Tending
the Garden of Democracy
by Hon. David Kilgour, P.C., M.P., Secretary
of State (Latin America & Africa)
Address to Alberta Teachers’ Association,
Annual Social Studies Council Conference
Jasper Park Lodge, Jasper, Alberta, October
15, 1998
Democracy
has been compared to a flower that needs
constant nurturing to survive. As we approach
the new millennium, one should take stock
of the current state of our garden.
In its older
parts, some of the flowers are wilting from
neglect; weeds are beginning to take over.
There is work to do. Looking at the tropical
plants, however, we see new shoots breaking
through the ground. They are hesitant, even
fragile, but at the same time apparently
healthy.
I refer,
of course, to the state of democracy in
the so-called developed countries, where
a certain atrophy, often real cynicism,
has set in. Daily we are bombarded with
news of political scandals, so it is perhaps
not surprising that many North Americans,
Europeans, Japanese and others throw up
their hands and retreat from active participation
in the political process.
Emerging
democracies
At the same time, as Secretary of State
for Latin America and Africa, I am moved
by the strong beginnings democracy is making
in many places that have not known very
much of it. Most of the Caribbean, especially
the former British colonies, has a tradition
of representative government, and in many
cases of long-term parliamentary democracy.
The most dramatic changes have occurred
in Latin America and Africa. There, one
after another, military dictators have fallen
and been replaced by elected civilian governments.
Equally encouraging are the emerging civil
societies actively participating in the
political process.
Before looking
in greater detail at the new blooms in the
developing world, I’d like to discuss
the ailing state of democracy in some OECD
member states. Democratic traditions are
much older here, in some cases going back
hundreds of years, but they are still surprisingly
fragile.
It was suggested
to me that I might want to encourage those
of you who are social studies teachers to
take your knowledge of civics and democratic
participation to the emerging democracies.
Of course I encourage any of you who are
so inclined to take up that challenge. Many
societies are experiencing the growing pains
of new democracy, and certainly you have
skills to contribute.
There is,
however, no shortage of challenges at home.
You don’t need to travel to Ouagadougou
or Tegucigalpa to find flowers of democracy
that badly need nurturing. There is a vital
need to instill in young Canadians a more
dynamic concept of citizenship. If our own
democracy is to become more vigorous, we
must overcome the cynicism and helplessness
with which many Canadians now view our political
system.
The Québec
journalist Lysiane Gagnon has observed:
"The biggest threat to democracy is
the public’s cynicism toward politicians.
Part of that cynicism is well deserved,
but only part, since most politicians are
motivated not only by power, but by altruism.
What is dangerous to democracy are the actions
that weaken political involvement, those
that put elected officials at the mercy
of single-issue interest groups or that
discourage good people from running for
office, including any witch hunt that, in
the name of moral rectitude, invades the
private life of politicians."
Gagnon didn’t
cite specific cases, but some she refers
to are obvious. In too many recent events,
politicians have brought this cynicism upon
themselves. But the willingness of media
to engage in feeding frenzies on the scandal
of the day, and the tendency for political
opponents to engage in protracted witch
hunts, only exacerbates the problem. A jaded
public shrugs: "all politicians are
slime." The unfortunate tendency then
is to abandon political participation, and
to leave the field to single interest groups.
Sometimes even more ominously, there is
an expressed wish for authoritarian solutions.
Canadian
vs. U.S. democracy
At a conference a few years ago, one academic
contrasted the civic cultures of Canada
and the United States. South of the border,
there is an institutional emphasis on "citizenship"
in a full participatory sense. In Canada,
he argued, our political institutions imply
"subjectship" in a more passive
sense. These concepts are not always accurate
– consider, for example, the much lower
voter turnouts in the United States, although
I was saddened to note that the turnout
in Edmonton Southeast in the ’97 election
was only 57 per cent.
In Canada,
there was an historic mistrust of what was
once termed "the excesses of democracy."
In the United States, civic participation
is a tradition dating back to the American
Revolution settler society. I hasten to
add that Western populism, which has fertile
roots in Alberta, also has a strong tradition
of citizen participation and popular sovereignty.
I am reminded of that every time I hold
a town hall meeting.
All too often
in Canada and elsewhere there has been a
tendency to equate democracy with the holding
of elections, forgetting that democracy
must be continuously nurtured – not
just once every four or five years. Democracy
demands vigilance, and a willingness to
pose difficult questions and to take risks.
I do not mean by that only taking to the
streets to complain about what is wrong,
but also advocating constructive alternatives.
You social
studies teachers face the challenge of inculcating
in young Canadians, in a passive television
era, a sense of civic responsibility. I’m
pleased that many of you have succeeded
admirably.
Recently
I presented the Edmonton Southeast Leadership
Awards to five deserving high school graduates.
One of them, Leanne Wong, organized a letter
writing campaign for International Human
Rights Day, ran a charity auction to raise
money for a battered women’s shelter,
promoted an e-mail dialogue on Canadian
unity with students in Québec, coordinated
an awareness campaign on impaired driving
and another on racial discrimination –
when she wasn’t busy with sports and
athletic activities.
The other
four award winners had equally impressive
résumés. Their accomplishments
reflect personal talents, but no doubt their
parents and teachers also deserve much credit.
If these young people are representative
of our future leadership, there is still
much hope that democracy and citizenship
will bloom in our garden.
Latin America
/ Africa
On that upbeat note, I turn to the growth
of democracy in Latin America and Africa.
