erupted in the United Kingdom with significant abuses reported by the
left-leaning Labour Party that has been in power for the past 12 years. In a
series of exposes that began in the Daily Telegraph about a month ago,
salacious details of the country's members of parliament (MPs) claiming
excessive personal expenses back from the government (and therefore the
taxpayer) have been brought to light.
The aftermath, which has been described as a "challenge to the very foundations
of British democracy", has been the vast number of resignations of MPs as well
as (more recently) members of the cabinet. In an extraordinary move, the
speaker of parliament was forced to step down after it was shown that members
of his team
had actively colluded with MPs to abuse the system. The resignation of the
speaker was the first since 1695.
Writing in the Financial Times, political columnist Philip Stephens observed
the following on May 21:
England likes to think of itself as the mother
of parliaments, the cradle of modern democracy. Never mind the minor
contributions made by the American constitution or France's declaration of the
rights of man; nothing can compete with the 1,000 years of history that stand
behind the House of Commons. The English have long been immodest in this
respect. I well recall when France's then president Francois Mitterrand invited
Margaret Thatcher to join the bicentenary celebrations of the French
Revolution. With her customary tact, and a selective reading of history, the
British prime minister arrived in Paris brushing aside the significance of
Bastille Day. The gist of her remarks was that English (and British) democracy
did not rest on a single great convulsion such as that of 1789.
It had been built on the much firmer foundations of accumulated wisdom and
historical convention ... That said, the affair has been a salutary reminder of
the manifest flaws of a smug institution. Most obviously, it has revealed a
legislature that has never quite admitted that things have changed. This was a
world of honorable members whose dignity did not allow for public scrutiny or
accountability. Born of the age of deference, it had never really escaped it.
So we are at the end of an era. Just as the Profumo scandal of 1963 opened up
the establishment to the public gaze, so parliament can never again slam the
door of the Westminster club against outside scrutiny.
Mr
Stephens leaves unsaid the notion of what exactly happens at the end of an era
(he suggests cosmetic changes such as more power to local governments); the
dangers for the UK are of course that the only political parties that have been
left untouched by the current scandal are those on the extreme fringe of
British politics, namely the racist British National Party (BNP) and the
anti-European UK Independence Party (UKIP).
On the subject of racists and the far right, from Down Under we have stories of
increased violent attacks on Asian immigrants. The Voice of America reported
the following on June 4:
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has
condemned as "senseless acts of violence" a series of race attacks on Indian
students in Melbourne. The Indian high commissioner is demanding greater
protection for Indians studying in Australia, as state authorities in the
southern state of Victoria draw up new laws to crack down on hate crimes. A
series of assaults on Indian students in Australia prompted about 3,000 people
to take part in a recent rally in Melbourne to demand greater protection from
the authorities, who are accused of doing too little to stem the violence.
There were ugly clashes between protesters and police.
More than a dozen people were arrested ... In the past year, about 70 attacks
on young Indians in Melbourne have been reported and there are claims by
community groups that the vast majority have been racially motivated ...
Victoria Police Chief Simon Overland insists that students, in general, have
become "easy targets" for opportunistic criminals. "It's partly violence
against Indian students," he said. "It's escalating robberies and we have used
the term 'soft-target robberies'. Now, the Indian students have taken that as
referring directly to them; it's not. What we have seen is that robberies are
now happening more directed against people in the street, directed against
people who are wandering around with laptop computers, mobile phones, iPods,
cash. And, if they're alone, they're vulnerable." ... The attacks have caused
diplomatic friction between Canberra and New Delhi.
Australia
is no stranger to the rise of the far right during times of economic strife.
The recession of the early 1990s (starting in 1989) pushed to the fore one
Pauline Hanson and the politics of the One Nation party. She was briefly
notorious in the mid-1990s for capitalizing on the fears of Australians for
their jobs; and indeed her first speech to the Australian House of
Representatives contained the following "gem":
Immigration and
multiculturalism are issues that this government is trying to address, but for
far too long ordinary Australians have been kept out of any debate by the major
parties. I and most Australians want our immigration policy radically reviewed
and that of multiculturalism abolished. I believe we are in danger of being
swamped by Asians. Between 1984 and 1995, 40% of all migrants coming into this
country were of Asian origin. They have their own culture and religion, form
ghettos and do not assimilate. Of course, I will be called racist but, if I can
invite whom I want into my home, then I should have the right to have a say in
who comes into my country. A truly multicultural country can never be strong or
united ...
We have seen this film before
I started this article by pointing out that social degradation and economic
declines go hand-in-hand. The worst such example in modern history was most
certainly Nazi Germany, where the rise of Adolf Hitler was predicated on a
nasty bout of inflation, unemployment and social unrest that followed World War
I. The Wikipedia entry for the rise of the Third Reich makes the following
observations:
The Third Reich arose in the wake of the national shame,
embarrassment, anger and resentment which resulted from the Treaty of
Versailles. Versailles, a harsh treaty offered to the vanquished Germans after
a brutal war, provided for:
Germany's acceptance of and admission to sole responsibility for causing World
War I.
The permanent forfeiture of various German territories and the demilitarization
of other German territory.
The payment by Germany of heavy reparations, in money and in kind, such
payments being justified in the Allied view by the War Guilt clause.
Unilateral German disarmament and severe military restrictions.
Other conditions fostering the rise of the Third Reich include nationalism and
Pan-Germanism, civil unrest attributed to Marxist groups, the worldwide
economic depression of the 1930s (spurred by the stock market crash in the US),
the reaction against the counter-traditionalism and liberalism of the Weimar
period, and the rise of communism in Germany, as reflected by the growth of the
KPD, the Communist Party of Germany.
Many voters, seeking an outlet for their frustrations and an expression for
their repudiation of parliamentary democracy which seemed incapable of keeping
a government in power for more than a few months, began turning their support
towards the far right and far left of the political spectrum, opting for
extremist political parties such as the Nazi Party. The Nazis offered promises
of strong authoritarian government in lieu of effete parliamentary
republicanism, civil peace, radical changes to economic policy (including
elimination of unemployment), restored national pride (principally through the
repudiation of Versailles) and racial cleansing, implemented in part by active
suppression of Jews and Marxists, all under the banner of national unity and
solidarity in lieu of the partisan divisiveness of democracy and the class
divisiveness of Marxism.
Reading this bit of history
and comparing it to the events of the three countries we mention above, it is
clear that some of the trends are in place, namely:
1. The rise of communism, as evidenced by the nationalization of
capitalist enterprises such as banks , insurance companies and even automotive
companies in the US.
2. Loss of public confidence in the instruments of government such as
the UK parliament. 3. A rise in efforts towards ethnic cleansing or at least racially
inspired violence as shown in the case of Australia.
The English-speaking world should certainly thank its lucky stars that not all
of the above events have occurred in the same country, for surely that country
would be on the road to becoming a menace to its neighbors and perhaps even to
the world at large; but taken as a whole, the trend appears unmistakably
negative.
(Copyright 2009 Asia Times Online (Holdings) Ltd. All rights reserved. Please
contact us about
sales, syndication and
republishing.)
Head
Office: Unit B, 16/F, Li Dong Building, No. 9 Li Yuen Street East,
Central, Hong Kong Thailand Bureau:
11/13 Petchkasem Road, Hua Hin, Prachuab Kirikhan, Thailand 77110
