Dignity

There can be no reason to tax a man’s dignity when he is already down and out – even if that man performed great acts of cruelty in his heyday.

Few outside Iraq like Saddam Hussein. But fewer still in Iraq and elsewhere think it proper to publish photos of the deposed tyrant in his underpants.

There is no joy in mocking powerless captives.

Suddenly, Saddam Hussein in his underpants became the underdog.

Suddenly, there is a cause for consensus among the fractious Iraqis who now consider the publication of demeaning photos of Saddam an insult to the whole nation.

The photographs were very likely lifted from surveillance cameras in the prison. Apart from the photo of Saddam in underpants, there was another of him washing his pants and yet another showing him in prayer.

The photos were first released by the British tabloid The Sun. British tabloids are generally racier than what the limits of responsible journalism might prefer. But this one takes the cake in irresponsibility.

It is such acts of irresponsibility that give democracy a bad name in places where democracy is a foreign word.

The Sun sheepishly excuses the release of the photos on the grounds that the Butcher of Baghdad deserved to be treated that way. That is a stupid excuse.

In the clash of civilizations we now behold, that act of irresponsibility deepens the chasm between the west and the ancient cultures the west wants to goad into modernity and democracy – even if this requires a forced march under the barrel of a gun.

The controversial Saddam photos comes on the heels of a great controversy over the mistreatment of prisoners in an American prison camp in Baghdad. It comes after a story in Newsweek, about pages of the Holy Koran being flushed down a toilet to rattle prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay camp – a story, later retracted, that sparked protest rallies Muslims from Pakistan to Indonesia.

The war against Saddam, a.k.a. The Invasion of Iraq, has heightened fears of Anglo-American designs of domination against the Middle Eastern societies justified as a war against terror. There are many in the Arab world who are fearful that the Americans and the British intend to push their collective face into the mud, eradicate their cultures and emasculate their fate.

These are the fears that encourage fanatics to support movements of terror, wrap bombs around themselves and embark on suicide missions.

Unless these fears are relieved, the chasm between civilizations will continue to wide and terrorism will continue to be the scourge of this age.

The attitude of The Sun exemplifies the worst suspicions about the Ugly Westerner that is deeply implanted in the minds of many Muslims – who are not only jealous about their faith but strongly protective of their national pride. The Ugly Westerner is haughty and callous. He will take every opportunity to demean others.

That might be an unfair caricature. But evidence to support it seem to be willingly produced everyday by the American and British soldiers and journalists.

Evidence of the mistreatment of prisoners in Baghdad, in Guantanamo and even in Kabul undermine the moral ascendancy of the Anglo-American effort to seed democracy in ancient societies and depose tyrants who sponsor terror. In any society anywhere in the world, people will prefer to be treated shabbily by local tyrants than to be treated shabbily by foreigners.

Most Iraqis hate Saddam. But the resilience of the brutal resistance waged against Anglo-American occupation of that country indicates there are enough people there who would rather have a government run like hell by Iraqis than one run like heaven by Americans – to paraphrase the eloquence of our own Manuel Luis Quezon.

Which explains why even among Iraqis who hated Saddam, the publication of the demeaning photos is deemed a personal – as well as a national – affront.

The passions of the dispossessed and the pride of the powerless are great forces that could drive conflicts deeper.

Recall our own experience when Philippine Marines were photographed triumphantly perched on the ruins of a mosque after the successful assault on Camp Abubakar. Every Filipino Muslim, including those with no love lost for the MILF, was outraged. Government had to apologize quickly for the indiscretion and rebuild the fallen mosque posthaste.

The publication of the demeaning photos of Saddam demonstrate a boorishness that can only provoke outrage among populations that the western powers are, precisely, trying to convince about the desirability of the democratic way of life. The Sun might have sold more copies for a few days as they peddled that episode of journalistic indiscretion – but at the cost of compromising the whole effort to win the trust and confidence of Islamic populations.

Needless to say, both London and Washington are aware of the destructive passions that could be unleashed when cultural sensitivities are violated. But neither capital could police their free press, notwithstanding the irresponsibility that the freest press is capable of harboring.

That is the dilemma of the democracies – especially those whose popular cultures are fed by commercial media that will cater to the most unseemly proclivities of audiences.

There is much to learn about this episode, which is still unfolding even as we contemplate it.

True, terrorism is evil. But there are complex cultural motivations that animate the irrational movements of terror. Those complex cultural motivations will have to be arrested if the threat of terror is to be disarmed.

Unfortunately, the irresponsible acts of individual soldiers and editors in the world’s greatest and most mature democracies allow enough incidents that drive those cultural complexities even wilder. Those who dare preach the gospel of democracy to the world’s unfree must also put effort at preaching responsibility and cultural sensitivity to the world’s freest populations.