The organization has gathered testimonies from detainees who said that they were beaten upon arrest, subjected to electric shocks or hit with rifle butts.

The Egyptian authorities must respect the right to due process for those who have been rounded up and are facing accusations of inciting or participating in violence in the last two weeks. Allegations of ill-treatment must be investigated urgently.

“At this time of extreme polarization and division, it is more important than ever that the office of the Public Prosecutor demonstrates that it’s truly independent and not politicized,” said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Deputy Middle East and North Africa Programme Director at Amnesty International. “These cases risk being seen as mere retribution rather than justice.”

Since the news of Mursi’s ousting on 3 July, lawyers have told Amnesty International that more than 660 men have been arrested in Cairo alone, including prominent leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood and its political wing, the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP). Many were arrested on 8 July during the violence around the Republican Guard Club, which left at least 51 Morsi supporters dead.

While release orders were eventually issued for some 650 suspects, lawyers have told the organization that an unknown number remain in detention due to their inability to pay bail ranging from 1,000 to 5,000 Egyptian pounds (US$140-US$700). The whereabouts of the deposed President and his team of aides are still unknown.

Amnesty International fears that their conditions of detention may amount to an enforced disappearance. Family members who have asked have been denied information on their relative’s whereabouts and fate, and they appear not to have been brought before a judge or given access to a lawyer

“Establishing trust in the justice system will be impossible if only supporters of Mursi and the Muslim Brotherhood are targeted while security forces are absolved of responsibility for unlawful killings and their failure to protect protesters from violence,” said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Deputy Middle East and North Africa Programme Director at Amnesty International.

“Everyone has the right to due process, no matter what the authorities think of their political affiliation or their position. Mohamed Morsi and his team, like anyone, should be granted their basic rights, including immediate access to their lawyers and family.”

Under international law, all detained suspects must be released or promptly charged with a recognizable criminal offence. Anyone deprived of their liberty should also have the right to challenge the lawfulness of their detention before a judge, as well as access to lawyers and their families, and receive any medical treatment that they might require. Lawyers must be permitted to assist their clients unimpeded.

Amnesty International urges the Egyptian authorities to launch full investigations into reports of detainees being beaten and ill-treated, particularly upon arrest, in the vicinity of the Republican Guard Club. This including being hit with rifle butts and given electric shocks. They also said that at police stations they were interrogated while blindfolded by men they believed to be intelligence officials from the National Security Agency, a practice that is eerily reminiscent of Mubarak-era tactics. Newly released detainees also complained about not being allowed to call their families or lawyers.

With at least nine senior Muslim Brotherhood leaders and supporters already detained, arrest warrants have also been issued for other prominent figures in the Muslim Brotherhood, including the group’s spiritual guide. The Muslim Brotherhood’s chief lawyer, Abdelmonim Abdelmaqsoud, has also been detained in Tora Prison, south of Cairo.

“The onus is on the prosecution and the authorities to charge and provide evidence to support the accusations against them,” said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui. “Without evidence that can be tested in court it is yet another crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood.”

Directly after the army announced the ousting on 3 July, at least six pro-Morsi television stations were taken off the air and then had their studios raided. The following day the FJP announced that the state’s printing press refused to print the party’s newspaper. On Sunday the Public Prosecution froze the assets of 14 men associated with the Muslim Brotherhood and parties supporting them.

“Yemen is in the heart of its transition,” Special Adviser Jamal Benomar told the 15-member Council, presenting Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s latest report. “In a country awash with arms and a history of conflict, such an inclusive process of dialogue is a great achievement.”

The second round of the UN-backed National Dialogue Conference includes 565 delegates representing a cross-section of Yemeni society.

Just back from the capital, Sana’a, Mr. Benomar said “the ‘dialogue’ is extending well beyond the Conference” with men and women engaged in discussions and debates about the problems of their country and its possible future in seminars, roundtables and open tents in town squares.

“As President [Abdrabuh Mansour] Hadi has remarked, we are engaged in more than a political transition; we are witnessing a transformation of the political culture,” Mr. Benomar noted.

The ongoing conference will feed into a constitution-making process and pave the way for general elections in 2014. Preparations for the electoral process are underway, including steps to create a new biometric voter registry, with registration due to begin in September.

The UN has been providing support in Yemen’s transition in four key areas: political facilitation; technical support; capacity-building; and a public information and awareness campaign.

