Election quotas in Iraq?

Written by Nathan Hansen Friday, 06 February 2009 08:00

With the economic crisis, the FOCA arguments, the stimulus package and the election, Iraq and our presence there has become so last year.  But our troops are still there fighting and dying, and the government there is still unstable, so we should still pay attention to that small country in the Middle East.

So what is going on in Iraq currently?  Well, it is election time for Iraq with the provincial elections being held this year.

The only problem is that the elections are rigged.  Rigged in the way that no matter who the people vote for, every third seat in the provincial government has to go to a woman.  

So we have been in there for six years in order to create a democracy in that country whether they wanted it or not, and now that they are having elections, we are rigging them to go a certain way no matter what.  How is that democracy?

Now I understand the reasoning behind the rule.  Women in Iraq have had a hard time  lately, due to crazy Islamic extremists targeting woman who get actively involved in politics.

Thus the women are afraid to run for political office or become activists, which is a bad thing.  But instead of attacking the cause of the sexism and violence and discrimination, the election is going to the old tried and true method of forcing equality upon people.

While this may work statistically and numerically, it is a pyrrhic victory for women.  Forcing stuff upon people only breeds resentment, so instead of combating sexism, this may only incite the militants to more brash acts of violence and slaughter and further erode t women’s positions in Iraq.

Also, like I pointed out earlier, this erodes the democratic framework that we are supposed to be building in Iraq.  If you tell the people that they have democracy when they really don’t, then they lose their faith in the process and the system.

It’s what we did during the Revolution.  When King George said that we had the right to choose our representatives, but then he got to choose a number of his own as well, that was a democracy and we fought to get one.

And of course this leaves open the door for a women that is less qualified or less inclined to actually be in an elected position to be in that position, effectively crippling the Iraqi government.  And since Iraq is still a young democracy, it needs its best and brightest in positions right now in order to make things go and to keep things from going backwards.

Like I said, I understand the reasons behind this initiative, but it the dumbest way to go around doing things.  Just like everything else in politics, this is the quick fix for Iraq.  Then again, the last quick fix for Iraq was putting a megalomaniac despot named Hussein in power, or giving Osama bin Laden special ops training from the CIA to fight the Russians.

Can’t we find the long-term right solution this time?