by Eze Eluchie,
For too
long, the ‘international community’ has mistaken the ritual of having a date
set out when determinable segments of a country’s population troop out to
ostensibly express a political opinion as to who rules over the country as
indicative of the existence of Democracy – a system that must be coveted and
protected from reactionary forces. The clamour to raise whatever is touted as a
democracy to near-divine heights that must be protected and vilify whatsoever
efforts a populations makes to remove the heavy yoke at times imposed on populations
by pseudo-democracies has often times led to the imposition of dictatorships, civil
unrests (and outright internal conflicts) in some jurisdictions.
The responses
given to domestic governance issues and the failed coup in Turkey by external
actors best illustrates a growing paradox relating to ‘Democracy’ and global
reaction to pretenders to the lofty ideals of democracy.
Prior to the
night of 15th July 2016 when some elements of the Turkish military
rolled out of their Barracks unto the streets of Turkey in the now failed coup
attempt against their rulers increasingly dictatorial dispositions, there had
been noticeable widespread discontent with the increasing signs of descent to
fascism, heightening intolerance, clampdown on the Media and basic freedoms,
and repeated terror attacks in Turkey from diverse fronts. There had been
consistent efforts by the Tayyip Erdogan-led junta to gradually, but surely,
erode whatsoever levels of civil and individual liberties enjoyed by the
Turkish population and steadily impose a totalitarian dictatorship, whilst
operating under the guise of democracy. The Media was gradually being shackled,
the right to assembly and protest was met with brutal security operations and
the political opposition was gradually being forcefully extinguished.
Then comes the
coup bid - all and sundry, ‘the international community’, waited with bated
breaths to know if it will succeed, with many, particularly in the corridors of
power in Washington DC, Brussels, London and even Moscow, secretly hoping that
the coupists succeeded and signal the exit of a much loathed character; and the
moment the coup appeared to falter, all the usual noise on the need to uphold ‘democracy’
and condemn efforts to forcefully remove a ‘democratically’ (s)elected
government rent the air – with greater ferocity from the usual sources. Momentarily,
the descent Turkey had been making under its current ruling junta towards
totalitarianism seemed to have been eclipsed by the desire to appear to be on
the side of a ‘democracy’.
It sure did
not take long for Turkey’s maximum ruler to take advantage of the belated
condemnation of the coup bid and support for ‘democratically elected
governments’ by the ‘international community’ to convert the situation to a new
opportunity to continue, albeit with much vengeance and added gusto, a
devastating purge and clampdown on the Turkish society – all in the name of protecting
the ‘democracy’.
With hundreds
of educational, cultural and social institutions closed down, over 10,000
security operatives detailed, several thousand more academicians, clerics,
politicians and activists detained, and the Media worse hit with about 50 daily
newspapers, 20 magazines, 25 Radio stations and 20 Television channels closed
down, a blank cheque has been issued by the international community to extremist
demagogues intent on muzzling Turkey and reverse the very ideals of a secular
state initiated by the legendary founder of the Turkish Republic, Mustafa
Ataturk.
It is now
clear that with the gale of arrests and closures of private and state
institutions, information on torture of detainees and other wanton acts of
disrespect and abuse of fundamental rights, following the failed coup in
Turkey, soon enough, the international community will wish that the coup plot
in Turkey had indeed succeeded. Considering that the main beneficiary of the
failed coup plot is now clearly Mr. Tayyip Erdogan, whose stranglehold on the
Turkish state has been strengthened, questions are now being properly asked if
indeed the ‘failed coup’ attempt had not been craftfully manipulated as the
Turkish version of pre-WWII Germany’s 'Reichstag Fire' incident.
There has to
be a reappraisal of support for whatever portends to be a democracy. Conscious efforts
has to be made to unveil the veil, look beyond the outer coats and into the content, and
some form of criteria agreed on when a 'democracy' is no longer a 'democracy' and
has to be uprooted. Many countries in Sub Sahara Africa have suffered greatly
under rulership by pseudo-democracies who are foisted on populations by
interests far removed from the domestic populations. When a ‘democracy’ is no
longer democratic, it behoves on those bearing its yoke to do whatsoever to
remove the shackles, lest it destroys all.
Picture: 1. Detained
Turkish soldiers, and 2. Journalists being brutalized by pro-regime mob.