“We understand that there are no guarantees of what lies ahead,” Mr. Benomar told the Council. “It is an undertaking of great hope in a fragile environment, where a range of perspectives and diverse interested are seeking to realize a new and better order.”

He noted that to develop a new constitution, the National Dialogue will need to find a consensual settlement to the ‘Southern question’ linked to southern separatists.

“In the South, the streets are heating up,” Mr. Benomar said, adding that “pent-up resentment at more than two decades of unaddressed grievances and systematic marginalization.”

Since February, there was been a “significant increase” in the frequency and number of demonstrators, some resulting in injuries and deaths.

Two Commissions have been established to address the unlawful or illegitimate seizure of property and unjust dismissal from military and civil service, but without additional resources for the Commissions and further confidence-building measures by the Government or tangible improvements in people’s daily lives, “the voices of discontent will amplify, narrowing the space for dialogue,” he said.

The Special Advisor reiterated to the Council that the only peaceful route to progress is through open dialogue and, importantly, addressing the legacy of the past. He urged Yemeni authorities to establish a Commission of Inquiry into the events of 2011 and to adopt a law on transitional justice.

He also noted the steps taken by President Hadi to restructure the country’s armed forces, a move welcomed in April by Mr. Ban and the Security Council, but stressed that “much more remains to be done to ensure the professionalization” of the forces.

Highlighting other challenges to the country, Mr. Benomar noted that despite all efforts to counter it, Al Qaida remains a lethal threat in the Arabian Peninsula.

In addition, the UN official made reference to “those who wish to undermine the transition,” citing sabotage attacks on the country’s energy exports and its electricity lines, costing the country hundreds of millions of dollars.

“Those responsible for these crimes must be brought to account,” Mr. Benomar stressed.

He also cited a partisan war through “misinformation, fabrication and incitement” of the media for political means, and an increase in the assassination of mid and high level security officials and the apparent amassing of weapons among political factions.

“Arms smuggling into Yemen continues,” he said, noting that several shipments have recently been seized.

Also, the humanitarian crisis in the country “continues unabated,” with more than half of the population in need of humanitarian assistance to access food, healthcare, safe water and sanitation, and more than one million children suffering from acute malnutrition, Mr. Benomar said.

Meanwhile, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) today said that more than 90 per cent of the internally displaced people from Abyan, southern Yemen, have returned home.

The number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) dropped from 68,533 last December to 6,133 in April, OCHA spokesperson Jens Laerke told journalists in Geneva.

“The fighting was subsiding, the overall situation looked better and there was an ongoing political process,” Mr. Laerke said.

He added that the resumption of some basic services and reopening of markets had encouraged some people to return, but shelter and agricultural livelihoods remain a concern. As some 80 per cent of the population in the south were farmers, it was critical to assist them in restarting their production.

In addition, the prospects for Yemenis in the north to return to their homes “remains distant,” Mr. Benomar said.

The international humanitarian community has sought $716 million for the Yemen Humanitarian Response Plan to provide emergency and early recovery assistance to 7.7 million of the country’s most vulnerable. However, the plan is so far only 31 per cent funded. The early recovery sector was only 8.3 per cent funded of the $31.5 million needed.

In May, the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, had said the country was that a crossroads that could either lead to increased stability or plunge the country back into conflict.

“There will be no political transition if we don’t deal with the humanitarian situation,” Mr. Ahmed told a news conference in Geneva.

Obama should raise concerns with Al Nahyan about severe violations of fair trial rights, allegations of torture, and the laws and practices that foster exploitation of the UAE’s sizable migrant population, Human Rights Watch said.

When Obama and Al Nahyan last met, on June 27, 2012, they issued a joint statement calling on governments and citizens across the Middle East to “avoid violence, advance tolerance, and protect human rights – particularly the rights of women.” However, the backdrop to the two leaders’ forthcoming meeting is the UAE’s fundamentally unfair mass trial of 94 critics of the government, the unpunished torture by its state security services, and an escalating crackdown on free speech, Human Rights Watch said.

The UAE authorities are trying the 94 peaceful critics of the government on charges that they “initiated, established, and ran an organization seeking to oppose the basic principles of the UAE system of governance and to seize power.” Information from UAE sources indicates that many of the defendants were detained at UAE State Security facilities. Human Rights Watch has documented and receives credible reports of torture from former detainees of these facilities.

