Monday, January 30, 2006

Real Politik Primer

Occasionally I’m amazed at discovering that what I thought I knew isn’t really true. Take for example last week when I learned that I was wrong about the definition of “Gross National Product.” I had always thought the term meant the total value of goods and services produced by a nation. I could understand that concept and was comfortable with it. Yet, there in an Associated Press item on the Palestinian elections, I saw the statement that more than one third of the Palestinian GNP was foreign aid. So money which is given to the government of Palestine (I stumble as I write that phrase, finding it somewhat of an oxymoron,) becomes a “product” of the nation. They neither produce it nor receive it for services, yet it forms their GNP!

The whole disclosure of the volume of financial support which flows into that morass of terrorism is mind-boggling. It now becomes clear why Yassar Arafat was so revered. And it makes one wonder what leverage he had to extort that kind of money from world leaders. Clearly if payments generated some sort of national responsibility and maturity from Fatah, they might be considered money well spent. But, if we continued during all of those years to see the Intifada on nightly TV with masked, chanting, fanatical fools firing AK-47s in the air to celebrate everything from weddings to funerals to free pizza at the local disco, then what were we getting for our dollars? It makes “more bang for the buck” seem a pretty apt phrase.

That’s why last week’s elections in Palestine have some value for us. The election of Hamas to a parliamentary majority has highlighted a lot of things. Among them is the money issue. Hopefully, the U.S. will follow through on Secretary Rice’s promise to cut the stipend if the boys don’t play nice with the rest of their neighbors. No More Free Lunch

The whole idea of democracy in the Middle East has always seemed a good one to me. Yet, the evidence seems to show that the people of these Middle Eastern nations don’t understand the basic concept. So, it becomes incumbent upon me to try to explain a few basic principles.

Power of a government, Thomas Hobbes told us, comes from consent of the governed. Typically that means in a democracy that consent is expressed through elections. Simple, isn’t it?

Elections imply a choice for the electorate. And, in any competition there will be winners and losers. The winners get to set policy and govern, the losers get to rethink their policies and contribute what they can to the commonly held goals of the nation. Still with me?

If elected, your leaders have a responsibility to govern. A good short list of what governing is supposed to accomplish can be found in the Preamble to the US Constitution. Not on the list is a program of bribery, coercion, extortion, oppression, torture, and terrorism. When you miss the essential elements on the list, there is a good chance you will lose some future election or possibly even be violently overthrown. (For examples of this, look to Fatah for the former and Sadaam for the latter.)

When you participate in an election, you agree to abide by the outcome even if it doesn’t please you. You have the distinct possibility of losing and then you must support the folks who beat you. Tough, ain’t it?

Strange as it might seem for those of you who didn’t finish your education, the election will be won by the majority. And, if you live in a nation in which your particular party or religious sect comprises only twenty or twenty-five percent of the population, you are probably not going to gain a parliamentary majority. You might have to be satisfied with supporting the majority sect. I’m talking to you Sunnis here.

When you vote in an election, it helps to be voting FOR something rather than AGAINST someone. Things to vote FOR are stability, peace, prosperity, better lives for you and your family. Things not to vote FOR are terrorism, destruction of other nations, continued poverty, insurgency, illiteracy, or even religion. All those in favor of Hamas, pay attention here.

If you make bad voting choices your conditions may not improve. If you make really bad election choices your conditions might even get very much worse. That’s particularly true if your nation is almost totally dependent upon handouts and you produce little or nothing of value. Are you still with me, Hamas?

These things don’t seem that difficult to understand. At least they aren’t difficult for those of us in the Western World. We get it and we’ve been pretty good at implementing these simple ideas. As a result we live pretty comfortably. We’ve shown a willingness to help other people raise themselves and attempt to achieve similar circumstances. Occasionally we’ve failed, but in many areas we’ve been successful.

In the Middle East, however, it seems that we’ve got to start with some pretty basic concepts before we’ll achieve much success.

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