrests among ranks of the opposition force and voters were prevented to reach polling stations. The party dictatorship has even killed many of the opposition competing force.
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[archive-e:906-v:14-y:2005-d:2005-12-26-p:press]