Although the UAE authorities claim that the defendants pose a national security risk, their trial appears to be part of a broader attack on the right to freedom of expression, Human Rights Watch said.

In March 2012, the UAE authorities closed the local offices of two foreign organizations that promote the exchange of ideas and political debate: the National Democratic Institute, a body linked to the Democratic Party in the United States; and the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, linked to Germany’s Christian Democratic Union. In December, authorities closed down the Abu Dhabi office of the RAND Corporation, a US-based research organization. The UAE authorities issued no public statements explaining the justification for any of the closures.

In November, the UAE issued a new federal decree on cybercrime. The decree provides a legal basis to prosecute people who use information technology to exercise their free speech rights, including criticizing senior officials, arguing for political reform, or organizing unlicensed demonstrations. Although the UAE claims to be a regional leader on migrant workers’ rights, it has not made meaningful progress to protect them from severe exploitation by employers, Human Rights Watch said. The UAE has not significantly reformed the legal and regulatory framework that is responsible for the serious exploitation of migrant workers, in a country where 85 percent of the population are foreign nationals.

The combination of a highly exploitative system of sponsorship-based employment, the illegal but customary confiscation by employers of workers’ passports, and the failure of the UAE authorities and labor-sending states to eliminate illegal recruitment fees, significantly increases the likelihood and incidence of forced labor. The UAE has not implemented any legislation to protect migrant domestic workers, most of them women, who are not covered by national labor law. A draft law from 2012 is deeply flawed.

As the US State Department noted in its 2012 Trafficking in Persons Report, the UAE government has failed to address trafficking for labor exploitation, and prohibitions against contributory factors to forced labor have not been enforced.

“President Obama should break with past US soft-pedalling criticism of severe abuses in the UAE, especially when he has called publicly for other countries in the region to respect human rights,” Whitson said.

A ground-breaking initiative of ASDA’A Burson-Marsteller, the leading public relations consultancy in MENA, the Arab Youth Survey is aimed at providing reliable data and insights into the attitudes and aspirations of the region’s 200 million-strong youth population, informing policy- and decision-making of both government and the private sector.

ASDA’A Burson-Marsteller selected international polling firm Penn Schoen Berland (PSB) to complete 3,000 face-to-face interviews with exclusively Arab national men and women aged 18-24 in the six Gulf Cooperation Council countries (UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman and Bahrain), Iraq, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Tunisia, and in three new countries added this year: Morocco, Algeria and Yemen. The survey was conducted between December 2012 and January 2013.

The survey finds that in the wake of the Arab Spring, regional youth are prouder than ever of their national identity – and they increasingly embrace modern values and beliefs. Nearly nine out of 10 young Arabs (87%) feel “more proud to be an Arab” following the uprisings, and 59% believe recent changes in their country will have a positive impact on them and their family. Two-thirds (67%) feel “better off” following the events of the Arab Spring and 45% believe their national government has become more transparent.

Also, in each of the 15 countries surveyed, a clear majority are optimistic about the future, with a nearly equal percentage of youth in the Gulf and non-Gulf states (76% and 72%, respectively) saying “our best days are ahead of us”. Likewise, more than half (58%) believe their country is “heading in the right direction” considering the last 12 months, while 55% say their national economy is also heading in the right direction.

For the second consecutive year, “being paid a fair wage” is the highest priority of Middle East youth, cited by 82% of all those surveyed. The importance of fair pay is followed by home ownership, with 66% of Arab youth describing “owning their own home” as “very important”. Tellingly, nearly a fifth (15%) of young Arabs believe they will never be able to afford their own home.

Rising living costs remain the number one concern of Arab youth, also for the second straight year in the annual study, with 62% saying they are “very concerned” about the issue. According to the latest findings, the rising cost of living is a bigger worry than “the economy”, “the threat of terrorism”, “events of the Arab Spring” and “unemployment”.

“Civil unrest” and “lack of democracy” are identified as the main obstacles in the way of the MENA region’s development, while “lack of Arab unity”, the “Palestinian-Israeli conflict” and “lack of political direction” are other barriers. GCC and non-GCC youth are equally concerned about civil unrest, with 44% in both sets of countries highlighting the issue as the Arab World’s biggest obstacle.

