The Spanish example [Archives:2004/739/Opinion]
By Ali Saeed
[email protected]
For the Yemen Times
What is wrong with Arabs and Muslims? They are much behind in all walks of life . It is unfair to classify them as countries of the third world , they are in fact not countries yet . We can't classify them as developing countries nor third world countries, but rather sleeping countries. I am from Yemen, which many think a country of democracy, a country of freedom, because it witnessed three parliamentary elections, one local councils elections and one presidential election. But none of which was free and fair. The Yemeni President always talks about democracy, free and fair election, freedom of speech and the press and a peaceful transfer of power. However, what is taking place on the ground is totally the opposite and clearly and shamefully contradicting what the President claims. Let us shed light on one of the recent election which took place in Spain to see the big differences between the Western and the Arab and Muslim elections. The train explosion that happened in Spain lately has led to the change of the former Prime Minister Aznar whose only mistake was telling a lie to his people by accusing ETA, the terrorist organization, of perpetrating the explosion, while the real perpetrator behind the explosion was the Al-Qaeda network, as it was later proved. The main point here, is that because of the real democracy that Spain possesses, the former prime minister hasn't resorted to force to fake the election nor has he rigged the result of the election but bravely accepted the result and humbly left the office to his socialist successor. The second point is that the Spanish people haven't forgiven the former prime minister who lied to them. That is a real democracy and a free and a fair election . Back to the Arab and Muslim countries, all Arab and Muslim presidents have been lying to their people since they took power and the Arab and Muslim people are keeping quiet.
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