NY Times: The Wrong Man to Promote Democracy (Another dictator we support)

[La_Serpiente]

The Wrong Man to Promote Democracy

CAIRO — This week, President Bush played host to President Zine el-Abidine ben Ali of Tunisia, giving this ruthless autocrat a long-coveted audience at the White House. To his credit, Mr. Bush rebuked Mr. ben Ali for his violations of press freedom, but the United States is sorely mistaken if it believes that democracy and the rule of law can ever take hold under leaders like Mr. ben Ali. The Bush administration's welcome of Mr. ben Ali makes America's aggressive promotion of democratic reform in the Arab world ring hollow.

It's not obvious from Mr. Bush's public statements, but Tunisia today is one of the world's most efficient police states. Since his ouster of President Habib Bourguiba in a coup in 1987, Mr. ben Ali has quashed virtually all dissent and silenced a civil society that once was an example of vibrancy for North Africa and the neighboring Middle East. In the early 1990's, the regime cracked down on the country's Islamist movement, arbitrarily arresting thousands of suspected activists and subjecting them to torture and unfair trials. Mr. ben Ali then extended his crackdown to human rights defenders, opposition leaders and independent journalists. (I, for example, was stripped of my accreditation after 19 years as a journalist following the publication of an interview with a human rights advocate.)

Tunisian society is now a shell of its former self; political debate is relegated to a whisper under the gaze of the omnipresent secret police. Newspapers are filled with Soviet-style hagiography: Mr. ben Ali is called the Architect of Change, a title that's hard to accept given that last year he won a referendum (with more than 99 percent of the vote) that will allow him to run for a fourth presidential term in 2004 and grant him immunity from prosecution for life. Meanwhile, human rights advocates have to put up with constant surveillance, the cutting of their phone lines, anonymous threats, and even attack by thugs for the regime.

For more than a decade, American policy toward Tunisia has quietly ignored these excesses, focusing instead on the country's role as moderate ally in a turbulent region, a supporter of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, and a model of relative prosperity for the Arab world. The Congressional delegations that periodically visit the country have heaped praise on Mr. ben Ali, with one congressman a few years back lauding him as a statesman who has "done a tremendous job in Tunisia and who is well respected back home as well as here in the Arab world." During his visit to Tunis in December, Secretary of State Colin Powell gently prodded the government to adopt "more political pluralism and openness" while expressing admiration for Mr. ben Ali's leadership skills.

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The Wrong Man to Promote Democracy

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[4dsc]

1. Dubya's just getting some pointers

for his 8 year reich!!