Meanwhile, the UAE continues to be regarded as a model nation. Asked to name the country, anywhere in the world, where they would most like to live, Arab youth, as they did in 2012, cite the UAE as their preference. The UAE is the top choice of 31% of Arab youth across the 15 countries surveyed, followed by France (18%), the United States and Turkey (16%).

Sunil John, Chief Executive Officer of ASDA’A Burson-Marsteller, said: “Every year ASDA’A Burson-Marsteller conducts the Arab Youth Survey because we understand the importance of providing reliable data here in the Middle East, where research into public opinion is often limited. This substantial investment in thought leadership demonstrates our firm belief in the principle of evidence-based communications.

Legislative and elections were due to take place in January 2012 at the latest, but in spite of an agreement signed in December between the executive and legislative branches to form an electoral commission, there have been no new developments.

“In the absence of these elections, over the past year we have seen the replacement of some 130 elected municipal governments with Presidential appointees,” said the Acting Special Representative of the Secretary-General and head of the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), Nigel Fisher.

At the legislative level, the mandate of one-third of Haiti’s senators expired in May 2012 and more terms will end in early 2014, impairing the Senate’s functions, Fisher warned.

“Holding credible elections in 2013 is fundamental to reinforce Haiti’s democratic institutions, strengthen the rule of law and respond to the urgent needs of Haiti’s citizens such as employment and social protection.”

The Caribbean nation has been re-building since the earthquake that struck in early January 2010, killing some 220,000 people and making 1.5 million others homeless, in addition to causing widespread destruction – particularly in the capital, Port-au-Prince – and a major humanitarian crisis.

Fisher added that, over the past year, Haiti has continued to face many challenges, including a slow economic growth rate that fell below forecasted levels, high unemployment rates, a recent spike in cholera cases, two tropical storms, and regional droughts that have exacerbated the high levels of food insecurity facing many households.

“Progress on elections has become the barometer for measuring progress towards a more inclusive political culture and for addressing institutional and development challenges, but Haiti faces many challenges beyond the electoral process alone,” Mr. Fisher said, adding that in spite of these obstacles, advances are still being made and the security situation remains stable overall.

Regarding the cholera epidemic, Fisher said the UN is committed to continue its support and to redouble efforts to mobilize the significant additional resources needed to fight this disease, improve water and sanitation, and strengthen the national health care network.

“I remain convinced that Haiti can and will make great progress in overcoming the political divisions, engaging in important and necessary reforms in the institutional and State law and responding to the urgent needs of its citizens,” he added.

The abuses US officials allegedly authorized in the early years of the war in Iraq, and their tacit or direct complicity in Iraqi abuses throughout the occupation, are all partly responsible for the entrenchment of weak and corrupt institutions in Iraq, Human Rights Watch said.

Similarly, despite growing numbers of claims of serious abuse of detainees in British custody in Iraq, UK authorities have neither set in motion a full and comprehensive public inquiry into the abuse, nor held senior-level officials accountable for war crimes committed in Iraq.

“The US legacy in Iraq reflects abuses committed with impunity by American and Iraqi forces throughout the US-led occupation,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “The abuses set in motion over 10 years ago by the Bush administration’s ‘torture memos,’ and the brutal detention policies that followed, facilitated Iraq’s creation of a system that is today either unwilling or incapable of delivering justice to its citizens.”

New information emerged as recently as early March 2013 indicating that the US government is pursuing a policy of engagement with Iraqi security forces accused of responsibility for torture and other abuses, with little if any consideration of accountability for those abuses. A Wall Street Journal report said that the CIA is “ramping up support” to the Iraqi Counterterrorism Service (CTS) to “better fight Al-Qaeda affiliates.”

“If correct, the report that the US intends to support the Iraqi Counterterrorism Service underscores the poor US record on addressing allegations of abuses by Iraqi security forces,” Whitson said. “The CTS, though accused of committing serious abuses against detainees, worked closely with US Special Forces before the US troop withdrawal in 2011.”

In 2011, Human Rights Watch reported former detainees’ allegations that the CTS had held them in secret jails and had tortured and committed other abuses against them. The alleged abuses included beatings, applying electric shocks to their genitals and other body parts, repeated partial asphyxiation with plastic bags until they passed out, and suspension by the ankles.

The US authorities should make public the nature of US military and intelligence agency cooperation with the CTS and other Iraqi security forces that are alleged to have committed serious abuses but have escaped accountability, Human Rights Watch said. The US should also conduct public investigations into allegations of complicity of US military personnel and coalition forces in torture and other abuses by Iraqi security forces during the occupation and prosecute those responsible, including senior-level officials.

