How to lose a country gracefully (part V)

By Khmer Democrat, Phnom Penh
Brutal Khmer Dictators, Your Days are Numbered Series

This New York Times article by its executive editor Bill Keller, in several parts, is dedicated to the leaders of this autocratic regime with the hope that they are smart enough to see a better path into their future:

Part V

How to Lose a Country Gracefully

Bill Keller

The New York Times, March 1, 2011

One man’s dead nuisance is another’s martyr.

It is not a coincidence that the surge points of the current political unrest tend to be funerals [think, Chea Vichea!], as they were in South Africa and several restive Soviet republics. From the massacre in Sharpeville to the protesters crushed under the tank treads of a rogue army unit in Soviet Lithuania, from the persecuted fruit vendor who immolated himself in Tunisia to the crowds strafed in Libya, the dead live on as evidence of a regime’s cruelty. And few cultures cherish their martyrs as devoutly as Islam does.

Winning is the easy part.

Congratulations, you ousted the tyrant, you won an election, your inaugural address stirred the hearts of your people. Now here’s your giant goodie bag of festering misery ­— Egypt! ­— where the army runs the private sector, the mullahs may or may not be spoiling to impose shariah law, the tourists have been scared off, poverty and unemployment are rife and any day the score-settling will begin.

Today, Russia and South Africa are disillusioned democracies. Wretched poverty, crime and bad governance bedevil South Africa. Russia is corrupt and intolerant of political dissent, sometimes brutally so. Yet each country has grown bigger middle classes, expanded individual liberties and mostly kept its armies at peace. And if the Russians or South Africans run out of patience with their imperfect leaders, they have some hope of remedies other than the streets.

Gorbachev turned 80 earlier this month, and de Klerk will be 75 soon. Happy birthday to both, and here’s to those who make history by gracefully getting out of its way.

How to lose a country gracefully (part I)

How to lose a country gracefully (part II)

How to lose a country gracefully (part III)

How to lose a country gracefully (part IV)