The Agenda - Agenda Home

The Agenda - Agenda Home: "Can democracy flourish in places which have never known it?"

A good question don't you think?

In light of the ongoing outbursts for change in the Middle East it seems appropriate that we decipher fact from fiction.

Democracy as we know it in the West has been a messy affair and it requires a lot of time and effort to get it right, assuming we ever do. I am not sure that what we have been witnessing is a call for democratic change so much as it is an appeal for a different way ahead for people who are disillusioned by the lack of progress in their countries and personal lives. They look for someone to articulate a different vision for their future, a new hope and to do it quickly.

After all can Democracy not subject a minority (party, group) to the same kinds of suppression by the majority party in power?

It is after all likely that the deposed tyrants will eventually be replaced by other more acceptable authoritarian groups masquerading as democratic reformers. Promising democratic reform while delivering less in terms of personal choice and freedoms. I sincerely hope that whatever change occurs in the Middle East is positive and brings hope and peace to a region that desperately needs it. And if that change happens to look like our democracy then so be it.