National 5 (Spotlight Weekly)

Against Populism

The United States and its allies ignore populism to take a hard stand against a regime that has defied international conventions

By KESHAB POUDEL

With the western alliance crumbling on the issue of war against Iraq, the world's sole super power is being challenged by a new coalition of Russia, France and China. The United Kingdom's most powerful and secure Prime Minister Tony Blair is facing political threat, as millions of people continue to rally against the war against Iraq. This has made Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's tyrannical regime happy.

From the streets of major cities in the United States and Britain to those around the world, one could see a flood of anti-war rallies organized to avert war in Iraq. Kathmandu, too, has witnessed anti-war rallies. The demonstrations here, though, are relatively small and participants are mostly political activists representing nine left parties.

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"The United States must stop the war and the Iraqi people must be given the right to choose their own destiny. The United States is trying to put its own hegemony over a small sovereign state," said Narayan Man Bijukcche, president of Nepal Workers and Peasants Party, a radical left outfit. Bijukcche is backed by the CPN-UML. "This war is against international law and no country has right to encroach upon the sovereignty of another country," said Madhav Kumar Nepal, general secretary of the UML.

The major democratic political parties have remained neutral on the US-led war against Iraq, the notable exception being Nepali Congress (Democratic), whose leader, former prime minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, openly supported the American-led campaign. The nine left parties, including the CPN-UML, have staged a couple of protest rallies against the United States and Britain.

In the United States and Britain, internal differences are gradually narrowing down after the military strikes on Iraq began. Rallies are now flaring up in Asia and other parts of the world. Fueled by the differences in the western alliance, anti-war groups have the solid moral backing of France, Germany, Russia and China. Although the French and Americans have very narrow differences over Saddam Hussein, with both agreeing that he is a terrible man who should be disarmed, their rifts are over how the mode of doing that. Saddam supporters' brilliance is that from such narrow differences, they have created so much disarray and bitterness.

In the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the decision to wage war against Taleban regime of Afghanistan, many countries had seen similar response. In many Asian countries, big rallies were held, with photographs of Osama Bin Laden and head of Taleban regime, Mullah Omar, held high. But the major western powers were together at that time.

Declaring a war is not a popular decision and nobody wants to see dead human bodies and destruction of property. Whether it is against the Taleban regime of Afghanistan, Iraq's Saddam Hussein or Pol Pot of Cambodia, every tyrannical regime makes effort to exploit this human weakness. People easily forget the tyranny and killings of such regimes when war looms large.

In real politics, populism cannot be a principle of governance. In many circumstances, the world's leaders have to take unpopular decisions necessary to restore world order and to end atrocities. Despite opposition at home and abroad, US President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair have sent their armies to wage war to topple Saddam Hussein and to liberate Iraq.

In opposing the move of the United States and Britain, the other powers seem to forget Saddam's invasion of tiny Kuwait and the killing of millions of his own people using the chemical and biological weapons. Some critics question why Saddam is being singled out when the world is full of human rights abusers? Simply, there is no match to the tyranny and atrocities of Saddam.

Although the United Nations has given Iraq more than 12 years to disarm, Saddam did not fulfil its international obligations. The Iraqi president even kicked out UN inspectors in 1998. This time, too, the Iraqi regime showed no sincere efforts to prove that it had complied with the UN. Determined to remove Saddam, Bush and Blair decided to wage war against Iraq.

Whether one likes it or not, Bush and Blair have shown that the populism cannot stop them when they perceive the danger of a regime trying to defy international order and rules of the civilized world.