There’s a lesson there about the efficiency of outsourcing compared to a state-owned organisation like the SAS. The bigger point, though, is that we are living through a period of revolutionary change that is leaving most of with heads spinning.
There’s a tale, probably apocryphal, of the cobbler living on the outskirts of Paris recording in his diary ‘not much happened today.’ The date: 14 July 1789. The story is usually told to illustrate how communications technology has sped up since the storming of the Bastille. It also serves to remind us how living through revolutionary events doesn’t necessarily mean we understand them. Famously, for some, it is too soon to properly judge the impact of the French Revolution. The events in the Middle East and north Africa are moving with such unpredictability and speed, the destination remains hidden.
I was in Paris 200 years to the day after our apocryphal cobbler made his diary entry. It was a huge youth festival to celebrate the anniversary of the French Revolution, and I was part of a Labour Students delegation. I recall a girl with a guitar performing a version of Tracey Chapman’s Talkin’ ‘Bout a Revolution, and she could sing the words and mean them. Nineteen eighty-nine was a year of political revolutions in the eastern bloc and former Soviet Union. For those of us who grew up in the Cold War under the shadow of the nuclear bomb, to watch the Communist dictators fall one by one, and the walls come tumbling down, was indeed bliss. Even the most democratic of democrats was allowed a cheer when the mob shot Ceausescu dead, and filmed it on a VHS camcorder. I travelled to Prague not long after their ‘velvet revolution’ to witness (and report for Tribune) on a country waking up after a long, cold winter. A sense of optimism ran through the streets like water.
Twenty years on, the capitals of the Baltic states and eastern Europe are salutary reminders of what happens when free market forces rip through an economy. Unfettered markets deliver consumer goods, Starbucks, Burger King and riches for some. They also deliver homelessness, prostitution , drugs and gangsterism. Whatever the young people risking their necks on the streets of Riga, Bucharest and Prague had in mind, I doubt it was to become world leaders in stag weekends.
There’s nothing velvet about the revolution in Libya. It’s an old-fashioned bloody fight between crowds and tanks, between hired thugs and ordinary men and women ejected from their mundane lives and turned into revolutionaries and martyrs. The news is coming in so fast, that even the internet is struggling to keep pace. As I write, sections of the army are defecting to the protesters’ side, embassies are being taken over, and Muammar Gaddafi sounds increasingly deranged. By the time you read this, the Mad Dog may have gone.
What next? The lessons from 1989 are that to end a hated dictatorship and replace it in a matter of months with a free market will turn Tripoli, Benghazi and the other Libyan cities into the Wild West. Support must be given to the Libyan trade unions, to women’s organisations, and to the other elements of a civic society. If we’ve learned anything from Iraq, it is that a pluralist democracy takes time and patience to build. It doesn’t appear through wishful thinking.
The bravery of the Libyan people must be matched by investment in a new Libya, with representative democracy, strong institutions, separation of powers, an independent judiciary and civil rights for every Libyan. On current evidence, the British government hasn’t given post-revolutionary Libya a second’s thought. They must make a start.
You are absolutely right to draw a comparison between what has been going on in the Arab world in recent weeks and the events of 1989. There are of course many differences, but also important similarities. And we must remember, as you say, that ‘a pluralist democracy takes time and patience to build’. I have lived in Prague for much of the time that has passed since 1989, working in business, civil society and education, and have seen how much of a challenge it has been to transition from a totalitarian regime to a democracy. Overthrowing the dictators and holding elections was the easy part. And this was in a country that has had a democratic tradition behind it. The challenge will be greater, much greater, in the Middle East. Fortunately Europe has accumulated massive experience and know-how in managing the transition to democracy, and we simply must bring this experience to the Middle East. Not to do so would be to risk far too much. If we wait for Cameron to initiate something, we might we waiting for a very long time – we need to use our influence in the European Parliament, in the PES and elsewhere to push for a major effort to coordinate our help to these transitioning societies. Lastly, I hadn’t heard the story about the Parisian cobbler, but I think it is a matter of historical record that Louis XVI’s diary entry for 14 July 1789 was “rien.” Just goes to show how out-of-touch dying regimes can get…
Paul, I cross swords with you on occasion, but on this occasion, in light of the heart-breaking and soul-wrenching assault on the innocent s in Libya I am in full agreement. I love your conclusion that gives respect to essential Fundamentally Constitutional principles, the icing on the cake for this article. Well said.