I've started a new habit/hobby. Instead of reading on the train or plain staring out the window, I whip out a pen and pad and start writing. About anything - about basketball, life, a poem, or in this case about human rights. Some of it is intended to be posted on my blog, others will remain concealed and will never see the light of day. This is one I've been working on since I came back from NZ.
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Is Democracy a basic human right?
1 March
Whenever my brother and I are travelling on public transport, people stop. Stare. And listen. Maybe it's the way we look. More likely its what we talk about. We talk about normal everyday stuff like music, uni, our friends, random stuff. But more often that not the convo's get deep and we start talking about current events, politics, geo-political news, war, economics, business.
Last Friday on the plane trip to NZ was no different. I brought up the Schappelle Corby trial, Guantomo bay and the ideal that everyone was entitled to a fair trial. I stated that there were basic universal human right like:
- freedom of speech
- freedom of religious choice
- right to be free of persecution
- right to a fair trial
and so on.............
He then hit me with a counterpunch with the force of Ali: "So your saying that democracy is a human right? Cause those things can exist in a democratic country". I thought about it and was stumped. He made a good point.
I normally associate the term democracy with politics, as in the right to be able to freely elect a government. But there are other things that flow from it. I just fundamentally don't believe that democracy is a basic human right. But how can I not? Those freedoms can only truly exist in a democratic society.
I think that most people would agree that the rights I listed above would be within basic human rights but also disagree that democracy is one of them. The system of government that a country has in its place we (outsiders) cannot control or modify. I am a big proponent of state sovereignty - the right of a nation to govern itself and to have its preferred political system in place. We have to respect that. And recently we've seen war waged on a country (ahem, Iraq) in the name of bringing democracy to the Iraqi peoples. The weapons argument didn't quite work out. For the outsiders to impose a system of governance would stretch our ideals too far.
So can democracy and basic human rights be separated or reconciled?I'm not sure. I'm not convinced that democracy is the answer to human rights. But the idea of human rights most probably sprung from democracy.
I look at countries like Singapore, that is considered "democractic" and first world. But I also consider the restrictions they have on their peoples. State control of media, curtailment of people movement, no mental element required for drug offences. Then I spin the world globe and place my eye on the land of the free, America. There is no basic wage rate, high levels of poverty, inequality of distribution of wealth. But relatively speaking, the human rights in these democratic countries are surely a lot better than in non-democratic nations.
This is because, for every level of state protection that we strip away we increase our freedoms. Hence every layer of regulation we add on, we restrict our freedoms. Therefore to have real freedoms, that is the idea of basic human rights we must have democracy. Democracy and human rights must go hand in hand. It is a symbiotic relationship. We cannot have one without the other. If we have state controlled media like in China, can the views of the oppressed/marginalised/those that have a view different to the government be heard? Most likely not.
I recognise that my views are biased/tainted. Being raised in Australia and taught at free thinking institution (UTS!) and learning about Western laws has influenced my way of thinking. Human rights is surely a western ideal pushed heavily by Western governments, media, Non Government Organisations's like the UN and other advocate groups in democractic countries. If Indonesia/Iraq/China ruled the world instead of Western countries, would our views on human rights and democracy be different? Of course. Dictatorship/Communism/Muslim type governments would be encouraged and the Western ideas of human rights would be curtailed. Instead, Western countries rule the world and dictate that democracy is the solution to many of the world's poorer countries.
In honestly, I don't think democracy is utopia. But it surely is a good place to start in securing basic freedoms.
Now isn't the world a better place?
DJ Ho.
p.s. if i don't "bring it" today against Mac Bank in our bball game, let it be known that I was blogging at 4.30am. Thankyou Howard for bringing that to my attention that we aren't playing Mallesons (PUNK!)
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