The US government should reevaluate its decision not to hold senior government officials accountable for US knowledge of and complicity in abuses of detainees in US and Iraqi custody, Human Rights Watch said. US citizens complicit in torture should be prosecuted. The US should condition future aid on the Iraqi government’s meeting the human rights standards outlined in the Leahy Law, which prohibits US military assistance to foreign military units that violate human rights with impunity.

“The failure of successive US governments to investigate numerous allegations of abuses by US and Iraqi forces has set an ominous precedent and helped to root a culture of impunity as one of the core features of the US legacy in Iraq,” Whitson said. “Whether the US failures were due to willful ignorance or a deliberate desire to cover up its role, 10 years on, the people of Iraq deserve better from the US.”

Theoretically, this is a trilateral agreement between the Council, the Commission and the European Parliament. Given however, that the first two bodies were the powerhouses behind the “Two Pack” affair, it was only the legislature’s agreement that was missing. That is what Rehn and Noonan celebrated yesterday.

On the other side of the fence, the Parliamentarians didn’t seem to celebrate much. Actually, the Parliament’s rapporteur for the rules dealing with countries in significant financial trouble, Jean-Paul Gauzès (EPP, FR) found the opportunity to tell the Commission and the Council that the needed measures are being decided with a three years delay. He stressed that, “This crisis has shown us that half-hearted actions will not stop a fire. With such rules in place three years ago we would have avoided the problems currently experienced by some countries and which have threatened the whole Eurozone since it would have been possible to take early, clear and quick actions”.

Both the Commission and the Council representatives, Rehn and Noonan, didn’t seem to have had seriously taken into account the MEP’s observations about the three year delay and both of them went on celebrating the approval of the Parliament. At his point, it must be noted that the Commission and the Council are exclusively responsible for those three years of delay.

The “two pack”

The economic crises of the recent years showed that while European countries shared a common currency, their economies were not sufficiently coordinated. The ‘Two Pack’ is the response, introducing new rules to enforce stabilisers on Eurozone countries budgets. In 2011, six new sets of rules, the so- called ‘Six Pack’, came into force to strengthen economic coordination among EU member states. The 17 Eurozone countries, however, needed further rules – these are in the “Two Pack”.

The “Two Pack” consists of two regulations: one with special measures for monitoring and assessing plans of countries with high, excessive government deficits; and another with special measures for countries experiencing severe financial difficulties, such as those emerging from an EU-ECB-IMF programme.

Brussels über alles

The main difference between the “two” and the “six” packs is nothing less than the national sovereignty. The first one has been designed especially for the Eurozone and briefly concedes the approval of the national state budgets to the Brussels’ Commission. In short, government budgets in the 17 Eurozone countries will be submitted to national Parliaments after the Commission has given its approval.

This most important law, however, that the 17 legislatures are debating every year will be submitted after the Commission has approved the text. There goes out of the window, any democratic accountability, given that the Commission as a body is not accountable to the people, nor the Commissioners are elected by the people and probably do not always work for the people.

The MEPs

The European Parliamentarians didn’t chew their words. Elisa Ferreira (S&D, PT), rapporteur on the budgetary reporting requirements for all Eurozone countries, argued that this legislation needed to address a broader political context than one focused on fiscal discipline.

“Austerity is not delivering the desired results so it cannot be the only component of our response to the crisis. We need to adapt the medicine. We need to rebalance our short term objectives to better address growth and the vicious spiral of high debt-financing interest rates. Countries now making superhuman sacrifices need to know that their efforts are recognised and will be rewarded. This is why we have pushed hard to adapt the Commission’s original proposals”, she said.

The question is though, if those amendments the European Parliamentarians agreed with the Commission, are enough to protect the Peoples of Eurozone from the Commission’s discretional powers? In reality the amendments brought about by the Parliament are of minor importance not changing the substance of the “two pack”, which is the loss of national sovereignty.

As a matter of fact, the EU Parliamentarians depend greatly for their election on their home political party chiefs and governments and, as a result, they rarely push their objections to the end. European Parliament voting procedures are open for everybody to see who votes for what and this is not at all democratic.

