Beware of ‘democracy promotion’!

Games nations play

When so many significant and insignificant people harp with utmost confidence that democracy is not in danger in Pakistan, it is the level of their confidence that makes one suspicious about the potency of our otherwise fragile democracy. There are reasons for suspicion because in the past, there have been battle criesof “Islam in danger,” “Pakistan in danger,” and “Democracy in danger” so when “democracy-lovers and haters” shout in unison that “democracy is not in danger” especially after civil society, politicians, media and sundry waged a successful “democratic struggle” to overthrow the military autocrat Musharraf, one wonders from where has this “democracy tonic” come from.

The only place from where all the “good” things come from is the West, and this “democracy tonic,” too, is a Western prescription. This “tonic” is meant to make potent Western values of liberal democracy and open markets in Asia and Africa where these are either weak or impotent. It is peddled under the “sublime”objective of “democracy promotion,” “democracy assistance,” “democratization,” etc to make it a saleable commodity among the prospective buyers and the Western “doctors of democracy” who heralded the “golden age” of “democracy promotion” in the aftermath of the end of the Cold War in 1990s were Francis Fukuyama through his “formula” of “End of history,” Mandelbaum through his “recipe” of “universal value of democracy” to name a few. Over time, this “democracy promotion” has been promoted in the form of aid and assistance (carrots), military interventions (sticks), sanctions and conditionalities (threats) and use of exiled or home-based clandestine groups to destabilize governments (blackmail).

Some of the European countries whichact as a core group in the “democracy promotion” agenda are the UK, France, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands which in turn are supported by international organizations such as the United Nations, theEuropean Union and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, however, the country that has acted as the “cradle of democratic promotion” is none other than the United States of America.The US pushes this agenda through civil society institutions, convening of regular elections, insistence on good governance and upholding of the rule of law. When President Musharraf was to be removed, from nowhere had civil society emerged as the most potent opposition whose potency vanished in thin air after his removal. Moreover, often it looked as if the PPP government would not complete its tenure and extra-constitutional powers might intervene yet nothing happened and elections took place on time. Even this PML-N government has not been on sure footing from day one but despite the ouster of their Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, it seems the PML-N will still complete its term and elections will be held on schedule. Similarly, the talk of good governance has been so much in the media that it has never been like this before. In addition, to uphold the rule of law, if a prime minister is to be shunted then let it be. From Musharraf to Nawaz Sharif, Pakistan has been a perfect “victim” of destabilisation through “democracy promotion.”

In fact, this “democracy promotion” is a “pedagogy of power” that enables the West to project its power and compel the weak states to willy-nilly adjust themselves to the global power system. It is used as a tool to impinge upon the sovereignty of the weak and to cause a “regime change” and as it is done under the “noble” cause of “democracy promotion” and “democratisation,” therefore, it is not wrong rather fully justified. Those countries that try to resist “democracy promotion” are branded as “tyrannical,” “rogue,” etc. Iraq under Saddam is an example where theregime was eradicated by Western military intervention and in its place was propped up such puppet governments that were fully in line with the US interests. Pakistan is a frontline state and the ouster of Musharraf and Nawaz Sharif can be understood in this perspective. If their dismissals were soft, it is because they did not resist as hard as Saddam and if Nawaz and his party are emphatically crying about an “international conspiracy” behind his ouster, the allegation cannot be rejected out of hand. Only he fully knows what the stakes are, what is the level of threat and has wisely refrained from spilling the beans,now. Helives to fight another day unlike the popular ZA Bhutto, who went public with the threat and paid through his neck.

This “democracy promotion” is thus used for “regime change” in those countries which refuse to cater the economic and security interests of the US. Carrots and sticks of “democracy promotion” are used to structure the economies of the weak states in ways that satiate the thirst of global capitalists. Since President Ronald Reagan, the American administrations have yoked open markets with democracy. The bulk of the US “democracy promotion” programme around the world is pushed by the USAID and in the words of one of its administrators, Rajiv Shah, “our assistance also derives benefits for the American people: it keeps our country safe and strengthens our economy.” But when a hard choice is to be made between economy and security, the latter takes precedence. For the sake of security interests, American principles and values are compromised. James A Baker, who served as the US Secretary of Stateexplained this choice succinctly by stating, “We have to consider principles and values, yes: democracy, human rights, freedom. But we also have to consider the national interest, whether or not the particular entity we are dealing with is aligned with the United States or not. And those two considerations meet head on in this conflict.” Examples abound. In the name of “democracy promotion,” regimes in Iraq, Libya and Chile were overthrown but Egypt and Saudi Arabia are spared and pampered.

The worst examples of “regime change” in the name of “democracy promotion” have been Iraq and Afghanistan, where the propped up puppet “democratic” regimes have been as bad, if not worse, than the ones that were overthrown. The people of Asia and Africa reject the “democracy promotion” project because they know that it is a neo-colonial imposition of the West, based on the ideals of the West to serve the vested interests of the West in total disregard of the Asian and African values and interests. Beware!When somebody says that democracy is not in danger.