"These events are obscured by the democratic rhetoric employed by both the administration and the protestors. The administration claims, for good reasons, that it is the democratically elected representative of the people and the protesters fire back, claiming they are the true voice of the people. Although the mainstream media has reinforced this trope, the issue at stake is not authoritarianism vs. hooliganism—democracy is obviously both electoral and public. However the past two weeks demonstrate that even after free and fair elections a country can be torn by rifts of deep hate between those who are steering the country and proponents of the ancien regime. Somehow neither appeals to the ballot box nor direct civil disobedience is enough to create a politics of love. Perhaps there is something amiss when we only appeal to democratic rhetoric. We should not overestimate it’s ability in healing past injustices, communal violence and hatred. Democratic rhetoric can mask as well as expose real antagonisms and difference. With the growing number of Islamic democracies in the region, each can ask itself: how should an Islamic democracy deal with the leftover resentment of their secularist citizens? What makes it Islamic, really? Turkey shows us that democratic rhetoric risks repeating the lack of imagination witnessed with modern governance more generally. For example, why is there no qualitative difference in an Islamist response and say the ruthless response of the NYPD against the “occupy movement” on Wall Street? Do we see anything different from the same old tear gas, brutal arrests, riot police and water cannons witnessed in both Cairo last year and anti-globalization movements in Europe? Perhaps the most ironic aspect of these past two weeks is that both the administration and the opposition are not so different from each other. They both rely on the trope of naive faith in democratic rhetoric alone. Hiding behind democratic rhetoric does not deal with real feelings and real differences. Taking power hurts no matter how one does it. And taking power, even democratically, is never pretty."
Posted on: Sun, 16 Jun 2013 12:48:50 +0000
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