Editor in Chief: Moh. Reza Huwaida Thursday, April 25th, 2024

Heading Towards Democracy

The outstanding democratic moves and public demonstrations in the Middle East is mainly based on certain modern values such as democratic elections, freedom of expression, transparency in governance and basic civil rights of the citizens. The angry mobs who easily sacrificed hundreds of pro-democracy protestors have demonstrated their will to develop democratic processes and institutionalize modern human values. They have made a consensus on forming the next regimes in a manner that they become enough committed to respect rights of the citizens and put into practice the general will of democratic reforms.

It is because, depending on essence of political principles and ethical values, Politics vary from one regime to another. There are certain variables by using which the governments try to justify their practices and criticize that of their opponents. Concepts such as justice, freedom, equity, etc are frequently put forward to validate governments' approaches and practices. At the global level, complicated political and social phenomena may sometimes perplex systems that are not ready to face them.

The recent freedom-seeking movements in Middle East hold serious threats in spite of their favorable democratic achievements. The protest-rocked countries were afraid of the possible return of some despotic or extremist systems following hard days of revolution and sacrifices. However, promising indications say that nations have got enough awareness on whether to support a democracy-based ruling or provide backing for the extremist Islamic movements. They have selected democracy.

In the well-known hotbed of Islamic movements Egypt, people seem to have chosen democracy over fanaticism and radicalism. Reports said that Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood has joined forces with 17 other parties, including liberals and leftists, to form a common platform for parliamentary elections in September, as it seeks to allay fears among secular groups and the country's Christian minority. In a meeting on Tuesday, several Islamist, liberal and leftist parties said they would "channel their efforts... into building a state of law based on citizenship, equality and sovereignty of the people." In a statement, the parties outlined their common principles including "freedom of belief and worship", freedom of expression and a free media, the independence of the judiciary and "an economic system based on social justice."

Besides democratic reforms and political achievements in the region, rejuvenation of extremist movements remained a matter of concern. Acknowledging vulnerability of the democratic achievements made so far, none can downplay the significance of accomplishments made on the way to search for reform and democracy. Great democracies will emerge out of those newly born systems. This needs to be built on. To prevent any possible detriment to the nascent democracies, there should be some proper plans in place to take care of stability and prevention of extremist groups spreading their area of operation.