this post was submitted on 28 Feb 2024
89 points (98.9% liked)
worldnews
4807 readers
1 users here now
Rules:
-
Be civil. Disagreements happen, that does not give you the right to personally insult each other.
-
No racism or bigotry.
-
Posts from sources that aren't known to be incredibly biased for either side of the spectrum are preferred. If this is not an option, you may post from whatever source you have as long as it is relevant to this community.
-
Post titles should be the same as the article title.
-
No spam, self-promotion, or trolling.
Instance-wide rules always apply.
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
I agree with you entirely, what I was trying to say is something like you said
What I was trying to say in a dumber way, you have to create an "ecosystem" for democracy and just elections are not enough. Idk what is the best path for Pakistan, but countries like that usually need a complex institution overhaul and educate the population to function as a decent democracy, and sometimes just trying to force this European view of democracy can introduce even more chaos, like in Libya
I can't speak to how things are playing out in Libya, but in Pakistan western powers have almost done the opposite. They have no qualms in working directly with the military to further their geopolitical interests, and historically the periods of dictatorship have been when Pakistan has gotten the most economic & material assistance from the US.
Right now, Pakistan is undergoing yet another democratic crisis as the recent elections were clearly rigged by the military. The US has decided to treat it as an "internal matter" and not put any pressure. If they had done something like make getting the next IMF loan contingent on an external audit of the election results, or on stopping digital censorship (Twitter/X has been blocked here for the past 2 weeks to suppress discussion of the rigged election results), it might even the odds a bit and help citizens and political parties challenge the hegemony of the military over the political process.
But yes regime change and just toppling dictators and installing your favorite candidate is not the answer.
This is very similar what we had in Brazil, but the argument was that supporting a "temporary" military junta was "more democratic" than a social Democratic government cause they were communists.
lol. lmao. Well there you go. That is the kind of role Western powers play in our democracies. In Pakistan also, the Reagan administration gave a lot of support to General Zia ul Haq so that he could arm the Taliban to defeat communists in the Afghan civil war. And, surprise surprise, Zia also started a heavy crackdown on all left-wing movements in Pakistan, especially student unions.
This exactly what happened in Brazil, the argument was that a militar junta influenced by the catholic church was more democratic than a social democratic president not aligned with US. And this was actually an argument.