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We Must Keep Freedom Alive
by Madeleine K. Albright
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Madeleine
Albright		   We Must Keep Freedom Alive
by Madeleine K. Albright

from Parade Magazine - published: 11/02/2009

Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the former Secretary of State says:

Two decades ago, when the Berlin Wall came down, I was a professor at Georgetown University. My area of expertise was Central and Eastern Europe, where for decades the forces of freedom were held in check.

Then, in the space of a historical eye blink, everything changed. As the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, repressive Communist regimes began to topple, too. That year, the people of Poland, led by dissident dockworkers and inspired by Pope John Paul II, voted in elections for the first time in decades. Months later, so did the citizens of Hungary.

As a native of Czechoslovakia, I was delighted to be present in that country in 1990 when it conducted its first democratic elections of the new era. The enthusiasm of the crowds in Prague's Old Town Square was infectious. Paul Simon was there playing music that a generation of Czechoslovak young people had never felt free to fully enjoy. The climax came with a massive sing-along of the civil rights anthem “We Shall Overcome.”
 
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For a time, the euphoria seemed contagious. From Indonesia to South Africa to Chile, autocrats were out and democrats in. By 2000, two-thirds of the world's governments were constitutional democracies. In the new century, U.S. troops overthrew the Taliban in Afghanistan and Saddam Hussein in Iraq, causing leaders in Washington to predict with confidence the democratic transformation of the Middle East.

Yet, tomorrow, as we mark a milestone event—the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall—the status of democracy is embattled. Elected leaders across the globe are coping with aftershocks of the financial crisis and with the feeling among many of their citizens that democracy has failed to deliver a better life. Latin America is again plagued by demagogues who are exploiting social grievances to enhance their power. In Arab countries, the progress toward internal freedom has stalled, and this past summer's elections in Afghanistan and Iran have been marred by bitter allegations of fraud and by violent protests.

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I fear that many Americans, having grown up in freedom, take democracy for granted—but we shouldn't. In the long run, we cannot prosper or even be safe in a world where democratic values are under siege. While critics have suggested that freedom begets chaos, history shows it is the denial of liberty that most frequently ends in conflict and war. Seventy years ago, the Nazis' attempt to establish a fascist order in Europe led to World War II and the Holocaust. A decade later, the Communists seized power in Central Europe, promising a workers' paradise but instead producing a bloc of police states. At its best, democracy can create the kind of stability that lasts. For proof, look no further than our country's 2008 election—it was the 56th free and fair Presidential vote held here.

In far too many countries, the American Revolutionary War battle cry, “Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death,” still has modern relevance. When I was Secretary of State, I visited Sierra Leone. Militia groups there routinely chopped off people's hands to keep them from casting a ballot, even using machetes on the limbs of small children. I'll never forget holding one maimed girl in my arms. I couldn't help wondering how anyone could hurt her in such a cruel way. Whose enemy was she?

What Freedom Means

Another argument used against democracy is that the people in many countries are too poor and uneducated to vote intelligently or abide by the law. But as the Nobel Prize-winning Indian economist Amartya Sen has written, “People in economic need also need a political voice. Democracy is not a luxury that can await the arrival of general prosperity.”

In fact, democracy is a prerequisite to economic growth, which only flourishes when minds are encouraged to produce, invent, and explore. Since leaving the government, I've served as chair of the National Democratic Institute (NDI), a group that works to support fair elections and strengthen democratic institutions—such as political parties, legislatures, and an independent press and courts—in countries where they're at risk. As part of NDI, I visited a busy open-air market in an impoverished part of Nairobi, Kenya, a few years ago. The shops consisted of a table or a blanket on the ground, and the wares ranged from spark plugs to flip-flops. The entrepreneurs spoke with pride of their collective savings plan, to which each merchant gave 15 cents a day to finance civic improvements and to extend small business loans. I was heartened by the men and women of this makeshift mall, who believed in free enterprise and were doing everything possible to create a brighter future for their children.

But, in 2007, Kenya held the wrong kind of presidential election. The voting procedures were flawed and the results angrily contested. In the subsequent unrest, the market I'd visited was destroyed. As so often happens when democratic principles are violated, the people who have the least suffer the most.

While the United States cannot determine the outcome of every confrontation, our preference for democrats over dictators should never be in doubt. As President Abraham Lincoln said in 1861, the Declaration of Independence did more than bestow liberty on America—it gave hope to the world “ that in due time the weights should be lifted from the shoulders of all men and that all should have an equal chance.”

In 1989, when the Berlin Wall fell, leaders of the newly freed countries thanked the American people for helping keep their hopes for freedom alive. Today, the responsibility of the U.S. is the same: to be clear about where we stand, diligent in supporting democratic values, and committed to the spirit embodied in “We Shall Overcome.”

Madeleine K. Albright served as U.S. Secretary of State from 1997 to 2001. Now chair of Albright Stonebridge Group, she is the author of the new book “Read My Pins: Stories From a Diplomat's Jewel Box.”