20.05.2007
Our Freedom Struggle may run several Gauntlets
Before it comes to its destined Goal
_ By May Ng
The second struggle for freedom, in Burma, calls for examination of problems likely to be faced by a new democracy.
Thomas Carothers, an authority on democracy development, wrote that, scholarly community dismisses the topic of democracy ‘aid and development’ as an area of little real import or just heavy-handed Cold War-style U.S. political interventionism revisited.
In his exceptional book ‘Confronting the Weakest Link; Aiding Political Parties in New Democracies,’ he wrote about the nature of democracy and ensuing party politics; it is relevant to the current Burmese democracy struggle as well. It provides helpful hints on, how democracy might have failed in Burma right after the Independence and what could help prevent it from failing again next time. His observation did not include direct information on Burmese democracy movement, but his analysis of parallel facts from around the world is still relevant.
He said that, in general parties in newly formed democracies face problems connected to leader-centric, top-down nature, self-interestedness and corruption, weak capacity or organizational development, lack of strong ties to defined constituency and lack of well defined ideologies, clear party programs and ability to formulate and implement policy.
Thomas Carothers stressed that new or struggling democracies lack knowledge and experience in democratic practices. However, he did not believe that their youth and inexperience are the main causes of their troubled organizational and operational characteristics. Older parties as Peronist Party in Argentina or the Indian National Congress, exhibit the same tendencies toward leader-centrism, ideological incoherence, corruption, like the parties in young democracies. ‘Accumulation of experience is not producing any noticeable ameliorative effect,’ he concluded.
Carothers observed that a signal characteristic of new or struggling democracies is the mushrooming of (usually donor-funded) civil society organizations immediately after the fall of the authoritarian regime. Many of these new civil society organizations are advocacy NGOs that are wary of parties and uninterested in being closely associated with them. These organizations compete with parties, often aggressively and effectively, for citizens’ attention and support, for talent, and for policy influence.
Other structural factors that plague new democracies are weak rule of law, poverty, constraints on Policy Choices from lack of ideological definition and socioeconomic cleavages, anti-political legacies inherited from long and harsh dictatorial rule, strong presidency with extremely weak legislatures and judiciaries.
Political parties are differentiated between non-democratic countries with single-party systems, emasculated party systems, malign dominant party systems; and countries with basic level of democracy that have benign dominant party systems, unstable distributed party systems and stable distributed party systems.
Discussion about democratic governmental system can sometimes be confused with Capitalism, ‘a market economy’, which is a legal system to safeguard private property and allow free trade in competitive markets regardless of a country’s political system.
They are interrelated but not the same. Both subjects are extraordinarily broad and it is impossible to make a quick comment on them.
On capitalism, Bogyoke Aung San Museum in Rangoon has on exhibit, ‘The Wealth of Nations,’ by Adam Smith, that used to belong to General Aung San. Adam Smith is the intellectual father of capitalism. He explained how competition maximizes productivity and social welfare by assuring the optimal allocation of capital and labor in the overall economy; according to Yardeni and Moss.
It is well known now that Adam Smith’s capitalism has outlived Karl Marx’s communism!
Ever wise and cautious General Aung San remarked over sixty years ago that, “In the sphere of world relations, there is an increasing conflict of opinions between the Soviet Union on one side and the Anglo-American combination on the other… We greatly admire the might and prowess of this Socialist Fatherland (Soviet Union) and we recognise its great role in defeating Fascism in Europe especially.”
And he continued that, “We have been encouraged by the intention of greatest democracy of the world (United States) to champion the liberty and freedom of all nations in the world as testified to by the late President Roosevelt’s interpretation of the Atlantic Charter and by President Truman’s twelve-point foreign policy. We have been very much elevated by the great contributions made by this world’s Number One Democracy to the cause of world freedom and by those of her greatest men of history such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and the late President Roosevelt. In our country we have learnt to repeat often the immortalised phrase of President Lincoln – Government of the people, by the people, and for the people….”
‘The development of history is not a sudden and accidental flash in the pan, but a continuous dynamic process… and it is not always a smooth placid one in its course.’
“This then is how we must conceive of our freedom struggle --that it may run several gauntlets before it comes to its destined goal,” concluded, the founding father, General Aung San.
Comments:
Myo Nyunt (myanmarmyo), Myanmar Studies, Australia, said _
Dear May Ng, may be, but a spectre still haunts the World. Pour Marx .....
May Ng replied _
David Wessel from The Wall Street Journal declared in his review of ‘Good
Capitalism, Bad Capitalism’, by 85 years old William Baumol, and Robert Litan,
that; “the contest between capitalism and communism is over. China and, even
Russia are moving away from central planning and collective ownership toward
markets and private property.”
Wessel said that, the strength of U.S. capitalism is from better mixed
ingredients of talent, imagination, education, science and capital. But the
apparent risks of it includes workers who lose jobs and find new ones that pay
far less and lack health insurance, widening disparities between economic
winners and losers, challenges posed by stiffening competition from low-wage,
increasingly skilled workers abroad, and schools that aren’t improving as fast
as the economy is changing.
Fidel Castro ‘the thorn on US side’ is still dragging Cuba deeper into the dust;
and now his buddy Hugo Chavez is coming back with a ‘full left turn’ by seizing
on weaknesses of capitalism, that left most of Venezuelans behind; haunting the
capitalists’ hasty announcement of their triumph over communism.
Therefore, you are right my friend! There is the spectre haunting the world on
behalf of the under dogs; even at present ‘raging market capitalism.’
Your Comments here_
Request: If you can kindly volunteer to translate BURMA DIGEST English articles into Burmese, please let us know burmadigest@tayzathuria.org.uk .
Last issue's
English articles
