[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 62 (Tuesday, May 7, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4792-S4793]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
CONGRATULATIONS TO INDIA
Mr. MOYNIHAN. Mr. President, there is good news and better news in
the world today with regards to the progress and the stability of
democratic procedures around the world. We are, as is evidenced from
the day's proceedings, already well into our election season, though
the actual election will not be held until next November, as has been
our practice over the last two centuries.
It is possible in a country such as ours to take for granted
national, State, and even local elections, as a part of the rhythms of
our life. Yet, they are rare in the world. In the whole of the
membership of the United Nations, some 185 countries now, there are
only 7 States which both existed in 1914 and have not had their form of
government changed by violence since then.
We are joined in that very special group, by the United Kingdom, four
former members of the British Commonwealth--Canada, Australia, New
Zealand, and South Africa--and Sweden. I would add Switzerland, though
it is not a member of the United Nations.
Of the great powers of the world, the newest to begin a process of
choosing leaders by elections is Russia, the Russian Federation and
other members of the former Republics of the Union of Soviet Socialist
Republics.
Yesterday, we learned with understandable anxiety that on Sunday
Major General Aleksandr Korzhakov, the close aide and security advisor
to President Boris Yeltsin of Russia, stated that it might be necessary
to cancel the Presidential elections scheduled for June. He stated that
the country was not ready to make a decision. It is clear his concern
is that if the country were to make a decision now, it might not choose
Mr. Yeltsin.
Mr. President, this will be the second Presidential election in
Russian history. To his great credit, yesterday in Moscow, Mr. Yeltsin
said that the election would not be postponed; it will take place as
scheduled. Mr. Yeltsin went on to instruct General Korzhakov not to get
involved in politics and to refrain from making such statements in the
future.
On the other hand, in his statement, Mr. Yeltsin refers to his
opponent, who is associated with former Communists in Russia and who
has a program very much opposed to the economic reforms Mr. Yeltsin has
been pursuing, albeit at times erratically, by stating that,
``Korzhakov is not alone in thinking that a Gennadi Zyuganov victory
would start a civil war.''
Now, those are ominous terms, sir. Mr. Zyuganov is the candidate
considered to be Mr. Yeltsin's chief opponent, and he represents a
revival of Communist thinking and organization to some extent. The word
``civil war'' takes us back to the events of 1917 when the Bolsheviks
seized power from a moderate provisional government, potentially a
democratic government. Those events in St. Petersburg in the Winter
Palace in 1917 are well-known to us --and were followed by four years
of intense, agonizing war across all of Eurasia. A war in which the
United States was involved with troops in Murmansk, Vladivostok, and
elsewhere, as were the British and the French. The outcome was the
triumph of the Soviet Union and the horror that followed for nearly
three-quarters of a century, until its final dissolution in 1991.
We can only wish the democrats, or if you like republicans, well in
the Russian elections. We should take note of how very tentative these
advances can be, and take into account those who are voicing concern
over the prospect of an election in which the outcome would result in
civil war.
By extraordinary contrast, Mr. President, the Republic of India today
concludes the third and final day of the largest election in human
history. Some 590 million Indian citizens are eligible to vote in three
separate days of balloting: April 27, May 2, and today, May 7. This
will be the 11th national election since the founding of the Republic
of India in 1947. A very large proportion of the electorate will have
voted in some 800,000 polling places.
The task of keeping the polling stations open is formidable, yet the
task is being accomplished and it suggests the magnitude of the
achievement. In so doing, India continues to exist as a democracy, in
defiance of just about everything that those who profess to know about
the subject would argue are required as preconditions necessary for a
democratic society. Yet India continues to remain a firm democracy and
to exhibit an extraordinary commitment to law and to civic process.
Here is a country with 15 official languages, not to mention English
which,
[[Page S4793]]
as Prime Minister Nehru described, enjoys ``associate status.'' In
addition, some 50 major regional languages. It is a country that
stretches from the Himalayas in the north to Cape Comorin far into the
Indian Ocean, approaching the Equator. It is the second most populous
nation on Earth. There has never been a country of this size able to
have regular and free, democratic elections. They are not without
disturbances, few elections are anywhere; however, we do know that
there will be a government formed in the aftermath of this election.
There will be no civil war. There will be no civil unrest. There will
be an acceptance of a democratic process without parallel in the
history of mankind. It should cheer us up and make us realize that the
last half century has not been for nothing. The current possibilities
of a democratic society around the world are perhaps beyond what anyone
could have imagined a century ago, and they are thriving and proudly
prevailing on the subcontinent of India, in the Republic of India.
