To cast out demons

Kim Jong Il would be a joke in very bad taste if he were not possessed of a nuclear weapons capability. Nobody is laughing. The United Nations Security Council is taking him very seriously indeed.

In the mounting media campaign against him we are learning of bizarre and nightmarish activities such as the kidnapping of ordinary Japanese citizens for use and abuse in prepping N. Korean spies for espionage in Japan. He is being touted as next in line for Ceaucescu treatment.

The world was happy to ignore him and his country until recently.

The list of out and out dictators is not endless but most of them do not make the news until they become a serious threat to someone other than their own people.

Ever heard of Myanmar? It used to be called Burma. It rarely makes the news. Its most famous political prisoner is Aung San Suu Kyi, whose major crime was her landslide victory in the country's last free elections a decade ago. The UN Security Council appears to have settled down to the status quo in Burma.

Its vigour with regard to Tibet, occupied by the People's Republic of China for the past 50 years, is also unimpressive. The latest news from there was the shooting of two Tibetans by Chinese border guards as they attempted to flee the country on September 30. We only came to hear of it because it happened in full view of some mountaineers who had a camera available.

Also in the week's news was the acquittal on appeal of the Indonesian pilot accused of poisoning one of the country's foremost human rights lawyers, Munir Said Thalib by arsenic on a flight to Amsterdam. The assassin's connections with the Indonesian secret service were well established in the trial. What does this make of Indonesia? Have we all acclimatised to dictatorships and dubious democracies?

Pointing fingers at the Kim Jong Ils of this world is easy. It becomes harder when the target is a country with some sort of claim to democratic credentials. The murder of journalist Anna Politovskaya in Russia is only the latest in many moves silencing all opposition there. Her criticism of Vladimir Putin's Russia made her murder hardly a surprise. At the European Green Party Congress in Geneva last weekend we approved a resolution condemning the murder. We also condemned the elimination on technical grounds of all opposition parties including the Greens from the elections in the Russian Republic of Karelia. It is simply outrageous: a one-party democracy?

Closer to home, the Tunisia Green Party received the support of delegates at the Greens' Congress: its registration as a political party filed in 2004 has not yet been accepted by the Home Affairs Ministry. Another joke in poor taste? What is truly hilarious is that the authorities have acknowledged the existence of another "Green Party" headed by an MP belonging to another political party.

Where does Tunisia rate in the democracy-dictatorship scales? It has a government party and several puppet opposition parties now setting up puppet pseudo Green parties. The members of the Tunisia Green Party were described as traitors for their attendance at Geneva. Sounds familiar? Nice place for a holiday.

Can we point fingers? The democratic deficit in EU institutions is well known and heavily criticised by Greens and others. The European Parliament still does not have the clout one is entitled to expect of an institution elected by the universal suffrage of 490 million people. Greens claim this is a major contributor to the failure of the European Treaty so far. The vision of the EU is still clouded in a fog of practices contradicting the theory.

Although the Union is bound by the Copenhagen Criteria on democracy, countries such as Malta have qualified for membership. Most Eastern European member states have placed significant hurdles in the path of smaller parties such as the Greens requiring the subscription of tens of thousands of members before they can contest elections but, in all the EU, only Malta has television stations owned by two of the three political parties and an absurdly high electoral threshold. A 1996 judgment reaffirming the constitutional requirement of a balance in broadcasting is observed most often in the breach.

While the E. Europeans have a feeble excuse in discouraging the chaotic political fragmentation there, Malta remains unique with only two parties in its Parliament. Although Silvio Berlusconi made continental news and attracted the attention of the European Parliament for his ownership once removed of a media empire, tiny Malta has escaped such notoriety so far.

It could well be because other countries do not want their own democratic credentials brought under scrutiny. How would the UK's first-past-the-post electoral system fare under close examination? Does it make sense that it is virtually impossible for any UK government to enjoy an absolute majority of the vote? Single party popular vote minority governments have become the norm. The last one took the country to an illegal war in Iraq without even the support of a majority of the people. Even in little Malta nobody would stomach such a government.

When we point fingers at North Korea for illegally possessing nuclear weapons we should have the courage to point out the insanity of their possession by anyone at all. With 40 countries in line for developing nuke capability according to the IAEA's Mohamed El Baradei, it is time for deep, sober thought. It is a perennial Green invitation.

It is the same on the democracy front. If some nations propose to wag their fingers at others, they must first have a long hard look at themselves. The Maltese proverb-maker has a good one: only the pure can cast out demons. In an age when democratic credentials are far more important than military might in combating global terrorism, we should examine our commitment to democratic ideals and the effectiveness of our democratic structures before we engage with any enemy. Do Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib help or hinder? How about the estimated 650,000 dead Iraqis? Can we hope to defeat terrorists ideologically and with solid evidence of true democratic practice?

In this, Green parties throughout the EU and far beyond provide the leading edge of commitment honed in years of being on the receiving end. While some of us are now in government and many in their national parliaments, many others are still making experiences they share with Burma, Indonesia, Tibet, Russia, Tunisia and the UK. We form a worldwide streak of Green working for a gentle and profound change. It is what the world needs. In Malta too.

Dr Vassallo is chairman of Alternattiva Demokratika - The Green Party.

www.alternattiva.org.mt

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