[antimedia] antimedia: Democracy is breaking out....

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Posted by antimedia:
Democracy is breaking out....
http://www.antimedia.us/posts/1177559271.shtml


   ....[1]all over and the Arabs don't like it.

     On April 19, 2007, Sidi Ould Sheikh 'Abdallahi was sworn in as
     Mauritania's first president to be elected in free and fair
     democratic elections. While the ceremony was attended by many heads
     of state from sub-Saharan African countries, no Arab head of state
     was in attendance (the Arab League country with the most senior
     representation at the ceremony was Morocco, which sent its prime
     minister). This fact was noted in the Mauritanian press and by Arab
     liberals in the Middle East, who interpreted it as a sign of the
     autocratic leaders' fear of democracy. In contrast, Arab democrats
     praised the Mauritanian model, saying that it was the first time
     that an Arab country had, entirely of its own will, deposed a
     dictator and installed a true democracy.
     The enthusiasm of Arab liberals was only partly shared by their
     Mauritanian counterparts. While most welcomed the elections and
     recognized the legitimacy of its results, many opined that the new
     government is in essence just a power reshuffle within the
     country's Arab-Berber elite, leaving the haratin - the
     Arabic-speaking former slave class [1] - and other black African
     ethnicities on the political sidelines.

   The first sign of a sound democracy is citizens complaining that they
   didn't get their fair share.(People in dictatorships quickly learn not
   to complain.)

References

   1. http://www.memri.org/bin/opener_latest.cgi?ID=IA34807