While authoritarian regimes may appear stable, it is a mirage. Their populations are seething with discontent, eagerly waiting for the first opportunity to overthrow their despised despots. In the absence of popular support, dictators retain power through torture and repression — often facilitated by military support and political cover from our government.
Thus it is a fallacy that dictatorships are inherently more stable. As we are now witnessing in Egypt and just witnessed in Tunisia, countries ruled by dictators are kegs waiting to explode. And the outcome is the farthest thing from stable.
Yet this fact is overlooked in the US government’s alarmist and infantilizing concerns about the challenges of establishing democracy in Egypt. The naysayers echo Omar Suleiman’s warnings that stability is more important than democracy, as if the two are mutually exclusive. They warn that immediate transition to democracy, as opposed to the textbook delay tactics of the Mubarak regime, will result in anarchy.
Pakatan Rakyat leaders expressed concern at Prime Minister Najib Razak’s warning to the business sector not to support the political opposition, saying it was another wrong signal to send to investors already worried the BN might resort to force if it lost power in the coming general election.
“There cannot be economic reform without political reform. The existing web of economic networks enriching the political elite at the expense of the masses must be dismantled for true competitive forces to come into play,” PKR strategic director Rafizi Ramli (below right) told Malaysia Chronicle.
“The business community must be sincere and evaluate honestly the BN’s track record, which has been riddled with corruption and 12 years of economic stagnation. Najib’s ETP is nothing more than a list of expensive projects, out of which only 5 per cent will be implemented and those that will actually get implemented will be the property and construction-related deals with the usual huge chunk going to cronies.”
Pakatan states outperformed the BN states
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