Monday, Sep 02, 2002
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By Sridhar Krishnaswami
In an Editorial titled "Dancing with Dictators," The New York Times not only lists the kind of dictators that this Republican administration has lined up with, but the past embarrassments as well. And it starts off with a plain message to the present administration. "If Mr. Bush is not careful, Washington will be mopping up for years from the inevitable foreign policy disasters that come of befriending autocrats who maintain a stranglehold on their own people," the Times said going on to list Washington's "impulse'' to join hands with dictators. These would include having ties with the Saudi Arabian Royal Family over the decades for oil and in the absence of no practical alternatives, the cooperation of the Pakistani President, Pervez Musharraf, for the ouster of the Taliban and the Al-Qaeda from Afghanistan. But, it argues, there is a difference between alliances of convenience and "uncritically'' working with dictators. "Gen. Musharraf, the Saudis and other autocratic allies such as the Egyptian President, Hosni Mubarak, rule repressive societies that become a breeding ground for anti-American hostility." "Terrorism will retreat where democracy advances, not where autocrats muzzle political expression or buy peace at home by financing violence abroad," the paper notes. The Times is not the first to point out the double standards of American foreign policy for it has been a feature of successive administrations in Washington to preach the virtues and values of democracy for domestic consumption and go around backing tin pot dictatorships around the world. But in the present context the Times Editorial points out how the White House is pressuring the Palestinians to establish democratic institutions and then condone the undemocratic actions of Mr. Mubarak. More importantly, the Times takes note of another one of the administration's lectures on Democracy. "The Vice-President, Dick Cheney's recent calls for bringing democracy to Iraq ring hollow as long as Washington is silent about Gen. Musharraf's arbitrary rule in Pakistan," the Editorial said going to list the past mistakes — blunders, if they may be called. These would include blind support for the Shah of Iran, Zia-ul-Haq of Pakistan, Suharto of Indonesia and Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines. "The Bush administration seems to have learned little from these costly mistakes. Meeting America's short term military and diplomatic needs should not require abandoning its diplomatic principles," the Times concluded. In the context of Pakistan, it would have to be kept in mind that the issue of Democracy will be one of topics on the agenda when the U.S. President, George W. Bush, meets Gen. Musharraf in New York in less than two weeks. But if the present indications are anything to go by, it is highly unlikely that this Bush administration will publicly start admonishing Gen. Musharraf for the kind of "democracy'' he has in mind. This Republican administration has already identified Pakistan as a "stalwart ally'' in the fight against terrorism and has been extremely careful in how it is characterising the various moves leading up to the October polls, already condemned in Pakistan and elsewhere as thoroughly anti-democratic.
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