Letters to the Editor, January 9, 2005

Iraqi elections

What will the designations in the elections for the country of Iraq bring?

The Democracy versus Republicanism adage?

A Pantisocracy?

Such erroneous beliefs that are to be held in the face of evidence to the contrary.

Oligarchy is always the Home Rule of any nation.

Abla Mutaa

letters

Great Article by Ms. Nasim Zehra

I am writing w/ regards to "Yet Another Year Ends Without Settlement of Disputes" by Naseem Zehra. This is a very good piece of work and I am glad that Al-Jazeerah chose to publish it. Ms. Nasim Zehra has a very un-biased point of view regarding south Asian affairs. In this article, she clearly mentions why the peace process between Pakistan and India is not heading anywhere.

Best Regards,

Dawood Khan

Palestinian elections

Dear Sir

In front of the upcoming Palestinian elections I am wondering if you could share with me your thoughts on the following question: How likely is it that the Palestinian experiment with democracy influences the rest of the Arab and Muslim world? Is the population taking any interest, is the “elite” reacting to it, do political leaders in any way respond? How are Arab media covering the story, and what are the feed backs? If you could convey me your thoughts and experiences an those questions, even just some sentences or hints, I would appreciate it very much.

Hoping not to cause you too much trouble,

I remain sincerely yours,

Pierre

Near East Desk

Weltwoche Zurich/Switzerland

Editor: The Palestinian presidential election is held as a result of the death of the Palestinian President, Yasser Arafat. Otherwise, the Palestinian people would not hold them under the Israeli oppressive occupation. How can it be a democratic process under the daily violence of the Israeli occupation forces?

Arabs and Muslims like to live in democracy but they want to be free of foreign occupation first. The evidence comes from Indonesia, Pakistan (before Musharraf), Malaysia, Bangladesh, and Turkey, to name some of them. In fact, the Western power elites (imperialilsts) have prevented the spread of democracy in the Third World by their support of dictatorial governments there.

With regard to Arab media covering of elections, whether in Iraq or Palestine, many Arab TV stations have maintained continuous and objective covering of the war in Iraq and Palestine, including developments related to elections. Among prominent Arab TV stations involved are Al-Manar, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Al-Jazeera of Qatar, Al-Arabiya of Dubai, Al-Ikhbariya of Saudi Arabia, Jordanian TV, Syrian TV, Egyptian TV, to name some of them.

But Arab and Muslim public opinion has grown sophisticated enough to know that there can be no free elections under foreign occupation and foreign domination. That's why freedom, not democracy, is the priority now, which is the position expressed by the Hamas and Jihad resistance organizations in Palestine and Sunni Muslim Arabs in Iraq.