The real democrats [Archives:2007/1068/Opinion]
Prof. Saif Al-Asali
It is easy for one to say that any democracy cannot develop or prosper unless there are real democrats. The real democrats are those who attempt to establish a community where members enjoy equal basic rights accrued to human beings. These democrats perceive that rights have something to do with the sufficient responsibilities.
The real democrats are those who differentiate between democracy and chaos. They sacrifice what they have for the sake of democracy to develop and prosper but never exploit or use democracy for their personal interests. They work hard for serving their nation without any distinction between nationals in terms of religion, race, color, sect, ethic, tribe, or area, and their noble goal is that all Yemenis lead good and safe life.
On the other hand, the unreal democrats don't make any distinction between the national and personal interests and never fell ashamed deceiving their country due to their malice and animosity toward the regime. They use the democratic slogans in order to obtain material or political gains.
The unreal democrats are those who have a strong desire to monopolize power and eliminate others from any government posts. They don't feel ashamed when spreading fabricated rumors that pay harm to the nation and never accept to sacrifice anything in favor of their homeland. They only lag after their personal interests and gains.
The unreal democrats don't accept any equality between people in basic rights such as suffrage (the right to vote) or the right to nominate themselves even within their political parties and organizations under the pretext that there is a difference in religion, race or area. When these people exercise their electoral right, they do so according to previously made lists. If the democratic practices contradict their personal interests, they don't hesitate to machinate a coup against these practices. Speeches of the in authentic democrats tend to magnify the characteristics of regionalism, tribadism, and racism at the expense of the national interests and the human values. We find that their behavior implies partiality toward certain areas or tribes without any clear reason or justification.
The unreal democrats work on creating situations of conflicts and human right abuses and insinuate the marginalized social groups by saying they should enjoy their rights more than any other groups. No doubt that this leads to contradiction of human rights. This kind of people works on emptying the electoral process from its most important contents. This means they plan to weaken transparency and accountability via defending their bystanders even if they are corrupt. No doubt that this helps corruption to spread rampantly.
The unreal democrats tend to ignore any success the government is expected to reach and concentrate on the negative aspects of the government performance. They did so in order to make the democratic practices futile. They don't save any effort for posing barriers to the economic development. So, the real democrats should confront such ill-mannered people via expanding the scope of democratic practices. Care for dealing with the unreal democrats, according to democracy, is due to expose that they only exercise prejudice or claim something, which doesn't exist.
The real democrats are needed to expend sincere efforts to enhance the basic human rights in the community and encourage members of the community to abide by these rights. They should continue building and developing the institutions, which are able to protect and defend these rights as well as to help people enjoy their rights equally. They are also needed to confront and fight corruption toughly and firmly.
The real democrats are required to review the form and content of school curricula. This is essential in order to confront any forces supporting discrimination between races, genders, and social layers, as a result of the bad habits. This type of democrats is needed to enliven the mental and logical thinking that aims to establish equality among all people in having equal access to human rights. They are expected to work on changing some harmful social behaviors, as well as to clarify, to people, the bad consequences of discrimination even on the family. Parents have to cease the practice of discrimination between their children under any circumstances.
We expect the real democrats to drop out any justifications of discrimination between natives on grounds of heritage tales and other sources that were haughtily dealing with discrimination. These democrats should achieve all these things via the process of updating public culture, theater, books, radio and T.V. broadcast and other means that help replace marks of discrimination by the principles of equality in enjoying basic human rights.
The real democrats of Yemen are advised to utilize the limitless support they receive from the political leadership. This is a fact, and not an allegation, as President Ali Abdullah Saleh is the first one who fights regionalism, racism, and sectarianism. He deals with his proponents and opponents on the basis of the national interest. He is a real democrat by all means, and this is why we should not be concerned about democracy in Yemen, as the fake democrats will be exposed and Yemen will remain for Yemenis.
Source: Al-Thawra State-run Daily
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[archive-e:1068-v:15-y:2007-d:2007-07-16-p:opinion]
