Iraqi Democracy Has a Media Image Problem
While the world and its major media outlets are fixated on the ongoing protests in Hong Kong and across South America, the never-ending problems faced by fragile governments in the Middle East, as always, gets pushed to the back of the collective mind. As the civil war and subsequent refugee problem in Syria amply demonstrate, the world has become too callous toward the chaos that originates in the Middle East and is becoming all too complacent and willing to assume that the region will be surrounded by unending violence and suffering that outsiders have little power to stop or control.
That attitude is on full display concerning the ongoing protests against the Iraqi government. The demands of the protestors are simple yet complex. At the basic level, it is a question of livelihood. The failure of the government in turning around an economy hampered by high unemployment, low wages, lack of growth, and corruption that scare off investors have led to people having difficulties putting bread on the table. But at a higher level, the protests are an attack on the entire political system, in which different sectarian factions are coopted, Iranian influence remains large, and political parties ineffectual.
At least in one way, the government showed that it remains in control. As the ranks of the protestors swelled, the government unleashed violence, killing over 300 protestors across the country. The political elites cowered behind the Green Zone, the fortified administrative center of Baghdad that was first created to shield the American-created government from various anti-American militias after the toppling of Saddam Hussein. Only now, the elected officials shielding themselves from people demanding bread, not gunmen demanding their heads.
In some ways, the Iraqi protests are similar to those elsewhere, but media treatment of what is happening in Iraq differs much. Just like those in South America, Lebanon, and to a lesser extent, Hong Kong, Iraqi protests emerged from a combination of individual grievances about difficulties in daily lives, amplified by what the existence of a political and economic system that is supposedly rigged against the common man. But unless protests elsewhere, media coverage of what is happening in Iraq has been much more cursory and biased in favor of looking at the political elements.
In particular, Western media, skirting the policy failures of the elected Iraqi government, has played up the Iranian and sectarian factors that they see as the most important for pushing people onto the streets. Yes, there is absolutely no denying that in the messy struggle for power in Iraq, bickering over the constantly shifting realities of who is loyal to who has taken much energy away from the urgent issue of how to rebuild a broken economy in which citizens do not see a brighter future for themselves. But ultimately, blaming sectarianism does not take away from the simple fact that the Iraqi government has been neglecting economic development for way too long.
That eagerness of the media to focus on sectarian politics in Iraq as the root cause of the ongoing protests perhaps help to shift some blame away from the American government that should clearly be embarrassed about the many failures of Iraqi democracy that it helped to create. Far from allowing different factions and communities to share power peacefully and create a stable environment for more equal sharing of the country's resource-based wealth, Iraqi democracy has only helped to shift power struggles from gunbattles in the streets to conniving over ballet boxes, with no improvement in the quality of governance.
And as the Obama and Trump administrations have repeatedly promised to bring American troops home from the Middle East and reduce American presence in the region in general, American media outlets have become all too willing to make it looks like that failure of Iraqi and Afghani governments America helped to set up are no longer failing because of America but purely due to the incompetence of popularly elected leaders and local conditions that prevent sustainable development and minimize the terrible impact of continuing ethnic strife.
The immediate effect of the American desire to let go of post-invasion "nation-building" exercises has been the image problem of Iraq. By narrowly focusing on the political elements of the Iraqi protests, mainstream media has induced a sort of deterministic thinking among the general public that the country, and the Middle East in general, will remain underdeveloped because of the people that live there, not because of lack of effort by outside parties. The hopelessness and lack of solutions implied in such determinism only serve to reinforce and justify the media putting less and less energy caring about Iraq and its future.
That attitude is on full display concerning the ongoing protests against the Iraqi government. The demands of the protestors are simple yet complex. At the basic level, it is a question of livelihood. The failure of the government in turning around an economy hampered by high unemployment, low wages, lack of growth, and corruption that scare off investors have led to people having difficulties putting bread on the table. But at a higher level, the protests are an attack on the entire political system, in which different sectarian factions are coopted, Iranian influence remains large, and political parties ineffectual.
At least in one way, the government showed that it remains in control. As the ranks of the protestors swelled, the government unleashed violence, killing over 300 protestors across the country. The political elites cowered behind the Green Zone, the fortified administrative center of Baghdad that was first created to shield the American-created government from various anti-American militias after the toppling of Saddam Hussein. Only now, the elected officials shielding themselves from people demanding bread, not gunmen demanding their heads.
In some ways, the Iraqi protests are similar to those elsewhere, but media treatment of what is happening in Iraq differs much. Just like those in South America, Lebanon, and to a lesser extent, Hong Kong, Iraqi protests emerged from a combination of individual grievances about difficulties in daily lives, amplified by what the existence of a political and economic system that is supposedly rigged against the common man. But unless protests elsewhere, media coverage of what is happening in Iraq has been much more cursory and biased in favor of looking at the political elements.
In particular, Western media, skirting the policy failures of the elected Iraqi government, has played up the Iranian and sectarian factors that they see as the most important for pushing people onto the streets. Yes, there is absolutely no denying that in the messy struggle for power in Iraq, bickering over the constantly shifting realities of who is loyal to who has taken much energy away from the urgent issue of how to rebuild a broken economy in which citizens do not see a brighter future for themselves. But ultimately, blaming sectarianism does not take away from the simple fact that the Iraqi government has been neglecting economic development for way too long.
That eagerness of the media to focus on sectarian politics in Iraq as the root cause of the ongoing protests perhaps help to shift some blame away from the American government that should clearly be embarrassed about the many failures of Iraqi democracy that it helped to create. Far from allowing different factions and communities to share power peacefully and create a stable environment for more equal sharing of the country's resource-based wealth, Iraqi democracy has only helped to shift power struggles from gunbattles in the streets to conniving over ballet boxes, with no improvement in the quality of governance.
And as the Obama and Trump administrations have repeatedly promised to bring American troops home from the Middle East and reduce American presence in the region in general, American media outlets have become all too willing to make it looks like that failure of Iraqi and Afghani governments America helped to set up are no longer failing because of America but purely due to the incompetence of popularly elected leaders and local conditions that prevent sustainable development and minimize the terrible impact of continuing ethnic strife.
The immediate effect of the American desire to let go of post-invasion "nation-building" exercises has been the image problem of Iraq. By narrowly focusing on the political elements of the Iraqi protests, mainstream media has induced a sort of deterministic thinking among the general public that the country, and the Middle East in general, will remain underdeveloped because of the people that live there, not because of lack of effort by outside parties. The hopelessness and lack of solutions implied in such determinism only serve to reinforce and justify the media putting less and less energy caring about Iraq and its future.
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