In this case, the press release issued by the European Parliament contains this deplorable paragraph: “Where countries are asked to make substantial cuts, their efforts must not harm investments in education and healthcare, particularly in countries in severe financial difficulty”. As if today’s problems in Greece, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Ireland were education and health care. It is a totally populist reference, to hide the real issue which is the huge income losses for tens of millions of people.

In short, the green light from the European Parliament for the “two pack”, without any changes in its basic provisions, opened a new era in the European Union, of less and less democratic accountability and more and more democratic deficits. And this without a new Treaty being signed or anything that could signal fundamental changes and attract the attention of the many. Everything was done away from the eyes of the people in a freezing Tuesday morning in central Brussels. In reality, the Peoples of the EU are now pushed into something quite different from what they knew so far, without much discussion or a referendum. Nobody in Brussels speaks any more about plebiscites.

From the Europeansting.com [by permission]

In the kingdom’s first general election since the Arab spring which the government says is a key milestone in the country’s “step-by-step” process of democratization, despite the boycott. Wednesday’s elections are based on a new electoral framework in which for the first time parliamentarians will choose the prime minister, previously appointed by the crown.

The Independent Election Commission said the number of voters across the Kingdom has exceeded half a million, according to Petra news agency.

Out of a total of three million eligible voters, some 2.3 million are eligible to vote vying for a four-year term in the 150-seat lower house of parliament.

But the opposition, led by the Muslim Brotherhood, says the electoral system ensures support for the king by favoring rural tribal regions where he has great support and marginalizing urban areas where the opposition is stronger, according to Al Jazeera. The Muslim Brotherhood is the single most popular party in Jordan, with strong support in cities, especially among poorer Palestinians who live there.

The poll is held amid economic difficulties, with IMF-guided austerity policies that the government was forced to adopt last year to avoid a financial crisis after years of using government money on a bloated public sector, according to Reuters.

The 2011 Arab Spring uprisings in the region set off a wave of demonstrations in Jordan, calling for reforms, but not on the scale of other uprisings that swept across the region like those in Egypt, Libya, Yemen and Tunisia.

In the middle of the last century, research has been done in the U.S. to determine whether there is any quality difference between individual and collective decisions taken, as it is known, only through one way, with referendums and the application of the majority principle.

The results of these investigations were known as the “paradox of voting” [i].

The paradox was the finding that there are systematic and significant differences between the quality of individual and the quality of collective decisions taken with the referendums. These differences are summarized as follows:

1. Individual decisions are understandable, reasonable and usually reach the best possible choice.

2. Collective decisions by referendums are sometimes unpredictable, non-understandable and inconsistent to logic.

3. The quality of decisions through referendums is significantly affected by the phenomena of demagogy, the wording of the question and the number of options/responses the voters have. The most favorable case for correct collective decisions is when the question is of the type: A or B, Yes or No.

The result of this research is obviously contrary to common sense and to the logic of Statistics, Statistics Mechanics and Quantum Mechanics, where decisions / conclusions of a totality, have the maximum reliability compared with those of a subset of the totality- and much less of one person.

Notwithstanding the foregoing, the reliability of the results of the research was not only disputed, but was reinforced from the experience of the people who found that these differences were actually real.

Identifying and understanding the causes and therefore the process of creation of this strange and irrational phenomenon has a big and crucial significance because it is related:

• With the universal validity of logical and fundamental physical principles.

• With the question of the ability of ordinary citizens to take collective decisions with the power of logic and

• With the adopting the view – and mostly the practice – that ordinary citizens take collective decisions with the power of instincts, emotions and motivations rather than logic; ie that they take decisions in the same way that irrational beings do.

It is perhaps interesting to recall that animals decide and apply decisions with the power of instincts and motives and that the only exception is man who has the prime possibility to take decisions with the power of reason.

The above data and views lead to the conclusion that the “paradox phenomenon” constitutes a deviation from the normal and healthy human behavior, it is like a “disease” which removes or diminishes the human logical force selectively in the field of political decisions by referendums. The finding that the logical power of the people is great when decisions are taken individually and reduced or canceled when taken collectively refers to the disease of divided personality that is to schizophrenia. This disease when concern the people as members of the society constitutes a “Social Schizophrenia”.

The causes and responsible people of social schizophrenia

The responsible people of this social disease are easily identified, if we apply the doctrine of prosecutors. According to this doctrine the responsible of every criminal act is he who benefit from it.

