Democracy making strides around the world

By Thomas Wagner

CAIRO, Egypt (AP): From East Asia to West Africa and the Middle East to South America, democracy is taking some big strides, with citizens using the vote to throw out long-ruling governments or to challenge military and religious elites.

Some changes have come in developing nations that are restructuring their political and economic systems to better compete in today's high-tech global market. Other reform movements arose after economic crises weakened unpopular governments.

Around the world, heavily armed dictatorships such as in Iraq and Yugoslavia and authoritarian regimes such as in China and North Korea remain firmly in power. But the reform movements are important advances for Western-style democracy, especially in regions like Africa and the Middle East, where it still has a long way to go.

In the last two years, the democratic trend has remade politics in Taiwan and Indonesia in Asia, Senegal and Nigeria in Africa, Iran in the Middle East and Venezuela in South America.

One of the most dramatic steps occurred March 18 in Taiwan, the island that split with China after the communists' 1949 victory in the civil war and that Beijing wants to reunify with the mainland -- by force if necessary.

In national elections, Chen Shui-bian, a reformist opposition leader, ousted the Nationalist Party after a half-century reign. Previously, Taiwan's top leaders, from Chiang Kai-shek to outgoing President Lee Teng-hui, had ruled with sweeping powers.

As president, Lee helped introduce democracy in Taiwan, but he also had built the Nationalist Party into a wealthy juggernaut that was all but impossible to stop in a nationwide ballot.

Chen, who has vowed to keep Taiwan independent from China's undemocratic Marxist regime, also has promised to rid the island of rampant official corruption.

In Indonesia, a sometimes bloody transition to democracy continues to move forward under President Abdurraham Wahid, a moderate Muslim cleric who defeated the ruling party candidate in October elections.

Wahid's government, the first freely elected since the 1950s, is pushing political and economic reforms to curb the influence of the generals and business elite that shored up former President Soeharto's regime.

Soeharto's 32-year dictatorship ended amid pro-democracy protests and riots two years ago, after the developing nation's economy was shattered by the Asian financial crisis.

Like other victims of the crisis, Indonesia quickly began to reform its economy according to the dictates of the International Monetary Fund, which provided crucial bailout loans.

Soeharto's protege and hand-picked successor, B.J. Habibie, sharply reduced the number of seats the military controls in the legislature, allowed the groundbreaking free election that he lost to Wahid and permitted the referendum that led to East Timor's independence.

Wahid has advanced democratization by appointing the country's first civilian defense minister in more than 40 years; dismissing military leader Gen. Wiranto, a close Soeharto associate; and purging the army of hard-line generals.

Given the economic strength of Taiwan and the size of Indonesia -- the world's fourth most populous nation -- their changes could become beacons for other democracy movements in Asia.

There, China, North Korean, Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam are still run by authoritarian regimes, Pakistan's government recently fell to a military coup, and Malaysia and Singapore, both run by long-entrenched political parties, limit free speech.

In the Persian Gulf, Iran's theocratic regime, and its tight social and government restrictions, are being challenged by blossoming social and political movements.

The country's mood, especially among the largest and restless younger generation, began to change with the 1997 election of reformist President Mohammad Khatami. The movement's confidence got a further boost in February with the dramatic and convincing parliamentary victory by candidates allied to Khatami.

Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, remains the ultimate authority. But if younger Iranians continue to push for greater, Western-style freedoms, many wonder whether the theocratic regime will be able to maintain its position.

The election's unexpected outcome has been unsettling for rulers in the Persian Gulf region, where true democracy is rare.

In Africa, a continent widely known for fraudulent balloting, coups and civil wars, Nigeria ended its brutal and corrupt military rule with an election in February 1999. The vote brought Olusegun Obasanjo to power as the country's first civilian leader in more than 15 years.

The big step forward, which left democracy firmly entrenched, began with the unexpected death in June 1998 of Gen. Sani Abacha. His brutality and extreme corruption had made Nigeria an international pariah, disturbing many of his own generals, who allowed the election after his death.

If that trend continues, Nigeria's democratic success could be hard to ignore in Africa, since the country is the continent's most populous one and is the world's sixth largest oil exporter.

In Senegal, a smaller West African nation, President Abdou Diouf recently surprised and overjoyed his people by accepting the results of a runoff election that ended the uninterrupted 40- year dynasty of his Socialist Party.

A democratic transformation also is under way in Venezuela, where the populist Hugo Chavez was elected president in December 1998. His leftist coalition decimated two traditional political parties that had run the South American country for 40 years.

Chavez, who had been jailed after attempting a military coup in 1992, campaigned as an uncorrupted outsider and patriot intent on making the government more democratic and responsive to Venezuela's many poor people.

Since coming to power, his legislative supporters have rewritten Venezuela's constitution to require new elections for most public offices, including the presidency, congress, governorships and local councils.

The presidential election will be May 28, and Chavez already is facing stiff competition in the polls.

The elected delegates who wrote Venezuela's new charter also fired hundreds of judges accused of corruption or incompetence and appointed a new Supreme Court, attorney general, comptroller and national elections board.

Critics argue the assembly overstepped its legal bounds and accuse Chavez of ruling like a strongman and expanding the role of the military. But Chavez says his government is merely breaking up a corrupt oligarchy that had left most people impoverished even though Venezuela holds the world's largest oil reserves outside the Middle East.