The problem with democracy

By Robert Fisk,

Oh no, not more democracy again! Didn't we award this to those Algerians in 1990? And didn't they reward us with that nice gift of an Islamist government - and then they so benevolently cancelled the second round of elections? Thank goodness for that!

True, the Afghans elected a round of representatives, albeit that they included some warlords and murderers. But then the Iraqis last year elected the Dawa party to power in Baghdad, which was responsible - let us not speak this in Washington - for most of the kidnappings of Westerners in Beirut in the 1980s, the car bombing of the (late) Emir and the US and French embassies in Kuwait.

And now, horror of horrors, the Palestinians have elected the wrong party to power. They were supposed to have given their support to the friendly, pro-Western, corrupt, absolutely pro-American Fatah, which had promised to "control" them, rather than to Hamas, which said they would represent them. And, bingo, they have chosen the wrong party again.

Result: 76 out of 132 seats. That just about does it. God damn that democracy. What are we to do with people who don't vote the way they should?

Way back in the 1930s, the British would lock up the Egyptians who turned against the government of King Farouk. Thus they began to set the structure of anti-democratic governance that was to follow. The French imprisoned the Lebanese government which demanded the same. Then the French left Lebanon. But we have always expected the Arab governments to do what they were told.

So today, we are expecting the Syrians to behave, the Iranians to kowtow to our nuclear desires (though they have done nothing illegal), and the North Koreans to surrender their weapons (though they actually do have them, and therefore cannot be attacked).

Now let the burdens of power lie heavy on the shoulders of the party. Now let the responsibilities of people lie upon them. We British would never talk to the IRA, or to Eoka, or to the Mao Mao. But in due course, Gerry Adams, Archbishop Makarios and Jomo Kenyatta came to take tea with the Queen. The Americans would never speak to their enemies in North Vietnam. But they did. In Paris.

No, al-Qa'ida will not do that. But the Iraqi leaders of the insurgency in Mesopotamia will. They talked to the British in 1920, and they will talk to the Americans in 2006.

Back in 1983, Hamas talked to the Israelis. They spoke directly to them about the spread of mosques and religious teaching. The Israeli army boasted about this on the front page of the Jerusalem Post. At that time, it looked like the PLO was not going to abide by the Oslo resolutions. There seemed nothing wrong, therefore, with continuing talks with Hamas. So how come talks with Hamas now seem so impossible?
Not long after the Hamas leadership had been hurled into southern Lebanon, a leading member of its organisation heard me say that I was en route to Israel.

"You'd better call Shimon Peres," he told me. "Here's his home number."

The phone number was correct. Here was proof that members of the hierarchy of the most extremist movements among the Palestinians were talking to senior Israeli politicians.

The Israelis know well the Hamas leadership. And the Hamas leadership know well the Israelis. There is no point in journalists like us suggesting otherwise. Our enemies invariably turn out to be our greatest friends, and our friends turn out, sadly, to be our enemies.
A terrible equation - except that we must understand our fathers' history. My father, who was a soldier in the First World War, bequeathed to me a map in which the British and French ruled the Middle East. The Americans have tried, vainly, to rule that map since the Second World War. They have all failed. And it remains our curse to rule it since.

How terrible it is to speak with those who have killed our sons. How unspeakable it is to converse with those who have our brothers' blood on their hands. No doubt that is how Americans who believed in independence felt about the Englishmen who fired upon them.

It will be for the Iraqis to deal with al-Qa'ida. This is their burden. Not ours. Yet throughout history, we have ended up talking to our enemies. We talked to the representatives of the Emperor of Japan. In the end, we had to accept the surrender of the German Reich from the successor to Adolf Hitler. And today, we trade happily with the Japanese, the Germans and the Italians.

The Middle East was never a successor to Nazi Germany or Fascist Italy, despite the rubbish talked by Messrs Bush and Blair. How long will it be before we can throw away the burden of this most titanic of wars and see our future, not as our past, but as a reality?

Surely, in an age when our governments no longer contain men or women who have experienced war, we must now lead a people with the understanding of what war means. Not Hollywood. Not documentary films. Democracy means real freedom, not just for the people we choose to have voted into power.

And that is the problem in the Middle East.