In this case, the degradation of the logical force of people, in decision-making selectively by referendum, clearly promotes the interests of rulers, because consolidates the view that there is an absolute need decisions to be taken by a few people, while the vast majority of the citizens simply have to execute these decisions. In other words it promotes and consolidates the same old recipe used by the Kings – Gods, the Divine Right Kings, the Enlightened Leaders and the Fathers of the People; that the people only have to perform their decisions.

The emergence and spread of the social schizophrenia is due to the abolition of the status of the “governing and governed” citizen, ie the status that is nothing more than verification that all people dispose a logic power.

Important point is that this deletion has been taken in practice while in theory the status of the governing and the governed citizen is recognized broadly and without reservation. The famous saying that “the people are the bosses” said from the politicians and intellectuals, actually means that the people are the bosses provided that they are not ruling.

A second factor that reinforces this conclusion is that those exercising the power, have not attempted to cure this “disease” but tried to present it as a characteristic of human nature and therefore any effort for its treatment is utopian, if not hybris (as the ancient Greeks said). According to them, the great decisions have to be taken by the One or by a few “enlightened”, but to be executed by all citizens. The rationalism and the morality of such a view are obvious.

The results of the disease

The abolition of the status of “the governing and governed” citizen, had as a medium term effect:

(a) Atrophy and degradation of the citizens’ logic, because it was not used in the field of exercising of the political power, and

(b) Reduction of the citizens’ responsibility on the state problems, because the responsibility has been transferred from the owners/citizens, to their representatives.

The first result greatly increased the power of lords that they got the institutional right, to be taking the major strategic decisions without citizen’s agreement, and then to argue that they have been substantially taken from the citizens.

The second result became a boomerang for the politicians, because decisions can be taken without the citizen’s consent, but is impossible to be realized without the active citizens’ participation [ii]

The great difficulty, if not impossibility, for the application of the plethora of political decisions taken today, proves that the boomerang is not a theory but a visible reality.

The therapy of the disease

Similar to the treatment of any disease, the treatment of the social schizophrenia can be achieved by canceling the cause which has created it. This can be achieved through the existence of a real and not of a verbal, “governing and governed” citizen’s status.

The power and responsibility of citizens is not, as many believe, two autonomous entities, but a single and indivisible entity. When one of them is canceled, automatically the other is also canceled. When there is a shortage of citizens’ power automatically a deficit of their responsibility is created. This does not apply to the representatives of the citizens who have the status only of lords.

In today’s political system, the power of the citizens has actually been canceled by those exercising the power and has been replaced by verbosity. But nature is not fooled by words. The creation of responsible citizens but without power is unattainable with deterministic certainty.

In today’s power system, the rulers/representatives of the people have the institutional right to take: (1) strategic major decisions affecting the citizens and (2) the minor decisions which come out and are limited from the strategic decisions. But in the real Democracy, the Democracy of ancient Greek culture, the major decisions were taken by the citizens and the minor ones by the rulers. So the citizens were the boss and lords were the servants of the citizens.

In this way, there was faith and cohesion of the society in the application of the major decisions / objectives.

The fact that today, the big decisions are taken by lords, who claim that they do so by executing the citizen’s mandate, but are not taken by the citizens, have as a consequence these decisions to be constantly into question and the struggles and sacrifices of citizens to become without coherence and efficiency.

Addressing of the “paradox phenomenon”

In modern Greece, politicians and other competent were not involved in the understanding and treatment of the paradox, but with its surpassing. This happened in the following three ways:

1. Informal cancelation of referendums in practice, not in the constitutional law. This transaction was very easy because referendums in Greece are decided by the government and not from the people or by assets provisions. As was expected the rulers / representatives hardly decided to put their authority under the power of the citizens and so in the last 70 years two referendums only have been done in Greece. This very low frequency of referendum – a referendum every thirty years – until recently, perhaps was justified from the great difficulties of informing citizens and the very high cost of making them. But now that the digital technology is widely used in many areas of public life (taxation, public safety, healthcare,..), these difficulties can be surpassed. By using the new technology of informatics, the “digital referendums” will have much lower direct and indirect cost, high operating and financial information for the public and greater security and reliability, compared to conventional ones.

2. Big decisions have to be taken from the “enlightened leaders” of the party and only minor decisions through referendums, in order not to affect the power of the party lords. This way, besides rendering difficult the exercising of power, completely subverts the original philosophy of the ancient Greek Democracy, where the few major decisions were taken by the citizens and the plethora of minor ones, introduced and limited by the majors, by the lords.

