Zenith and nadir of February 15
by Abbas Zaidi
On Saturday,
February 15, wherever the sun shone, it was an extraordinary
sight: anti-war protesters had filled the streets. In New
Zealand, where the sun rises before it does anywhere else in the
world, thousands gathered in cities across the country. Over the
Auckland harbour, a plane trailed a banner reading "No
War----Peace Now," at the America's Cup sailing competition. In
Japan, the land of the rising sun, more than 5,000 people
protested in front of the US embassy against the American plan
to invade Iraq. In Australia hundreds of thousands of people
protested against the United States and their own government.
Peace rallies were organised in South Korea, Thailand, Malaysia,
Indonesia, Hong Kong, Bangladesh, Kashmir, Lebanon, and Syria.
In the biting cold of Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Brussels, and
Ukraine people came out on streets protesting against the United
States. Crowds were estimated at 10,000 in Amsterdam and
Copenhagen, 5,000 in Capetown and 4,000 in Johannesburg in South
Africa. Berlin, Amsterdam, and London saw some of the largest
peace rallies in modern times.
But more important than
that: In the Bosnian city of Mostar, Muslims and Croats united for
an anti-war protest----the first such cross-community action in
seven years in a place where ethnic divisions here remain tense
despite the 1995 Bosnian peace agreement. In the divided Cyprus,
about 500 Greeks and Turks braved heavy rain for a march which
briefly blocked the end of a runway at a British air base.
All the countries
mentioned above are different from one another in many ways:
language, culture, history, race, outlook, to say the least. And yet
they were united in denouncing war and demanding peace. Why? The
answer is: Democracy. Syria’s and Malaysia’s political systems are
far from perfect and favour the parties in power; but elections are
held in both countries that do give voice to opposition. That’s
perhaps the reason that in these countries the anti-war protests
were organised by the governments.
The significance of the
anti-war protests all over the democratic world is that people can
freely express their displeasure with their own rulers if they feel
the latter are transgressing the mandate that the former’s vote has
given them. It was quite a sight in Glasgow on 15 February where
Tony Blair was presenting his pro-war case, and many in the audience
were upholding no-war placards. The government of the United States
is hell-bent on invading Iraq; but millions of Americans have been
protesting against their own government.
But 15 February had its
darker side too. The sun, by and large, did not shine on the Muslim
world. The autarchs of the Central Asia, the monarchs of the Arab
world, and the “democrats” of Pakistan and Egypt expressed their
support for peace efforts in Iraq, but at the same time were quick
to endorse their support to the US-led war against terror, which
explicitly means invading Iraq. The rulers----in fact the abusers of
power----of the Islamic world are busy undermining the very
foundations of their societies by suppressing dissent. George Bush
and Tony Blair, whatever they are, dare not suppress dissent, thanks
to the democratic system in their countries. On the contrary, the
Muslim countries are more or less graveyards of human rights. For
example, in the “democratic” Egypt alone there are sixty thousand
political prisoners who have never been put through a legal trial.
In the pseudo-democracies of the Central Asia, the opponents of
governments disappear for good. Imagine the Islamic countries where
not even a shred of democratic pretence exists. . .
In the history of the
world peace February 15 will be remembered the day when
democracy----the political system of the infidel, as the Muslim
fanatics claim----triumphed by transcending over the barriers of
race, religion, geography, language, and many more. Even if
sometimes democracy puts the wrong people in power, non-democratic
systems----like the ones in almost all the Islamic
countries----produce the worst abusers and violators of human rights
and dignity. Everyone knows that invading Iraq is George Bush’s
ultimate dream. And yet, thanks to democracy, he has not been able
to take a single ultra vires step to stop the anti-warriors
in his own country. Hence, while the Bush Administration was
churning out one larcenous plea after another, peace activists all
over the Unites States and beyond were getting ready to challenge
him on 15 February. And while the people of the democratic countries
of the world were planning to hold peace rallies, the feudal Kingdom
of Saudi Arabia was threatening the pilgrims in Mukkha and Madina to
effectively blow them up if they raised a single anti-war squeak.
The tone of the Saudi government was enough to remind the pilgrims
of the 402 Iranian pilgrims that were cut down by the Saudi police
for raising anti-US slogans. The Saudi government also told the
pilgrims to get out of the country immediately after performing the
haj. Or else. One would not be surprised if anti-war protests
are organised even in Israel.
Abbas Zaidi writes for The Nation, Lahore. His writings have appeared,
amongst others, in Exquisite Corpse, The Salisbury Review, and
Southern Oceanic Review.
by the same author:
