AFTER THE WAR
Tyranny to Democracy
Iraq realizes the dream of a freely elected government.
Iraq has a cabinet at last--in other words, an elected government. Despite the frustrating delays, this is a triumph for Iraqis--and a tribute to the sacrifices that Iraqis, Americans and other coalition citizens made to build the New Iraq.
A year ago, in one of our many meetings, Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari and I reminisced about the very difficult negotiations that finally led to agreement on the interim constitution. With emotion, he recalled the sufferings of his political party and his own family under Saddam. Despite his party's Islamic roots, Mr. Jaafari had played a helpful role in drafting the constitution's guarantees of religious freedoms. The document, he knew, would give Iraq the political framework to build a peaceful, democratic country. He ended our conversation with the simple statement: "This is a beautiful law."
Despite the amazing progress in Iraq in two short years, some armchair experts carp that we should have moved even faster. Frankly, it's hard to understand what they are thinking. Newly liberated Iraq was a traumatized place. For almost four decades under Saddam, Iraqis lived in a country where the rule of law had been replaced by the rule of one man and his cruel whimsy. Whenever a provision of Iraq's old constitution got in his way, he simply ignored it. Saddam admired Hitler's and Stalin's ability to control their societies. He modeled his Baath party on theirs and required his officials to read "Mein Kampf." The party permeated every nook of Iraqi life, and, like the Nazis, even recruited children to spy on parents and neighbors. Expressing political views could be fatal.
From the outset, the coalition recognized that democracy requires more than just elections. We judged that we had a special obligation to help Iraqis design a political and legal structure to guide Iraq's journey from tyranny to democracy. The result, after three months of intense negotiations and compromise, was the interim constitution. This revolutionary document addresses three crucial areas. First, the coalition insisted that checks and balances guard against the return of one-man rule. So Iraq's national government has a federal structure to dilute the concentration of power in Baghdad characteristic of all previous governments.
The document also provides for the separation of powers among the branches of government, a dramatic change from the concentration in the hands of Saddam and his cronies. Now the legislature and executive will have to work together. And the judiciary is independent. These checks and balances forced negotiation and compromise on the parties elected to Iraq's national assembly--just as we'd intended. They will encourage compromise as Iraqis turn to writing a permanent constitution.
The coalition also insisted that the interim constitution protect the individual rights of all Iraqis. Now all are equal "without regard to gender, sect, opinion or religion." The document establishes a robust list of freedoms, ones we take for granted but are rare in the Middle East: freedom of religion, speech and assembly, and to join political parties and unions and to strike.
The interim constitution set out a goal that women should constitute a quarter of the National Assembly. In a marvelous tribute to the Iraqi people, women comprise 31% of the newly elected assembly, one of the highest proportions in the world--and twice that of the U.S. Congress.
Finally, the interim constitution embodies principles central to the rule of law. Torture is illegal. Search warrants are required, the accused is innocent until proven guilty, and has right to counsel and a free and open trial.
Last month, after a half-century of personal struggle for a better Iraq, Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani became Iraq's first elected president. Looking back over the two years since Liberation, he judged the interim constitution to be "the highest achievement of the New Iraq."
The next step on Iraq's path to democracy is writing a permanent constitution. As before, this process will involve the hard work of democracy--compromise and trade-offs. Since both Iraq's prime minister and president have praised the interim constitution, we can hope that they will work with other political leaders to ensure that the fine principles in that document migrate to the permanent constitution.
Mr. Bremer was administrator of the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq from May 2003 to June 28, 2004.
