Where is the freedom, long pursued? Where is the democracy, long acclaimed?

Reason has taken flight. Filling the gaps are incredibility, insanity, inhumanity.

History has lost its reverence. Man has lost his dignity, over and over again. And they dare celebrate the International Day of Democracy, or have you heard? It was established at the International President’s Union request through a resolution by the United Nations’ General Assembly in 2007. For the last 17 years 15 September was declared an opportunity to review the state of democracy and parliaments around the world.

Once satisfied, they proceeded with their celebrations. In case you have missed the date, you can catch up the next week of 21 September, announced as the Day of Peace. What fun September seems to be for the world to observe.

Have a ball everyone, applaud heartily at the display of democracy, the prestige of peace.

Since the UN Charter, signed in 1946, 250 armed conflicts were waged. The death count is over 4.7 million citizens — the UN Peacekeeping mission exceeded 4,370 members. They should be considered war crimes under International law, but no one seems to care.

The utmost irony is the proud collection of great quotes on democracy by seven writers, carefully chosen by an international jury, to remind the world of the principles we abide. We should include one or two selections:

“Peace cannot exist without Justice. Justice cannot exist without fairness — fairness cannot exist without development — development cannot exist without respect for the identity and worth of cultures and peoples,” excellently expressed by Roberta Menche Tum of Guatemala.

A more familiar quote boasts of “Man’s capacity for Justice makes democracy possible, but man’s inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary,” by American theologian Reinhold Niebuhr. Such stirring words should be intended for the UN, Guatemala, the US, perhaps?

There is still much to learn about freedom and democracy by the very body that is bragging about it, especially the founding fathers of the United Nations and their Security Council.

There is a vast difference between freedom and democracy. In reality, there is no freedom except within the limits of what we call democracy. The key is a constitution to protect freedom from democracy and the individual from the majority. Not all is lost. Everyone has the right and freedom of thought, belief; possessing a political opinion; the choice to fulfil or not to fulfil the requirements of his chosen religion. Yet, is a man born free and still in the shackles of democracy.

Freedom is an unfinished symphony, reaching the heights of ecstasy — up to a point.

No one pretends that democracy is perfect. Perfection is not a human possibility. A perfect democracy will always remain an unattainable ideal. Nonetheless, it is the best form of government that this human race can come up with, so far.

To quote Winston Churchill: “No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all wise. Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government, except for all those that have been turned from time to time.”

Would you then vote for democracy? Man has courted democracy since the beginning of time.

The romance flourished in ancient Greece as early as 600 BC. Its very name is derived from Greek demos, meaning “the people”; kratos meaning “authority or rule”.

Because the Greeks demeaned “dictatorships”, they created its exact opposite. Its drawback was that it applied to only 50 per cent of the population. The other half made of women and slaves positively had no rights. So much for a perfect democracy.

Plato wooed and won democracy in his Republic, when virtue is the lifeblood of any society and only philosophers should rule. His fury and passion for democracy profoundly influenced subsequent political thinking. Would that political leaders would always be wise philosophers.

Democracies were discovered once again after the doldrums of the Dark Ages. They danced at the funerals of monarchs and oligarchs.

Still limping, democracy sought their rights and Abraham Lincoln freed his slaves: “As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master.” He was assassinated within days of his victory. True, a government of the people, by the people is not always for all the people. Yet, it is for now, our best attempt at a democracy.

Not all democracies are equal; some are disguised as democracies, some should classify as entirely different identities.

The thin façade of a democracy for Israel is not just fallacious but ludicrous. The US and their allies know full well that Israel is an ethnocracy, labelled by their own scholars, Shlomo Sand, Haim Yacobi, and Hannah Navel, among others.

The naive West tout Israel as the only democracy in the Middle East. By no tour de force, just a dark, complex creation, to fit their dimensions. They are nothing but a state, controlled by one dominant ethnic group.

They kill at will non-ethnic men, women and children, while the West smiles, affectionately. Killed by the Holocaust, Israelis now create their own holocaust — fair is fair, they say.

Fires, destructions, starvations, assassinations, anywhere, everywhere, all is allowed and the Israeli army “continue operating to dismantle and degrade the enemy”.

The world may well be at the gates of World War III, but whoever vowed “Never Again” obviously did not include Israel.

They have lost their Eden — but until better men find a better democracy, freedom lives.

 

“The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in times of great moral crises maintain their neutrality.”

Dante Alighieri (1265-1321)

---

* A version of this article appears in print in the 26 September, 2024 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly