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From: wolda002@umn.edu
Date: Wed May 12 2010 - 16:14:10 EDT
>From America to Thailand, the elites are under siege
By Ian Buruma
Commentary by
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
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Elites are under siege in every corner of the world. “Tea Party”
activists in exurban America rant and rage against the so-called liberal
elites of New York, Washington, and Hollywood. In Europe, populist
demagogues, such as Geert Wilders in The Netherlands, rant and rage against
the elitist “appeasers” of Islam. In Thailand, red-shirted
demonstrators from the country’s rural northeast rant and rage against
the military, social, and political elites of Bangkok.
The first principle of democracy is that government must be based on
popular consent, even if the government is made up of parties for which
many people did not vote. It is clear from the worldwide rage against
elected governments that this consent is becoming dangerously threadbare.
More and more people in democratic countries feel unrepresented, anxious,
and angry. And they blame the elites.
The phenomenon is worldwide, but its causes differ from country to country.
American populism is not the same as Thai populism. Culture and race play
important roles in the United States – the culture of carrying guns, for
example, and the discomfort at having a black, Harvard-educated president
who talks like a law professor.
In Thailand, the rage stems from the perceived neglect of the rural poor by
the ruling class, backed by big business, the army, and the king. The
populist billionaire and former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, appeared
to be different. He used some of his vast wealth to shower money on rural
areas. Rural people, grateful for his largesse, voted for him twice.
Authoritarian, crude, and somewhat megalomaniacal (almost as though he were
a king himself), Thaksin was a Thai version of Silvio Berlusconi. He was
removed from office in 2006, following a bloodless military coup that was
supported by the Bangkok middle class, whose members took to the streets in
yellow T-shirts (the color of the Thai monarchy). Today’s ongoing
pro-Thaksin red-shirt rebellion is a form of revenge.
In Europe, the power of the European Union, often-uncontrolled immigration,
and economic globalization are challenging feelings of national belonging,
of being represented by national governments, or of sharing national
cultures. Demagogues who denounce multiculturalism and warn of the
“Islamization” of the West are exploiting the resultant fears about the
loss of national identity.
The sense that globalization is creating new classes of haves and have-nots
is a factor that inflames most current forms of populism, regardless of
national differences. At the same time, new technology, without which
globalization would not be possible, is being used to mobilize people for
populist causes, too.
The heroine of the United States’ Tea Party movement, Sarah Palin, is as
much a creature of twittering and the vast new blogosphere as she is of
television and radio – perhaps more so. Indeed, the shift of public
debate from the mainstream press to the internet has helped to break down
the authority of traditional elites: newspaper editors, political
columnists, academics, politicians. In cyberspace, anyone can have his or
her say. This is more democratic, no doubt, but it has made it harder for
people to sift nonsense from truth, or demagoguery from rational political
debate.
The tone of populist movements, whether in Europe, Asia, or the United
States, would suggest that the elites are too powerful, that they dominate
the little people, whose voices are drowned out by the liberals, the
multiculturalists, and the city slickers. This is a common form of populist
paranoia, promoted in the US by radio talk-show hosts and Fox television,
and in Europe by men like Wilders.
To some extent, the elites have themselves to blame. Immigration in Europe
has been messy, and those who complained were too quickly dismissed as
racists. After endorsing a military coup to get rid of Thaksin, the
yellow-shirts of Bangkok can hardly blame the red-shirts for using
undemocratic tactics to force the current government to step down. American
liberals, too, are often guilty of sneering at the tastes and habits of
their provincial countrymen.
There is, however, another way to look at the worldwide surge of populism.
The real problem of traditional elites may not be too much power, but too
little. The lack of trust in political elites is linked to a suspicion,
which is not entirely irrational, that elected governments have little
authority. The real power, people suspect, is lodged elsewhere – on Wall
Street, in the unelected European Union bureaucracy, in the Royal Thai Army
and Thailand’s royal palace.
What people crave in uncertain times is strong leadership from charismatic
figures who promise to sweep the stables, get rid of corruption, and stand
up for the little man against selfish politicians and against foreigners
who threaten us with strange habits and religions. Such times are dangerous
for democracy, because they endanger popular consent to democratic
governments.
To regain respect, our elected politicians will have to show more
authority, not less. US President Barack Obama is right to call for more
regulation of financial markets. In Europe, either the EU must become more
democratic, which will take a long time, or national governments must
delegate less to the bureaucrats in Brussels.
Thailand might face the hardest problems. Reliance on a self-promoting
tycoon like Thaksin is not the best way to boost democracy, but nor is
reliance on military coups and kingly intervention. Most Thais would agree
about the military. And it is illegal to even begin to discuss the role of
the king. But without discussion, democracy is surely doomed.
Ian Buruma is a professor of democracy and human rights at Bard College.
His latest book is “Taming the Gods: Religion and Democracy on Three
Continents”. THE DAILY STAR publishes this commentary in collaboration
with Project Syndicate © (www.project-syndicate.org).
Read more:
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=5&article_id=114760##ixzz0nkRhveIu
(The Daily Star :: Lebanon News :: http://www.dailystar.com.lb)