[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 39, Number 45 (Monday, November 10, 2003)]
[Pages 1542-1547]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks on the 20th Anniversary of the National Endowment for Democracy

November 6, 2003

    Thank you all very much. Please be seated. Thanks for the warm 
welcome. Thanks for inviting me to join you in this 20th anniversary of 
the National Endowment for Democracy. Staff and directors of this 
organization have seen a lot of history over the last two decades. 
You've been a part of that history. By speaking for and standing for 
freedom, you've lifted the hopes of people around the world, and you've 
brought great credit to America.
    I appreciate Vin for the short introduction. I'm a man who likes 
short introductions, and he didn't let me down. But more importantly, I 
appreciate the invitation. I appreciate the Members of Congress who are 
here, Senators from both political parties, Members of the House of 
Representatives from both political parties. I appreciate the 
ambassadors who are here. I appreciate the guests who have come. I 
appreciate the bipartisan spirit, the nonpartisan spirit of the National 
Endowment for Democracy. I'm glad that Republicans and Democrats and 
independents are working together to advance human liberty.
    The roots of our democracy can be traced to England and to its 
Parliament, and so can the roots of this organization. In June of 1982, 
President Ronald Reagan spoke at Westminster Palace and declared the 
turning point had arrived in history. He argued that Soviet communism 
had failed precisely because it did not respect its own people, their 
creativity, their genius, and their rights. President Reagan said that 
the day of Soviet tyranny was passing, that freedom had a momentum which 
would not be halted. He gave this organization its mandate: to add to 
the momentum of freedom across the world. Your mandate was important 20 
years ago. It is equally important today.
    A number of critics were dismissive of that speech by the President. 
According to one editorial of the time, ``It seems hard to be a 
sophisticated European and also an admirer of Ronald Reagan.'' 
[Laughter] Some observers on both sides of the Atlantic pronounced the 
speech simplistic and naive and even dangerous. In fact, Ronald Reagan's 
words were courageous and optimistic and entirely correct.
    The great democratic movement President Reagan described was already 
well underway. In the early 1970s, there were about 40 democracies in 
the world. By the middle of that decade, Portugal and Spain and Greece 
held free elections. Soon there were new democracies in Latin America, 
and free institutions were spreading in Korea, in Taiwan, and in East 
Asia. This very week in 1989, there were protests in East Berlin and in 
Leipzig. By the end of that year, every communist dictatorship in 
Central Europe * had collapsed. Within another year, the South African 
Government released Nelson Mandela. Four years later, he was elected 
President of his country, ascending, like Walesa and Havel, from 
prisoner of state to head of state.
    * White House correction.
    As the 20th century ended, there were around 120 democracies in the 
world, and I can assure you, more are on the way. Ronald Reagan would be 
pleased, and he would not be surprised.
    We've witnessed, in little over a generation, the swiftest advance 
of freedom in the 2,500-year story of democracy. Historians in the 
future will offer their own explanations for why this happened. Yet we 
already know some of the reasons they will cite. It is no accident that 
the rise of so many democracies

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took place in a time when the world's most influential nation was itself 
a democracy.
    The United States made military and moral commitments in Europe and 
Asia which protected free nations from aggression and created the 
conditions in which new democracies could flourish. As we provided 
security for whole nations, we also provided inspiration for oppressed 
peoples. In prison camps, in banned union meetings, in clandestine 
churches, men and women knew that the whole world was not sharing their 
own nightmare. They knew of at least one place, a bright and hopeful 
land where freedom was valued and secure, and they prayed that America 
would not forget them or forget the mission to promote liberty around 
the world.
    Historians will note that in many nations, the advance of markets 
and free enterprise helped to create a middle class that was confident 
enough to demand their own rights. They will point to the role of 
technology in frustrating censorship and central control and marvel at 
the power of instant communications to spread the truth, the news, and 
courage across borders.
    Historians in the future will reflect on an extraordinary, 
undeniable fact: Over time, free nations grow stronger, and 
dictatorships grow weaker. In the middle of the 20th century, some 
imagined that the central planning and social regimentation were a 
shortcut to national strength. In fact, the prosperity and social 
vitality and technological progress of a people are directly determined 
by the extent of their liberty. Freedom honors and unleashes human 
creativity, and creativity determines the strength and wealth of 
nations. Liberty is both the plan of heaven for humanity and the best 
hope for progress here on Earth.
    The progress of liberty is a powerful trend. Yet, we also know that 
liberty, if not defended, can be lost. The success of freedom is not 
determined by some dialectic of history. By definition, the success of 
freedom rests upon the choices and the courage of free peoples and upon 
their willingness to sacrifice. In the trenches of World War I, through 
a two-front war in the 1940s, the difficult battles of Korea and 
Vietnam, and in missions of rescue and liberation on nearly every 
continent, Americans have amply displayed our willingness to sacrifice 
for liberty.
    The sacrifices of Americans have not always been recognized or 
appreciated, yet they have been worthwhile. Because we and our allies 
were steadfast, Germany and Japan are democratic nations that no longer 
threaten the world. A global nuclear standoff with the Soviet Union 
ended peacefully, as did the Soviet Union. The nations of Europe are 
moving towards unity, not dividing into armed camps and descending into 
genocide. Every nation has learned or should have learned an important 
lesson: Freedom is worth fighting for, dying for, and standing for, and 
the advance of freedom leads to peace.
    And now we must apply that lesson in our own time. We've reached 
another great turning point, and the resolve we show will shape the next 
stage of the world democratic movement.
    Our commitment to democracy is tested in countries like Cuba and 
Burma and North Korea and Zimbabwe, outposts of oppression in our world. 
The people in these nations live in captivity and fear and silence. Yet, 
these regimes cannot hold back freedom forever, and one day, from prison 
camps and prison cells and from exile, the leaders of new democracies 
will arrive. Communism and militarism and rule by the capricious and 
corrupt are the relics of a passing era. And we will stand with these 
oppressed peoples until the day of liberation and freedom finally 
arrives.
    Our commitment to democracy is tested in China. That nation now has 
a sliver, a fragment of liberty. Yet, China's people will eventually 
want their liberty pure and whole. China has discovered that economic 
freedom leads to national wealth. China's leaders will also discover 
that freedom is indivisible, that social and religious freedom is also 
essential to national greatness and national dignity. Eventually, men 
and women who are allowed to control their own wealth will insist on 
controlling their own lives and their own country.
    Our commitment to democracy is also tested in the Middle East, which 
is my focus today and must be a focus of American policy for decades to 
come. In many nations of the

