Midwifing Democracy

Hearts and minds are won by propaganda, but only temporarily, writes Binay Kumar.

There's something appealing about all ritual and ceremony; my encyclopedia explains it as the expression of shared feelings and attitudes that make them of a kind; that these 'ordered actions of a symbolic nature', when performed on an appropriate occasion, transmit elements of a 'particular value and sentiment system' and, crucially, aim at preserving such values and sentiments from doubt and opposition. (Does it sound too familiar in the context of Iraq?)

Timothy Insoll, an anthropologist involved in the study of rituals, explains this further in his stimulating book, 'Archaeology, Ritual, Religion' and points out those rituals are not merely concerned with physical action; instead, they have interestingly passive and active modes of communication.

Now shift your focus to Iraq, and pan your lens to Baghdad. Look closer - zoom in - and you'll notice a political ritual of sorts, albeit one that is blemished by tough gun-toting soldiers and tommy tanks in stale green military colours: you might notice the smooth graphics advertising the election in the coalition press center, or perhaps you can see one of those ballot papers, a lengthy litany of candidates and parties rendered in the crisp, clean and ordered fonts of 'freedom and democracy', or maybe you notice a polling center, the altar of 'freedom' in a sense, with a motley crew of Iraqi voters in queue, lining up to make the ritual offering of a vote.

Now juxtapose these with explanations from my encyclopedia and Insoll's insights. I am not an anthropologist, however the election in Iraq appears, from my lay man's point of view, very much like a dress rehearsal for an anthropological study - a sort of real world experiment, akin to the imaginary worlds that philosophers sometimes invoke in their arguments.

The rituals are careful, and calculated to communicate a value system to create maximum effect. Indeed, there are even contingencies in place, so that the message gets through, just in case everything goes horribly wrong in Baghdad: voting centers dotted around the globe where expats can act out their part in the play. The message comes across regardless of the origin of the newsreel; they might show you an elated voter in London, or perhaps, if possible, one from Basra, but the message being projected is the same: the triumph of democracy, that creed of the free world.

On the face of it, the values are indeed laudable and should be encouraged. Who can possibly object to the triumph of democracy? However, the Iraqi mosaic does little to induce optimism. My cynicism stems from the facts that I have hinted at above - the fact of the overwhelming military presence, which speaks of the increasing instability in the region, and does little to inspire any credibility about the electoral process.