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FREEDOM IS FORGETTING
TYRANT'S NAME
Ireland
Irish Independent
Dublin 2004
Alexis Molina
"Freedom is when you forget the spelling of the tyrant's name and your
mouth's saliva is sweeter than Persian Pie, and though your brain is wrung
tight as the horn of a ram, nothing drops from your pale-blue eye."
THESE words belong to a man who knew the value and responsibility of real
freedom: by 1976, the date attributed to this poem, Joseph Brodsky had been
through a Soviet show trial, labor camp and forced exile. A far cry from the
venomous spite piled upon Iraqi history by the well-fed, nothing-to-fear
pundits of doom and gloom greeting last week's handover of power in Baghdad
with epithets like "ex-CIA", "Marshall [sic] law" and "a year of wasted
opportunities".
The journalists who put quotation marks around "liberation" in 2003 are
failing to see the reality - Iraq did regain its independence, on June 28,
and the Iraqi people are on the path to erasing their tyrant's name. To be
precise, the road from serfdom is long and arduous. Yet the Iraqis are
learning their freedom - as of June 2004, 68 per cent of them express
confidence in the interim government, 73 per cent approve of the new Prime
Minister, Ayad Allawi, and 84 per cent support the new President, Ghazi
Yawar. And up to 80 per cent of population believes that the new government,
army and police forces will have a positive impact on the country.
(Incidentally, these numbers are well above the approval ratings for the EU,
yet the anti-Coalition pundits are not questioning Brussels' legitimacy.)
Far from fearing martial law, 76 per cent of Iraqis feel freer to express
their political views in public today than at any time before the
liberation, while more than 80 per cent feel freer to exercise their
religious beliefs.
So let us get other records straight. Drawing, as before, on the hard facts
from the Brookings Institution, Gallup Polls and other sources, can we
conclude that 2004 was "a year of wasted opportunities"? Magic mushrooms
aside, no.
On March 8, the Iraqi Governing Council approved the Transitional
Administrative Law (TAL) that will serve as the country's interim
constitution between now and the 2005 elections, which 67 per cent of the
Iraqi population expects to be free and fair. Unprecedented for the region,
it guarantees freedom of religion and speech, rights to organise political
parties, to demonstrate, to strike, to receive a fair trial. It prohibits
discrimination based on gender, nationality, religion or origin.
To back it up, today more than 600 Iraqi judges preside over more than 500
courts independent from Governing Council and Coalition Provisional
Authority (CPA). More than 170 newspapers and 70 radio stations operate
throughout Iraq. Few of these rights are enjoyed by the people living under
the regimes, such as the PLO, benignly overlooked by our press and
subsidized by the EU.
The Governing Council and CPA have "wasted" a year on delivering millions of
metric tons of food and products in Iraq, opening the country's 240
hospitals and more than 1,200 clinics. In a "wasted year", the Iraqi
healthcare budget was US$950m - a 74-fold increase on 2002. More than 90 per
cent of Iraqi children received immunizations, and doctors' salaries are now
at least eight times what they were under Saddam.
The Council and CPA opened all 22 universities, 43 technical colleges, as
well as over 90 per cent of the primary and secondary schools. The Coalition
refurbished 3,900 schools and provided 58,500 teaching and 1.5 million
student kits. Teachers earn up to 25 times their former salaries. Under the
new regime that our grey cardinals of doom dismiss as the invaders' puppet,
women's centers offering training and education opened throughout the
country.
As of today, water delivery has been nearly doubled on the pre-war levels,
electricity generation is at over 95 per cent of the pre-war capacity, while
over 1.2 million phones are operating in the country - a 46 per cent rise on
2002. The national unemployment rate in April-May 2004 was 28-45 per cent,
relative to 50-60 per cent in 2003. CPA alone created 435,000 jobs, while
reinvigorated lending and a strengthening currency contributed to a
significant increase in entrepreneurial activity.
The truth demands that we do not overlook the difficulties. In the absence
of law enforcement, Iraq's progress is hampered by the continued violence
against people and property. Since 2003, the most dangerous kinds of
violence from Iraqi public perspective were (in order of decreasing
importance): sectarian war, suicide bombers, explosive devices and street
crime. In terms of private concerns, the priority is different: street
crime, explosive devices, military actions and suicide bombers.
All said, over the last 12 months, 1,771 Iraqi civilians died due to acts of
insurgents and Coalition forces - a homicide rate that falls below that of
some OECD (1) countries. Furthermore, despite claims of CPA unpopularity, 76
per cent do not believe their lives were made worse by the Coalition and 85
per cent feel safer with CPA in place.
These figures tell the real stories of Iraq. This is a learning curve.
Transition to democracy in the Soviet Union taught us that in a society
opening up to pluralism and freedom of press, scandalous facts temporarily
take hold of the nation's perception of reality: learning about freedom does
make your brain "tight as the horn of a ram".
So let us set the record straight - on June 28, Iraq rejoined the world
community as a sovereign state, but it will take time before the Iraqis
taste their Persian pie of prosperity and generations before they erase
Saddam Hussein from their memory. I doubt our zealots of anti-Americanism
ever will.
Constantin T Gurdgiev
Constantin T Gurdgiev is a lecturer and research associate at Trinity
College Dublin. He is also a director of the Open Republic Institute,
Dublin.
OECD (1)
Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development
OECD MEMBER COUNTRIES
Twenty countries originally signed the Convention on the Organization for
Economic Co-operation and Development on 14 December 1960. Since then a
further ten countries have become members of the Organization. The Member
countries of the Organization and the dates on which they deposited their
instruments of ratification are:
AUSTRALIA: 7 June 1971
AUSTRIA: 29 September 1961
BELGIUM: 13 September 1961
CANADA: 10 April 1961
CZECH REPUBLIC: 21 December 1995
DENMARK: 30 May 1961
FINLAND: 28 January 1969
FRANCE: 7 August 1961
GERMANY: 27 September 1961
GREECE: 27 September 1961
HUNGARY: 7 May 1996
ICELAND: 5 June 1961
IRELAND: 17 August 1961
ITALY: 29 March 1962
JAPAN: 28 April 1964
KOREA: 12 December 1996
LUXEMBOURG: 7 December 1961
MEXICO: 18 May 1994
NETHERLANDS: 13 November 1961
NEW ZEALAND: 29 May 1973
NORWAY: 4 July 1961
POLAND: 22 November 1996
PORTUGAL: 4 August 1961
SLOVAK REPUBLIC: 14 December 2000
SPAIN: 3 August 1961
SWEDEN: 28 September 1961
SWITZERLAND: 28 September 1961
TURKEY: 2 August 1961
UNITED KINGDOM: 2 May 1961
UNITED STATES: 12 April 1961
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