Saddam was not a saint, but is Bush better?

Agreed, Saddam was not a saint but look who is the judging him. What was the hurry? Were they scared of a man in custody cut off from the world? He was sentenced for the killing of 148 men how many have died after the futile search for WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION? He was virtually on his knees just before the war letting in UNITED NATIONS observors but the judgement came before the beginning of trial. Bush had to avenge his father’s defeat. His father lost an election even after winning a war, whereas Saddam was in power even after losing it. That war was just, elder Bush was right, Iraq was the agressor then.

Saddam was a dictator, tyrant and unjust. He killed Kurds and opressed Shias, common knowledge but let us look at the positives. He was the only secular leader in the middle east. He kept Iraq unified and peaceful, that is ofcourse a comparative statement. What after Saddam? Is the world a better and safe place now? The American people killed in Iraq outnumber the people killed in 9/11 attacks. The falling of twin towers was one of the reasons attributed to the war on Iraq, it is now more or less clear Saddam had nothing to do with it. He was a cruel person but not a fanatic religious person (no 2 in his cabinet was a christian, unheard of in that part of the world).

Now what happens? People of the BAATH party retaliate, Iran becomes more powerful and nobody knows how to control the violence. No questions being raised about providing arms to Saddam during the Iran-Iraq war. You create a monster and don’t know how to control it. The Saudi reaction not come so far. They are not angels, are they? Is anybody listening? Medieval law is practiced there, what is democracy nobody knows there. They have been accused of funding terrorists but are allies. Human rights violations are common. Executions take place in public areas, killing by stoning is a part of justice.

Saddam was far from a good ruler there is no doubt about it but let us remember the good things he did also. Iraqis lived much more peacefuly then (I know a few Indians who went there in search of greener pastures and they remember good times). I’m sure there are also a few westerners who lived happily there. But that was in the 1980′s. The timing of the execution creates doubts. The judges were the victors. It definitely seems to be a victor’s justice. This is a puppet regime controlled by outsiders and their judgement creates doubts. If Saddam was guilty, he was guilty of torturing his own people and so they should have been the ones to decide his fate. So many people in world history have got away with committing crimes far worse than his, because they died while still in power. The world looked the other way when these horrendous things happened. The Polpot regime is one such example. There are so many military dictators still who are no angels.

America is one of the best democracies of the world, their human righs record for their own people is impeccable. All citizens are equal before law, and the same can be said about the UK. But when it comes to people outside their own countries, its not the same. There should be some accountability for all their actions where vested interests are involved and human rights are violated. The rule of law should be the same for all humanity and not dictated by vested interests.

Justice at last

Recently we saw a big day for Indian judiciary. An innocent women bartender was killed by the son of a high profile minister 7 years ago. After money power and muscle power played its role, that poor woman was denied justice and the culprits were let free on a black day for the Indian judiciary. Another case of murder again of a woman same things happened except that this time the father of the accused was a senior police officer. Now the Indian middle class woke up. The fourth estate deserves all the praises for shaking the souls of the sleeping Indian public. Rallies, editorials, protests, dharnas and the result the High court grants life imprisonment to the murder and 4 years of rigorous imprisonment to the people who help him get away with that. Everybody happy and satisfied.

There are a few questions arising. The role of press, is the press supposed to take sides? As far as I understand, if they didn’t the culprits would have gone scot-free because the murderers could afford to scare the witnesses and buy the investigators. The best lawyers of the land were available to the scoundrels. The media had to act as one of us and not report objectively. The stakes were too high, the very confidence of people in a fair judiciary was shaken. How can anybody expect a 70 year old father to fight a powerful police officer alone?

The second question is about the judge himself. The judge of the lower court gave a decision which no body thought was fair. In one case he even accepted that he thinks that he knows that the culprit is getting away because of faulty investigation. The higher court convicted the murder on the same investigation, analysed sensibly this time. The judges have to be accountable the cannot get away after giving such decisions.

The third and the most imporatant part is the parents of the convicts are guilty too. They cannot use their money and muscle power and let these villains roam free after committing such heinous crimes. There is an old saying, first hit the thief’s mother then hit the thief himself. She is responsible for raising such a child. In this case they not only raise such villains they make them believe they can get away with any crime and are above the law of the land.

Side effects of democracy

I was born in a democracy and I have not known any other system . India is the largest democracy of the world and the despite the fact that literacy rate is not very high the number of people taking part in an election are too many.We have seen transfer of power from one party to another without blood shed and very smoothly.Still there so many problems in a democratic system.Firstly the party that comes to power is the one that gets maxim no of votes which in a multi party democracy like ours could be the one that gets about 30 % of votes which means that the will of 70% people doesn’t prevail.

Some days back in reference to another post one of the readers commented on minorities (racial,religious or any other ) voting in a block which means they are vote banks because majority always votes individually and thus their votes counter each other.The politicians make use of these voting patterns and try and divide people so that insecuirity increases among the minorities and thus the divide increases.

This doesn’t help anybody except the vested interests.The poor people who are normally the illiterate ones as well are lured into voting for these selfish people by either showing them dreams of good life or scaring them .This impoverished lot is the one that comes for voting ,the literate and the well to do prefer discussing politics in their drawing room.I have seen so many corrupt politicians being elected by using these tactics.

The politicians with good intentions can’t take risks because if they are not elected they are no good anyways.This is not the case with poor countries alone; we have seen George bush being elected the second time with wafer thin majority .What happens to the wishes of the people who voted against him even though their numbers were nearly as much as was of the people who voted for him. Hamas gets elected in Palestine but I don’t know how it would help the people over there?

Pinochet is apreciated by Margaret Thatcher because not only did he stop communism from spreading to Chile but he was the only leader in South America who was on Maggie’s side during the Falkland war.We very coveniently forget the human right abuses by him during his regime.More than 3 thousand people went missing during his rule.
We have to find some sort of middle path because the abuses of democracy currently outweigh its benefits. China is the flavour of the world today despite Tiananmen square ,no accountability there ,economy rules you see.For the world community, approach towards democracy is selective,Iraq is attacked -Saudi arabia is in good books.Iran is threatened -Mussharaf is a close ally.Double standards everywhere .Things have to be changed to make sure that the people of the world live in peace and with dignity, irrespective of race ,religion or economic power.