George Bush looked perplexed yesterday in his press conference, although he seemed to have a pretty good grip on theimplications of the results of the Palestinian elections, in which the terrorist organization Hamas seems to have won in a virtual landslide. He put it down to overall Palestinian dissatisfaction with the ruling Fatah Party, and that groups reputation for corruption and inefficiancy.
"People want services". he explained, with a downcast expression. "People want health care."
Yes, and people love irony, I know I do, and as unintentional as this was, Bush seemed aware, uncomfortably so, of the irony of his statements.
He could afford to be ironic in this case, because although in this regard the Palestinian elections were a turning point, and seemed to point to a demand for more responsive government, in other respects these same elections point to a trend that seems to be worldwide.
In Canada, dissatisfaction with the liberal government there has resulted in the election of the conservative party. In Europe, dissatisfaction with the economic conditions and with certain aspects related to terrorism and especially in regards to immigration from Muslim countries has led a number of EU countries to reject the EU constitution. Even France, one of the charter founding nations of the EU movement, turned it down. Additionally, the latest reports out of Britain seem to indicate that the Tories, the conservative party once headed by former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, may be poised to retake the government by the time of the next elections there.
And of course it is grave cause for concern in most quarters that the experiment in imported democracy into Muslim countries, especially those of majority Arab populations, might be trending toward the election of conservative, religous based parties. Palestine is only the latest example to join the ranks of Iran and Iraq in choosing leaders who seem more interested in establishing an Islamic based rule by the Koran than in insuring true representative democracy.
Of course, the latest example in Gaza may be as much a case study of iner party unity than anything. The national elections in Palestine was close, originally, the majority enjoyed by hamas over Fatah being slightly reminiscent of the close election of George W. Bush over John Kerry. But a strange thing happenned on the way to the polls. A great lot of the people who voted for Fatah, the party founded by the late Yassir Arafat, decided inexplicabl to vote for Hamas in a great many ofthe various local elections. Wisely, Hamas ran typically only one candidate in each of these local elections, including the ones for the Palestinian Parliament. Fatah, meanwhile, more often than not fielded at times as many as three or four seperate candidates, in each of the sixty six precincts.
Faced with such a divided oppossition, Hamas easily won these elections, and by a large majority. Those people who voted for Fatah in the national elections, then turned right around and voted for hamas in the local elections, in effect cancelled out their own votes.
Now, Hamas is faced with the daunting task of trying to form a new government. Will they suceed? Bush has made it clear he will do no business with any entity that has in it's charter the stated goal of the destruction of the nation of Israel. He also wants present Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas to remain in power. So what's a country to do? It seems as though the people have decided.
Yet, suppossedly, the majority of the Palestinian people, want peace. They just didn't trust Fatah to cleanhouse, to rid itself of the corruption and cronysim, and ineficency, that has marked it's past ascendancy. The ball is now, it seems, in hamas's court.
It seems that the United States, is, therefore, once again leading the world, with this trend toward conservative governments and/or ideologies. In the case of the Muslim world, even the conservatives are probably not so pleased at this turn of events. Even the election of Hamid Kharzai in Afghanistan is problematic, insofar as little if anything has been done to eradicate the poppy fields, which has been a traditional mainstay of the Afghan economoy for decades. In fact, heroin production seems to be on the verge of a renaissance.
And in the meantime, the conservative movement here in the United States, which seems to have started the trend, may be in the beginning stages of it's death throes. It will not die a peaceful death, in fact, it might recover sufficiently to hold on to power for a few more years, if not decades to come. There is a lot at stake, a lot riding, on the conservatives here maintaining power. Certain factions in this country are determined to turn it into a feudal empire, and they will not give up easily. Nor do I expect this perverse ideology to ever be completey destroyed.
It may fade away for awhile, it will certainly undertake various reformist elements. But it won't go away for long.
The one area of the world that might be braced to buck this trend, incidentally, are those nations that are better poised to smell the stench of the American carcase. The nations of Central and South America, the most notable and obvious examples being those of Venezuela, , Bolivia, and possibly, soon, even Mexico. The socialist noise circulating in tha part of the world is deafening.
And to me, heartening. The world needs balance.