P/S:This article was published in "The Independent"(01/28/06) which the I think worth reading especially in the times of the post revolution in the Arab World and the transition of these countries towards more democratic government

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Pesan buat Mahasiswa

Hari ini berdemo lagi,

Hari lusa kita berkumpul lagi,

minggu depan bermadah lagi,

bulan depan berforum lagi,

Tahun depan kita merusuh lagi,

Gunalah sepenuhnya ruang demokrasi,

Namun jangan terjerat perangkap anarki.

Mahasiswa O' mahasiswa, 

Yang berjiwa kental,lantang bertenaga,

dalam pekikan menjulang idealisme,

Fahamkah kita realiti dunia?

Idea kebebasan menjadi wacana,

Rejim kejam musuh utama,

politik kotor kuat dicerca,

budaya intelektual hendak dijana,

Itulah asiprasi mahasiswa negara,

Namun,

kita tertanya,menepuk dada tanya selera,

Sudahkah intelektualisme tersemat di dada?

Sudahkah ilmu dikasih dicinta?,

atau masih berfb sepanjang masa?

Mahasiswa O' mahasiswa, 

Yang berjiwa kental,lantang bertenaga,

dalam pekikan menjulang idealisme,

Fahamkah kita realiti dunia?

Ayuh bangkit mahasiswa malaysia,

Berbekal ilmu kita melangkah mara,

Buanglah ego,sedikitkan berbicara,

Hentikan mengumpat,banyakkan membaca,

Kerna ilmu yang memberi cahaya,

dalam gerakmu mengubah layar bahtera.

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Calon Republikan 2012,suatu penilaian ringkas.

Di sebalik dilema dan konflik politik tanah air yang yang seret dengan pelbagai isu yang “meloyakan”,saya berpeluang untuk turut mengikuti perkembangan kempen pilihan raya yang bakal berlangsung tahun depan.Setakat ini calon republican merupakan antara focus yang paling menarik kerana kebanyakan masih kabur dan tidak pasti siapakah yang bakal dijadikan calon utama bagi parti Republikan.Mengikut kajian Gallup Poll yang disiarkan di laman webnya,sekitar pada 30 November sehingga  7 Disember antara calon pilihan yang menjadi pencabar utama adalah Newt Ginrgrich dan Mitt Romney.Gingrich yang telah pun mencipta kontoversi kerana dengan jahilnya mendakwa “Palestin tidak wujud” pada 10 Disember 2011.(saya telah pun menyanggah dakwaan beliau di sini )

Juga telah menjadi tradisi pada setiap kali menjelang pilihan raya akan diadakan pelbagai siri-siri debat yang menampilkan calon-calon presiden baik daripada Republikan atau Demokrat untuk mempromosi idea-idea mereka dalam mentadbir negara.Saya cuba menekuni setiap siri debat yang diadakan dan pada hemah saya beberapa isu yang menarik timbul pada sesi pra-pilihan raya ini.

“We're under great threat because we occupy so many countries. We're in 130 countries. We have 900 bases around the world. We're going broke. The purpose of al-Qaeda was to attack us, invite us over there, where they can target us. And they have been doing it. They have more attacks against us and the American interests per month than occurred in all the years before 9/11. But we're there, occupying their land. And if we think that we can do that and not have retaliation, we're kidding ourselves. We have to be honest with ourselves. What would we do if another country, say China, did to us what we do to all those countries over there?”

Ucapan berikut merupakan ucapan Ron Ernest Paul,calon Republikan bagi jawatan Presiden untuk pilhanraya 2012 akan datang ketika menghadiri sesi Debat Presiden Republikan(Republican Presidential Debate) pada 12 September 2012.Hujah beliau disambut dengan ejekan penonton dan hujah-hujah balas yang agak kuat dari kalangan calon-calon lain.Ini tidak mengairankan kerana lokasi perdebatan tersebut adalah di kawasan Florida,yang merupakan kubu kuat Zionist serta memuatkan peratusan bangsa Yahudi yang ketiga terbesar(4.3% yakni seramai 641,000 orang) di Amerika Syarikat. Malah andai anda mengikuti siri-siri pilihanraya lepas,kebanyakan ucapan-ucapan manifesto di Florida adalah berkisarkan tentang polisi luar Amerika terhadap Timur tengah,terutama sekutunya Israel..

