State Department official outlines views on Worldnet broadcast

By Ralph Dannheisser
Washington File Special Correspondent

Washington -- Muslim countries are as fully able to adapt to democracy as other nations around the world, said a top U.S. official.

Indeed, the truth of the view that "there is nothing about the Islamic religion that impedes democracy" is evidenced by the fact that democracies already exist "in different states of development" in Muslim countries from Bangladesh to Indonesia to Morocco, according to Lorne Craner, Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor.

Craner outlined his views in a satellite television dialog with journalists in Damascus, Cairo and Jerusalem on the Worldnet "Global Exchange" broadcast September 3.

He said his extensive travels to Muslim countries in the Arab world, South Asia and Southeast Asia, have convinced him that, just as there were no impediments to democracy in Latin America, Asia and central Europe, "there are no cultural or religious impediments to democracy in this region." Those regions, he said, like the Muslim world, also faced initial skepticism by outsiders over their ability to develop democracy.

"The bottom line is I have never been anywhere in the world where people did not want more control over their own lives, where they wanted somebody else controlling everything in their life," Craner said. "And I don't think people in the Middle East want that any more than people in Mexico do or Mali do or Mongolia do."

With specific reference to Iraq, Craner expressed confidence that the country would be well on its way to a government that was democratic in form within a year. "That means they will have a constitution, they will be planning for elections, [and] there will be an electoral commission where people can go and register as political parties," he said.

"These things don't happen overnight. Democracy is not ... something that you add water to and it springs up overnight," Craner observed. He cited the examples of Japan and Germany, now vibrant democracies, whose transition in the 1940s took time after years of dictatorship in those countries.

Craner stressed that the impetus for democracy must come from within, rather than being imposed by outside forces.

"It is only the people within a country that can create democracy. We can assist them, as we are doing in Iraq, but we cannot create a democracy in Iraq," he said. But he added that those internal forces already exist in Iraq, where many people who lived through the repressive regime of Saddam Hussein "not only want to create the ... governmental institutions that are necessary for democracy, but also the civil society institutions."

Craner acknowledged, in response to a question, that the United States has had "particular advantages" in some countries when they were not democratically run. He cited, as a prime example, the "wonderful basing rights" the U.S. had received from the Philippines when it was under the dictatorial rule of Ferdinand Marcos.

Despite the loss of those bases when a democratic government succeeded Marcos, Washington officials are "very happy" with the relationship with the Philippines today, he said.

"Why? Because the country is democratic, because it's stable and because the people ... have the right, if they don't think the government is producing, to change it," he said.

Asked specifically how the United States would react if free elections in Iraq produced as Islamic government, Craner cited Turkey as an example of a country that has an Islamic government, and with which the United States maintains good relations.

"Just because a country is democratic, it does not mean we're going to agree on every issue with the government of that country," Craner said. "The point [in a democracy] is, again, that the people of the country have the opportunity, if they don't like the government in power, to change it," he said.

Asked, with reference to Iraq, whether democracy can be built in the face of a deteriorating security situation, Craner emphasized that improving security is a priority. However, he said, building democracy is possible even in a difficult security situation, even though that is "obviously not ideal."

He pointed out that "it's the very people who are afraid to see democracy -- who would like to bring back a dictatorship -- who are making the security situation as it is. They fear what the Iraqi people really want."

Again, Craner told a questioner there is no need for Iraq to replicate the American model of democracy. "There is no one perfect model in the world. Every country has slight differences or major differences on how they implement democracy," he said.

Craner said ample models for study are beginning to appear in the Middle East and other Muslim countries, and gave Qatar and Morocco as examples. "You don't need to come to my country. You can come to countries in the Middle East and see how they're doing it and how they're opening their political systems," he said.

The State Department official deemed it ironic that many of the countries that have made real progress toward democratic reforms -- citing Morocco, Jordan, Qatar and Bahrain -- are monarchies. "So I think republicans in the area ought to take some examples from their royal neighbors and start becoming more and more democratic. It's rather ironic, but that's the way it should be," he said.

(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)