 Secretary General Kofi Annan said Thursday that Hamas' victory in the Palestinian elections should send a lesson to rulers and politicians in the Mideast and the world that voters want stable governments that are not corrupt and can serve their people.
| Lucky for him the voters don't have a choice in who gets to be secretary general... |
Annan said he didn't view Hamas' success and recent election gains by the Islamic Brotherhood in Egypt and religious parties in Iraq as a rejection of secular parties in favour of Islamic parties in the Middle East. "I think if the regimes in power were seen to be delivering, were seen to be close to the people, I am sure the results would have been quite different," the secretary general told reporters in response to a question about the wider significance of the success of Islamic parties in the region.
| Wonder how Hosni took that... |
Annan stressed again that no one can anticipate the results of democratic elections. The results in Egypt, the Palestinian territories and elsewhere show that Islamic groups were well organised, he said. And in the case of the Palestinians, Hamas has had a record of offering social services, of being organised and disciplined, "and of not being corrupt." "What were the people voting for? Were they voting for a clean government? Were they voting for peace? Were they voting for a stable environment in which their kids could go to school? Or were they voting for the Hamas manifesto?," Annan asked, referring to the document that calls for Israel's destruction. "My sense is that they were voting for a peaceful and stable and well organised Palestine. So it's a lesson and a message for all rulers and politicians in the region, and everywhere in the world, that people want good government, and they will vote for people that they believe will offer that. I am not ready to accept that it is a total rejection of secular movements and a total swing to Islamic parties," Annan said. |