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Islamic Movements:- Self-Criticism And Reconsideration

BY SHAYKH RASHID AL GHANUCHI HEAD OF THE AL-NAHDA ISLAMIC MOVEMENT OF TUNIS

Looking at the Islamic revival worldwide today - a revival aiming to rebuild the individual and society and recompose the nation's thought and politics based on Islam - we find it making progress. It is making victories that no other ideology is making in today's world. The progress is not limited to the idea, because the idea itself is improving. The Islamic movement has been able to discover new areas of Islam, and the discoveries continue along the path forged by men of the last century like Jamal al-Din al-Afghani and continued by men like Hasan al-Banna and Abu Al-A'la al-Maududi. The ideas of these men gave birth to modern Islamic movements, which rediscovered the Islamic basis upon which to build life. Islam is not a group of individual beliefs, rituals, or mannerisms.

It is a comprehensive way of life. Islam was around before the modern Islamic movement, but it had been thought of as a preparation for one to get to heaven, not a system to mold society. Today Islam is progressing forcefully while secularism is falling rapidly.

 

While Islam attracts people who are looking for justice, secularism is loosing major footholds and has lost its ability to defend itself except by violence. When you see a secular state using more and more violence, know that it is bankrupt. The secular state has lost its legitimacy. Instead of being based on popular support, these states are based on international support and on violence. Meanwhile, Islam is progressing vertically and horizontally.

Its idea deepens daily while spreading from fields such as politics and economics to art, human resource development (including women), and institution-building. Despite this remarkable progress, however, I must make some negative remarks, emphasize some shortcomings in the performance of the Islamic movement, and warn against some pitfalls, because we cannot always focus on the positive side of things.

One of the elements of repentance is reconsideration. We must reconsider our actions every day. Are we really on the truth path, or can we be described by the Qur'anic verse:

"We found our forefathers doing something and here we are doing the same" (Zukhruf: 23). 

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Transisi Algeria

Pada hujung 1960-an Gerakan Islam di Algeria dikatakan mula muncul di pentas politik ketika wujud konflik identiti antara golongan elitis yang menaja budaya Barat(Perancis) dan orang-orang bawahan.Gerakan-gerakan yang wujud kebanyakannya mendapat inspirasi daripada tokoh-tokoh dari kalangan Ikhwan Muslimin serta Jamaat i' Islami,dan beberapa tokoh intelektual seperti Muhammad Abduh dan Muhamamd Iqbal.

Sehinggalah lewat 1970-an,kehadiran gerakan-gerakan Islam ini menjadi pelopor kepada transisi masyarakat Algeria ke arah yang lebih matang.John L.Esposito mencatatkan:

"..a transition occured from a focus on issues of culture and ritual to a more comprehensive Islamism that stressed life in a more Islamic political and social order.Small grup congregated and shared ideas at the mosques:'These were no longer lessons dealing with how to pray or perform a fast and all that.No,these were lessons at a high level in which we explained,or we searched for a method by which we could..And we touched on all the problems which Algerian nation was confronting.We spoke about everything.Of all situations,the economy,of all aspects of life"-Islam and Democracy,ms154

Perkembangan mentaliti juga dapat kita nilai melalui isu-isu dan fokus perbincangan di masjid-masjid yang perlu dipelbagaikan dan tidak lagi terpenjara dalam lingkungan fiqh ibadat(khusus) atau tawhid sahaja.


Walaupun tidak dinafikan pentingnya unsur-unsur tawhid dan fiqh dalam membahaskan sesuatu perkara,namun apabila berlegar di ruang sempit ini sahaja menyebabkan kita gagal mencapai maqasid syariah itu sendiri.


Perseimbangkan wacana,membudayakan ilmu,mengkritiskan pemikiran.  :)

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Palestin bangsa yang wujud,menyanggah dakwaan Gingrich.