Twenty years ago, military dictatorships
in Latin America were the norm and democracies
were the exception; today the situation
is completely reversed, and every country
of the hemisphere except one (Cuba) is now
ruled by elected civilian governments. To
be sure, democratic institutions are stronger
in some than in others. Death threats, assassinations,
extrajudicial killings, torture and arbitrary
detentions continue to mar the human rights
records in a few countries in this hemisphere.
Still, even in the worst cases, there are
great signs of democratic progress.
Last year
the great majority of Colombians voted in
favour of peace in their decades-old brutal
civil war. Their recent presidential election
saw a relatively smooth transition of power.
It was most impressive to meet with representatives
of Colombian human rights organizations,
many of whom take great personal risks.
Five years
ago a coup attempt in Guatemala failed,
sending a signal throughout the region that
there was no going back to the old ways.
Mexico has made great strides in implementing
clean elections, and it now has a vibrant
and effective opposition.
But democracy,
of course, requires more than periodic elections.
The key element is a vibrant civil society,
including free media, good educational institutions,
the rule of law, and organizations able
to articulate the concerns of those who
are often marginalized – women, indigenous
peoples and the disabled, for example. I
have been impressed by the degree to which
civil society is beginning to flourish in
many countries of Latin America.
Nelson Mandela
In Africa the challenges are often greater,
but the accomplishments have been at least
as dramatic. Who could have imagined 20
years ago that apartheid in South Africa
would crumble and that Nelson Mandela would
be released from prison to lead a nation
where people of all colours are learning
to live together? Mandela’s recent
address to our joint houses of Parliament
brought tears of joy to many eyes and long
standing ovations. Our 13-year-old daughter
was at the Skydome in Toronto with 40,000
other young people to meet one of democracy’s
greatest heroes.
In the worst
days of Uganda’s Idi Amin, who would
have imagined the economic and social advances
under the current President Yowari
Museveni?
In terms of democratic development, Uganda
has not yet embraced the ideal of multiparty
government, but Museveni hasn’t muzzled
the opposition either. He has, however,
moved forward with a consensual model that
allows expression of direct dissent and
incidentally allocates five parliamentary
seats for representatives of the disabled.
Earlier this week I listened to a representative
of SADEC criticize Museveni for not being
democratic enough because Uganda is still
not a multiparty democracy.
In Sierra
Leone early this year, a combined African
military force restored the government of
President Tejan Kabbah, who was elected
in 1996, but ousted in a 1997 rebel coup.
The subsequent civil war, which involved
child soldiers as young as seven, left scars
on that country that will take decades to
heal. My point isn’t that democracy
can flourish overnight. Rather, the actions
of Sierra Leone’s neighbours, led by
Nigeria, suggest that there is vanishing
tolerance for the overthrow of elected civilian
governments. Popular respect for democratic
governance is a necessary precondition for
the deeper evolution of democracy.
Hope in Nigeria
Nigeria’s role in restoring civilian
rule to Sierra Leone was a paradox because
at the time was ruled by a military dictatorship,
which three years ago shocked the planet
with its execution of writer Ken Saro Wiwa
and eight of his young colleagues. Nigeria’s
generals thumbed their noses at world opinion,
and the brutal kleptocracy stole probably
billions from the treasury. Only a few months
ago, who was more optimistic about Nigeria
than when Ken Saro Wiwa was executed?
Even in Nigeria,
dictatorship is now out of fashion. I was
there only last month and recent changes
give us hope that human rights are returning
to the "Giant of West Africa."
Head of State Abubakar seems genuinely committed
to returning Nigeria to democracy. We Canadians
can be proud of the principled position
we took on human rights in Nigeria: that
position won us the respect of Nigerians
and many others around the world.
The impetus
for democratic change must come from Africans
themselves. Canadians can, however, play
a supportive role in nurturing the growth
of civil society and democratic institutions.
Canadians worked through the Commonwealth
to apply pressure for change in South Africa,
Nigeria and elsewhere. We have been ready
to provide assistance and expertise in restoring
democracy. Last week the Canadian government
announced it is providing $100,000 through
CIDA to support election management training
in Nigeria. This project, in cooperation
with the Commonwealth, will assist with
local, regional, federal and presidential
elections to be held in December 1998 and
January and February of next year. This
is consistent with Canadian efforts to strengthen
civil society and make citizens aware of
their role as voters.
A few months
ago, I met a Canadian teacher in Georgetown,
Guyana, who is working as a consultant to
the Education Department there. In short,
despite the low salary, she was having a
marvelous experience.
But that’s
just one teacher, and while there are other
teachers involved in other countries, we
need much more. And we need to focus some
of our energies on teaching democracy. While
we can and I hope will make citizenship
education more effective in Canada, we have
a tremendous resource of social studies
teachers who could make a valuable contribution
to the teaching of democracy in other countries.
I believe
the time is ripe to engage teachers generally
in this cause. There appears to be more
interest from CIDA in starting to engage
teachers for a civil society. CIVITAS International
is one organization already involved, although
using American teachers. Canadians would
be welcome in this endeavor.
Social studies
teachers today face new challenges and opportunities.
Democracy is threatened to a degree at home
by growing cynicism and apathy, but at the
same time we as Canadians are being drawn
closer to a world in which positive new
experiences with democracy are daily taking
deeper root. At the start of the new millennium,
it is time to do some weeding in the garden
of democracy, and to put down some fresh
fertilizer. Let’s also look around
us, to the gardens of our neighbours, and
enjoy the new flowers that are starting
to bloom.
Thank you.
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