During my 10 years in the Philippines, President Ferdinand Marcos was a dictator ruling under the guise of a democratic government. Fearing the ensuing economic and political turmoil, my family moved to the United States.
Here I have learned about democracy, fell in love with its tenets and pledged allegiance to the United States. My love for this country stems from the ideals of our forefathers.
During the time of monarchies, it was revolutionary to believe each citizen should have equal rights and power in a government whose sole purpose was to protect those rights.
As an extension of that ideology, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and its Bill of Rights safeguard our civil liberties. Democracy was born.
As a child, I was enamored with the idea of democracy. I thought that it would be better if everyone would subscribe to democracy and, going further, it would be easier if we all spoke English.
As I studied history and philosophy, I realized the nuances of democratic ideals. Democracy does not imply homogenizing people. In fact, the underlying premise of democracy is that we respect each other truly believing that we are all equal.
Otherwise a democracy will not work. Why would I afford rights to someone who is subordinate to me?
I also learned that democracy is a progression, a constant compromise toward equality.
We have seen this throughout history in the movements for civil rights, women’s rights and now for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.
Unfortunately, we are moving away from our democratic principles with our invasion of Iraq.
In her book The Bush Agenda, author Antonia Juhasz, a policy analyst on international trade and finance policy, rightly condemns the Bush administration for implementing an interim government in Iraq that altered the country’s constitution and undermines the sovereignty of the Iraqi people.
This act is illegal under the Geneva Conventions and Hague regulations of international law.
Paul Bremer, the former administrator for the U.S.-led occupation government in Iraq, enacted laws without the consent of the Iraqi people. Some of these orders were to privatize state-owned enterprises, allow 100 percent foreign ownership of Iraqi business, turn the state-run banks to a market-driven system, drop corporate tax rates from 40 percent to a flat 15 percent, and make foreign companies immune to Iraqi law.
There are two questions we should ask as proponents of democracy.
Is it democracy when outsiders enact laws without considering a people’s philosophy, history and their landscape of politics, economics, and religion?
More importantly, what about the voice of its people? What consequences will this bring about?
Foreign companies will own all the country’s resources including oil, electricity and even water.
The companies will not have to invest anything back in Iraq, its people or its economy. Ultimately, there will be some who will profit at the expense of the majority.
These enactments are illegitimate under international law, but they are still law in Iraq.
That is why Bush’s administration is pushing for the ‘benchmarks.’ With 160,000 troops in Iraq, we are coercing the country’s government to bring these orders legitimacy.
Consequently, the Iraqi government is more concerned with getting power and water to its citizens. I would think that would be prioritized over the question of oil privatization.
Could you live without electricity in the middle of desert summers?
We need to bring our military men and women home.
We have to influence our government to open up diplomatic channels. We have to regain other countries’ support that the Bush administration squandered after the 9/11 and have a United Nations peace force sent to Iraq.
This will enable an impartial military force allowing Iraqi people control of their destiny.
This is especially important now that Turkey and Iran want to influence the democratic process in Iraq.
We also have to give back the reconstruction efforts to the Iraqi people and let them invest in their future. Maybe we can save U.S. taxpayers from another $8.8 billion of misappropriated reconstruction funds.
America won its democracy against an unjust monarchy.
Now we covertly tax Iraq. U.S. companies will export all the resources from Iraq without having to invest in their people and economy. That is not democracy.
Let Iraq create their government.
We should step back, remember democracy and realize why we believe in it. That way we can use words, not guns, to promote diplomacy.
Querubin, a social work graduate student, can be reached via [email protected]