Pada tanggal 10 Disember 2011,Newt Gingrich memberi komentar yang menampakkan kejahilan beliau tentang sejarah,menyebut;“"I believe that the Jewish people have the right to a state ... Remember, there was no Palestine as a state. It was part of the Ottoman Empire" until the early 20th century,(1)”.Beliau yang juga pernah dinobat sebagai “Man of The Year” oleh majalah Time(1995) dan antara calon utama Parti Republikan untuk jawatan Presiden pada pilihanraya 2012 menjustifikasikan pendiriannya mengatakan bahawa: “"I think that we've had an invented Palestinian people who are in fact Arabs, and who were historically part of the Arab community”(2).Sungguhpun dakwaan beliau tampak “berani” dan mungkin menjejaskan kredibiliti beliau untuk mendapatkan undi pada pilihanraya akan datang setelah presiden Barrack Obama menampakkan “kehambaan”nya kepada Israel dalam isu permohonan Palestin untuk menyertai UN sebagai ahli yang sah.Namun begitu usaha untuk memadamkan nama Palestin dalam dunia,sekaligus kamus-kamus sejarah bukanlah suatu usaha yang baharu.

Pada tahun 1984,seorang penulis wanita yang juga bekas produser berita CBS,Joan Peter,telah menulis sebuah buku “From Time Immemorial: The Origins of the Arab-Jewish Conflict over Palestine” membuat dakwaan yang hampir serupa seperti yang disebut Gingrich.Buku tersebut telah mendapat liputan dan komentar yang cukup positif dari kalangan ahli-ahli intelektual sehingga dijadikan sebagai bahan buku teks di berapa buah universiti.Chomsky,seorang ahli linguistic dan penganalisis politik Timur Tengah lantang mengkritik buku tersebut dan merumuskan keseluruhan tulisan Joan Peter sebagai:“the implicit message was, if Israel kicks them all out there's no moral issue, because they're just recent immigrants who came in because the Jews had built up the country”(3).Sungguhpun begitu pada era ia diterbitkan buku Joan Peter mendapat “best seller”,diiringi dengan beratus-ratus ulasan positif dari ahli akademik dan sehingga telah diterbitkan sebanyak 10 edisi(4).Hanya sebilangan kecil sahaja yang kritikal dan tajam mengkritik dakwaan buku tersebut,dan antaranya ialah Prof Norman Finkelstein.Kata Chomsky,Noam Finkelstein telah menulis sebuah jurnal setebal 25 helai menceritakan pemalsuan fakta,dan penipuan-penipuan yang dibawa oleh Joan Peter sehingga mengkaburkan perspektif masyarakat.Jurnal tersebut kemudiannya telah dihantar oleh Chomsky kepada beberapa jurnalis British sebelum buku tersebut diterbitkan di England.Impaknya selepas diterbitkan di England buku tersebut dikritik hebat,berpandukan jurnal Norman Finkelstein sehingga dilabel sebagai “ludicrous," dan "preposterous."(5).Kemudian perlahan reputasi buku tersebut mula merudum dan mula dipinggirkan masyarakat:

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Kontangnya tujuan hidup kita,sempitnya dakwah kita

Wanita bertudung di atas merupakan pemenang “TEDxIB@York 2011 student competition”,seorang pelajar IB biasa yang masih muda(17 tahun) namun mempunyai cita-cita yang tinggi untuk mengubah dunia. Amal Ahmed Albaz,seorang pelajar di White Oaks Secondary School,Oakville telah bepidato di pentas itu meminta kita semua merenung semula; “Apakah sumbangan kita pada dunia?”, “Sudahkah kita memanfaatkan bakat dan kehidupan yang tuhan kurniakan kepada kita untuk tujuan kebaikan”.

Mungkin ada yang tersenyum,lega kerana sekurang-kurangnya “kami dah join organisasi Islam?”,namun cukupkah hanya menyertai sahaja?

Amal kemudiannya meminta kita renungi falsafahnya “5 before 5”,yakni yang dipetik daripada hadis nabi Muhammad S.A.W:

“Rebutlah lima perkara sebelum datang lima perkara lain, yaitu masa muda engkau sebelum datangnya hari tua, masa sihat engkau sebelum dilanda sakit, masa kaya engkau sebelum masa miskinmu, masa lapang engkau sebelum datangnya waktu sibuk, dan masa hidup engkau sebelum datangnya saat kematian.” (Hadith Riwayat Muslim dan Tirmizi dari Amru bin Maimun r.a.)

Benar hidup ini berjalan,berputar dan hari juga saling silih berganti.Perlahan-lahan masa itu ibarat sebuah kenderaan yang memandu kita menempuhi kelima-lima tanda ini.Namun sugguhpun tidak ramai yang ambil peduli.

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