World Forum on Democracy

PLENARY DISCUSSION

"DEMOCRACY AND DEALING WITH AN AUTHORITARIAN PAST"

Raul Alfonsin, former President of Argentina 1983 -1989

In societies such as ours it is difficult to ensure community growth without social justice. The market must be free, but the state must not abandon its redistribution role to avoid creating or widening the gap between rich and poor. The market cannot define the strategies that should be pursued: housing and schooling, pensions and employment insurance, a modern health system - these must be part of the social policy. They should not be seen as the fruit of democracy, but as a precondition for its survival. Democracy is not only about governance, it should also be manifest in day to day life. Politics should overcome the barriers it puts up through a lack of confidence: violence and intolerance must be replaced by discussion and inclusiveness. Globalization brings many challenges: it can make the vulnerable even more so.

In Latin America as well as in Eastern Europe, we must develop a new collective will: we should modernize to increase the general welfare of society, and ensure that modernization means the integration and participation of all citizens, rather than purely the pursuit of profit. No stable society is built without the solidarity of its people.

The age of the absolute convictions of the last century, of violent revolutions, of minimalist reforms is over. Instead, we are now on the road of rational and efficient transformations. We have come from a past. Starting there we can rationally lead to our future without giving up our heritage but without being slaves to it. We recognize we have limits and that there is more than a single road ahead. Let us choose the road to freedom, to solidarity. Let us work together to strengthen justice.

Adam Michnik, Editor in Chief, Gazeta Wyborcza (Poland)

How can we combine the need for justice with the need for stability in a young emerging democracy that follows a dictatorship?

It is a paradox that dictators are respected if they are powerful: as long as they are powerful, they are not accused of being criminals and are treated as partners in the capitals of Europe. No one wanted to arrest Pinochet as long as he was arresting other people - he was arrested only when he stopped.

When the war is over, enemies negotiate with one another - negotiation is by definition with one's enemies: as Amos Oz says, he has no need to negotiate with his friends. But negotiations do not mean that we should block out history: amnesty does not mean amnesia.

Why should we support amnesty? Because there is no other way to coexist within one state. The guiding logic behind the construction of the EU is the logic of amnesty: the French and the Germans decided to go beyond the horizon of conflict. Why not mete out absolute justice? Because when the winners judge the losers, then judgement becomes revenge. However, a balance is needed, since a forgiveness of crimes can sometimes lead to implicitly condoning them. Forgiveness has this dangerous side, which is why we must say no to amnesia: we must not pay the price of memory.

Every society has skeletons in its closets after a dictatorship and no one comes out entirely clean. Everyone must ask himself about his own responsibility instead of chasing those who appear to be more guilty than he is - doing this is an expression of a bad conscience.

There are two ways of dealing with memory: the Holocaust museum in Germany shows the historical process that created the crime, whereas the Hiroshima museum starts at the point at which the bomb fell: we do not know why, nor what led up to it. When we think of how to tackle the past, we have two methods: the Nuremberg model is the result of a dictatorship losing a war and then a new power appearing in its place, with a new system of justice. In Spain, there was a way out of dictatorship through negotiation - the same process that took place in Chile and in South Africa. There is a permanent tension between the need for truth and the need for reconciliation, the need for justice and the need for compromise. Castro can either follow the Pinochet route, or the Ceacescu route. The option I would choose is that afforded to Pinochet. However, there is no single recipe: countries and their political elites must determine their own route. I believe that the fate of Pinochet should be decided only by the Chilean democracy.

How can we deal with these problems on a day to day basis? What international structures could face up to these challenges? I believe that constant monitoring is crucial. What instruments of censure can be applied to regimes? - political and economic sanctions are an option. The sanctions being applied against Austria serve as a strong signal in Poland and other young democracies that if you keep using the language of Haider, you will become an object of contempt. However, it must be remembered that sanctions only make sense when the carrot and stick approach is used, and when opposition forces can ally themselves to the sanctions taking place. Sanctions are the wrong policy for Serbia and for Cuba.

My feeling is that democracy is grey, a bit soiled. Not pure and effective, but something we can live with. Democracy is the worst system of government except for all the others.

Jusuf Wanandi, Senior Fellow and member of the Board, Centre for Strategic and International Studies, (Indonesia)

The crisis of Indonesia is not only political: it is of course also economic and social.
The government and the political parties are weak, but the democratization process continues and the mainstay of that process is the NGO community. A crucial role is also being played by the press and by the country's students. The role of the President is central: he is a Muslim with the vision to build an all-including democracy, one with an open mind for other religions.

We too face a struggle between justice and reconciliation. Gross abuses took place which must be accounted for: with the help of the US we have looked into every kind of model for reconciliation - South Africa, Chile, Argentina. Indonesia needs a sense of justice, and some court cases need to be held on the recent abuses in East Timor, among others. We must try and go through a reconciliation process instead of splitting the body politic. In some instances we will need help from the international community. However, it may be that we need institutions on the model of the Hague Tribunal but constructed on a regional level. I would like to see the creation of such human rights institutions among our neighbors.