No Fly Zone

Reuters Pictures: 

A supporter of Libya's leader Muammar Gaddafi chants slogans during a protest in Tripoli March 18, 2011. The United Nations authorised military action to curb Gaddafi on Thursday, hours after he threatened to storm the rebel bastion of Benghazi overnight, showing "no mercy, no pity".

by Gaja Lakshmi Paramasivam

(March 18, Melbourne, Sri Lanka Guardian) As per UN News ‘The Security Council today effectively authorized the use of force in Libya to protect civilians from attack’. It is reported that 10 out of 15 countries voted in favor and that India along with Russia, China, Germany and Brazil had abstained.

These Votes are about likes and dislikes. According to this, the UN likes the No Fly Zone because it does not like the attacks on civilians. Whether they would extend to become International Law which would cover all UN member countries, through which one side or the other could be brought to Justice at the Global level is another matter. If it becomes Law, then it needs to be integrated into Administration first and then Legal systems.

The People of Libya are also responsible for the situation to have gotten to the state where Government is killing its own People and v.v. They are all confirmations of the failure of UN as a Governing body. People of most Arab countries are driven by Faith based systems rather than Outcome based system that Democracy tends to be. In a democracy, the Commoner is heard before the Ruler. In most religious faiths this is not likely to happen and hence in countries with strong religious faiths, governments are not likely to be democratic. India is a good example of this. To my mind, a good autocratic system driven by common faith is better than a bad democratic system which these Arab nations are likely to become with sudden democracy.

In a Democracy, minority powers need to be facilitated to present their cases first through objective manifestations of their experiences from various angles. Then the majority power. The completed picture needs to be compared with the ‘picture’ that the law projects and the side that is more with the right side is the winner. But this rarely happens even in democratic countries such as Australia. Yet, we manage to live in harmony compared to other countries like Sri Lanka. It is alright to use faith based autocracy so long as we do not claim to be democratic except when the law requires us to be democratic.

Faith based autocracy is good for people-rich countries such as India and Sri Lanka because we cannot produce objective outcomes as comfortably as the richer countries. Those who have genuinely practiced faith based autocracy would have little difficulty changing over to democracy when the need arises. The current turbulence in Arab nations is due to lack of such genuine practice of faith based autocracy by both sides – Governments as well as People.

Like Tamils, Arabs have spread themselves all over the world and hence are becoming more and more conscious of being part of Arab Nation rather than particular country. This consciousness requires fair degree of mind power for leaders and faith in elders for followers. It’s not different to world religions.

Opposition in a democracy, without physical manifestation of the experience from various angles, is as bad as submission without faith in an autocracy, towards One manifestation of the experience. In countries where there has been excessive use of subjective powers, beyond the level of common faith, there is bound to be rebellion when People become more and more aware of the outside world. They often do not pause to think whether they have contributed to that democracy or more to the point, whether they are now ready to earn that democracy. If yes, then all this, including the aerial bombardments is the price they pay – not different to the environmental disasters in Japan which with all its high use technology and the toxic gas emissions that go with it - has failed to develop Early Warning Systems in relation to Tsunamis and Earthquakes. Similarly, leaders of Arab countries enjoyed the pleasures of democracy by using their oil money. They failed to become genuinely educated through the system of democracy and practice at least some aspects of it genuinely in their home countries.

As we sow, so shall we reap. No Fly Zone needs to be only for Defence and not Invasion. Every user needs to be conscious of this.