I am sure the entire Senate will wish to congratulate the people of
India and all who have participated in this election. We take no
position whatever as to the outcome. There are any number of parties
with capable candidates. At the present time, the balloting should have
been concluded, it being past midnight in India. Soon we will know the
outcome.
It fell to that singular commentator, William Safire, in the New York
Times, to note this event in a remarkable column in which he observes
the Indian achievement. I think we should note the contrast of this
achievement with the People's Republic of China which, though
comparable in size, has never had an election of any kind.
I ask unanimous consent that Mr. Safire's column be printed in the
Record.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
[From the New York Times, May 2, 1996]
The Biggest Election
(By William Safire)
Washington.--In 1975, when Indira Gandhi assumed
dictatorial control of India and threw her opponents in jail,
President Ford asked his U.N. delegate, Daniel P. Moynihan,
what to make of that.
``Look at it this way, Mr. President,'' said Moynihan with
a courtier's irony. ``Under your Administration, the United
States has become the world's largest democracy.''
When Mrs. Gandhi later confidently stood for election,
India's voters threw her out. Freedom was back, and the U.S.
happily became the world's second-largest democracy.
This week, with dignity, honest balloting and relatively
little violence, 400 million of India's citizens--65 percent
of eligible voters, higher than here--go to the polls to
select candidates from 500 political parties. It is the most
breathtaking example of government by the people in the
history of the world.
Americans don't hear a whole lot about it. President
Clinton is busy being campaign manager for the Labor party in
Israel's May 29, election, in effect telling Israelis to vote
for Shimon Peres or else.
When he is not intervening shamelessly in Israel's
political affairs, Mr. Clinton is barnstorming with Boris
Yeltsin, trying to help him defeat Yavlinsky's reformers and
Zyuganov's Communists in Russia's June 16 election.
Washington is also headquarters for the Clinton campaign for
the U.S. Presidency, where he beefs up beef prices to
consumers while pouring strategic oil on troubled motorists.
But in all the campaigning, no mention is made of India,
where voters outnumber those in Israel, Russia and the U.S.
combined.
As a result of this uncharacteristic White House
forbearance, television coverage here about the biggest
election has been next to nil. Not only do Americans not know
for which Indian candidate to root, but hundreds of millions
of voters are forced to go to the polls ignorant of Mr.
Clinton's preference.
Why? Do nearly 900 million Indians not matter? American
lack of interest is not new; a former Foreign Minister of
India, one of Nehru's acolytes, told a U.S. envoy: ``We would
far prefer your detestation to your indifference.''
One reason is that India strikes a holier-than-thou
diplomatic pose, remaining nonaligned when there is no longer
one side to be nonaligned against. Year after year, India is
near the top of the list of nations that consistently vote
against the U.S. in the United Nations.
We're wrong to let that overly irritate us. China votes
against us, too, and unbalances our trade and secretly ships
missiles to rogue states and jails dissidents and oppresses
Tibet and threatens Taiwan and (cover the children's eyes)
pirates our CD's--but we care more about what happens in
China than what happens in India.
That's a mistake. Contrary to what all the new Old China
Hands and other Old Nixon Hands tell you, India will draw
ahead of China as a superpower in the next century.
Yes, China's economic growth rate has doubled India's, and
China's Draconian control of births will see India's
population exceed China's soon enough, to India's
disadvantage. But China does not know what an election is.
Despite the enterprise and industriousness of its people,
despite the example of free Chinese on Taiwan and the
inspiration of the dissident Wei Jingsheng, jailed in
Beijing, China is several upheavals and decades away from the
democracy India already enjoys.
Without political freedom, capitalism cannot long thrive.
Already the requirements of political repression are
stultifying the flow of market information in China, driving
wary Hong Kong executives to Sydney. The suppression of
dangerous data undermined technology in Communist Russia; it
will hurt China, too.
Though more Chinese are literate, many more Indians are
English-literate (more English-speakers than in Britain), and
English is the global language of the computer. American
software companies are already locating in Bangalore, India's
Silicon Valley. Bureaucratic corruption scandals abound;
India's free press reports and helps cleanse them, China's
does not.
I'm rooting for Rao, the secular Prime Minister, who is
more likely to move toward free markets than Vajpayee, his
leading opponent. But whoever wins, it's a glorious week for
the world's largest democracy.
Mr. MOYNIHAN. I take the liberty of extending the congratulations of
the U.S. Senate to the Government and peoples of India on the
conclusion of this, the 11th national election as an independent nation
in the world: proud, increasingly prosperous, and with every
expectation of becoming more so.
I thank the Senate for its courtesy and allowing this interruption. I
suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. SIMON. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for
the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
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