3. Doing referendum of confused way, in which the existence of paradox decisions is … impossible. The method was simple. Like the egg of Columbus. Instead of question type A or B, they initiated referendums of query type, A or A, so paradox and absurd result cannot be found

All Greeks are well aware about the initiators these ways to overcome the paradox of voting in the country that has been the Cradle of Democracy.

Conclusion

The nature of the referendum leads to decisions not of degraded quality and reliability, but instead leads to decisions that have thoughtful wisdom, great reliability and the widest possible acceptance. Opposite opinions and findings, is the work of the established power, which has the contractual right to decide the application of the referendum, the wording of the question, the way and the morality of citizens’ awareness, the rules and the frequency of referendums. With a referendum every 30 years, it is not possible to have, logic, experience and familiarity of the citizens with the institution of referendums, the institution which is the essence of authentic democracy.

[i] J. Haskell. Direct Democracy or Representative Government, Westview Press, 2001.

[ii] More on the side: http://www.dd-democracy.gr/article.asp?Id=42

The first part was devoted to arguments on regional operation, the real economy and production networks, as well as the characteristics of the economic integration in East Asia. The second part was about the European Union, the debt crisis and the necessity of political leadership addressing financial reform to overcome the crisis. Then views were exchanged on East Asian economy, definitions of East Asia, the prospects of the Chinese economy, and the implication of the economic integration in East Asia for Europe etc.

Interestingly, all participants agreed that political will is the most important factor for crisis management and further economic integration, both in Europe and in East Asia. While I was writing this, it was already known that the German Chancellor Angela Merkel is to visit Athens tomorrow (Oct. 9). Besides the obvious feelings of insecurity and the patriotic symbolisms the visit will produce for all Greeks and particularly Athens inhabitants, I could not but consider the obvious: a political solution is on the way. I am not sure whether it will prove to be beneficial towards “further economic integration” or it is a way the German leader to appear bailing out Greeks on her own; again, in political terms.

The stalemate with the troika has to do with trust. Troika head representatives have been called many things in this country, but being inconsistent is not one of them. Since the beginning of negotiations in 2010, troika people have been steadily arguing for two parallel courses of action: cutting expenses and forwarding structural changes (to liberalise the market, invite competition and boost growth). Cuts did occur, reforms never happened. Either due to political cost or unionist phobia, structural changes have never been properly dealt with, remaining suppressed by partisan interests and clientelistic concerns. Hence today’s impasse.

Real growth (not the one driven by consumption and loans), economic integration, daring steps forward towards the unification of countries that share common interests, truly need political courage. Politicians need to be brave and think ahead; what they also need is the support of their peoples by regaining their trust.

This is where politics draw its power, people. Either in East Asia or in Europe, political solutions remain political when people are willing to play along. If they do not agree with politicians’ moves, then the latter are on their own, alienating themselves from society, thus failing to serve the [perception of] common goal.

Greek police and other security forces are bracing for Angela Merkel’s visit tomorrow. Demonstrations, sit-ins and heroisms in front of the German embassy in Athens are already scheduled, perhaps accompanied by the occasional riot activity. This is people’s way to express their outrage but hardly constitutes “solution” material. Even if the package is agreed, the symbolism for the government will be hard to read.

All participants in Japanese Embassy’s symposium agreed that political solutions are the way to move forward. I would add that political solutions should be decided by people themselves. If more integration is the way to go (in Europe and East Asia) then people (instead of politicians) should be asked whether they are willing to turn their countries into peripheral geographical entities of a centrally managed bureaucracy.

Finally, although Europe is much older in the integration game, I would say that the chances for real progress in the integration field lie more on the East Asia side. Both philosophically and technologically, they have all necessary elements to put forward a whole new paradigm of economic integration, based on 21st century politics; namely based on elements of fairness, honest cooperation, advanced sense of social responsibility. In order something like this to succeed, it should be grassroots; and on the web. Then mainstream politics could follow, framing the drive with ‘political solutions’. In the social networks era, cross-country political initiatives need to start from the base.

On-going online democracy could prove much more powerful than any old fashioned political initiative; Europe needs to understand this as well.

Dr. Demetris Kamaras is the Editor of Alyunaniya.com