The month of November saw two uncannily similar elections ― in Myanmar and Egypt. In both cases, the ruling dispensation carried the day at the hustings marred by repression, violence and electoral fraud. Democracy stood ruthlessly murdered.
The regimes in power reined in the media in the run-up to the elections and smothered all dissent. Both elections were a mockery of democratic processes and the regimes in power won handsomely.
The difference, however, lies in the details; among them is the reaction of the West.
The outrage that dominated all excoriations from Western governments in the case of Myanmar, was seemingly absent for that of Egypt. True, the United States called the reports "worrying" and admitted that it was "disappointed." But that was that. For one, the statement came only from National Security Council spokesman Mike Hammer. Second, the superpower went on the defensive when Egypt described the US reaction as "unacceptable interference" in the country's domestic affairs.
Compare this with the words of virulence that flowed heavier than the Irrawaddy when it came to attesting the electoral process in Myanmar, and the truth becomes clearer than the waters of the Nile ― the United States is unabashedly duplicitous when it comes to issues of human rights and democratic norms. If an enemy country does something, it is bad; if an ally does likewise, then it fails to muster the right words.
US President Barack Obama did find the right words for Myanmar during his visit to India last month. Obama went to the extent of exhorting India not to mince words for its military-ruled neighbour. He waxed eloquent on the values of a democratic polity and also that of human rights. The US President, however, was nowhere to be seen when it came to debunking the elections in Egypt.
It is also for this reason that the democratic veneer that the US shrouds itself with is increasingly perceived with suspect in many places of the world. It does not ask its allies to practice what it counsels it adversaries to.
Driven by its obsession with Iran, the US has only been hobnobbing with virtually totalitarian regimes in the Arab world, none of who are paragons of virtue. Many are not democracies even in name. Freedom of speech is a joke, human rights is a cruel joke. All the US wants is to nail Iran; and in its zeal to do so, it conveniently turns a blind eye to whatever goes on in its allied countries of the Arab world.
The US and its Western friends hyperventilate in expressing their anger over the Sakineh Ashtiani issue. True, it is something to be angry about. Especially for those who spend their lives advocating against the death penalty. But then, this Western indignation seems more of one directed at Iran than over any real concern for human rights. Were it to be so, the same nations would have used the same yardstick to browbeat ally Saudi Arabia, where a Sri Lankan maid is on a death row. The young woman is to be beheaded.
It is time US and its NATO friends stopped lecturing the world on human rights values and democratic ideals. You can't keep fooling the world in an age of WikiLeaks with empty rhetoric. Holding up the mirror to one's own face would be a better idea to see the emptiness within.