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Middle East, countries of great strategic importance, democracy has not 
yet taken root. And the questions arise: Are the peoples of the Middle 
East somehow beyond the reach of liberty? Are millions of men and women 
and children condemned by history or culture to live in despotism? Are 
they alone never to know freedom and never even to have a choice in the 
matter? I for one do not believe it. I believe every person has the 
ability and the right to be free.
    Some skeptics of democracy assert that the traditions of Islam are 
inhospitable to the representative government. This ``cultural 
condescension,'' as Ronald Reagan termed it, has a long history. After 
the Japanese surrender in 1945, a so-called Japan expert asserted that 
democracy in that former empire would, quote, ``never work.'' Another 
observer declared the prospects for democracy in post-Hitler Germany 
are, and I quote, ``most uncertain at best.'' He made that claim in 
1957. Seventy-four years ago, the Sunday London Times declared nine-
tenths of the population of India to be, quote, ``illiterates not caring 
a fig for politics.'' Yet when Indian democracy was imperiled in the 
1970s, the Indian people showed their commitment to liberty in a 
national referendum that saved their form of government.
    Time after time, observers have questioned whether this country or 
that people or this group are ready for democracy, as if freedom were a 
prize you win for meeting our own Western standards of progress. In 
fact, the daily work of democracy itself is the path of progress. It 
teaches cooperation, the free exchange of ideas, and the peaceful 
resolution of differences. As men and women are showing from Bangladesh 
to Botswana to Mongolia, it is the practice of democracy that makes a 
nation ready for democracy, and every nation can start on this path.
    It should be clear to all that Islam, the faith of one-fifth of 
humanity, is consistent with democratic rule. Democratic progress is 
found in many predominantly Muslim countries, in Turkey and Indonesia 
and Senegal and Albania, in Niger and Sierra Leone. Muslim men and women 
are good citizens of India and South Africa, of the nations of Western 
Europe, and of the United States of America.
    More than half of all Muslims in the world live in freedom under 
democratically constituted governments. They succeed in democratic 
societies, not in spite of their faith but because of it. A religion 
that demands individual moral accountability and encourages the 
encounter of the individual with God is fully compatible with the rights 
and responsibilities of self-government.
    Yet there's a great challenge today in the Middle East. In the words 
of a recent report by Arab scholars, the global wave of democracy has, 
and I quote, ``barely reached the Arab states.'' They continue: ``This 
freedom deficit undermines human development and is one of the most 
painful manifestations of lagging political development.'' The freedom 
deficit they describe has terrible consequences for the people of the 
Middle East and for the world. In many Middle Eastern countries, poverty 
is deep, and it is spreading. Women lack rights and are denied 
schooling. Whole societies remain stagnant while the world moves ahead. 
These are not the failures of a culture or a religion. These are the 
failures of political and economic doctrines.
    As the colonial era passed away, the Middle East saw the 
establishment of many military dictatorships. Some rulers adopted the 
dogmas of socialism, seized total control of political parties and the 
media and universities. They allied themselves with the Soviet bloc and 
with international terrorism. Dictators in Iraq and Syria promised the 
restoration of national honor, a return to ancient glories. They've left 
instead a legacy of torture, oppression, misery, and ruin.
    Other men and groups of men have gained influence in the Middle East 
and beyond through an ideology of theocratic terror. Behind their 
language of religion is the ambition for absolute political power. 
Ruling cabals like the Taliban show their version of religious piety in 
public whippings of women, ruthless suppression of any difference or 
dissent, and support for terrorists who arm and train to murder the 
innocent. The Taliban promised religious purity and national pride. 
Instead, by systematically destroying a proud and working society, they 
left behind suffering and starvation.
    Many Middle Eastern governments now understand that military 
dictatorship and

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theocratic rule are a straight, smooth highway to nowhere. But some 
governments still cling to the old habits of central control. There are 
governments that still fear and repress independent thought and 
creativity and private enterprise, the human qualities that make for a 
strong and successful societies. Even when these nations have vast 
natural resources, they do not respect or develop their greatest 
resources, the talent and energy of men and women working and living in 
freedom.
    Instead of dwelling on past wrongs and blaming others, governments 
in the Middle East need to confront real problems and serve the true 
interests of their nations. The good and capable people of the Middle 
East all deserve responsible leadership. For too long, many people in 
that region have been victims and subjects. They deserve to be active 
citizens.
    Governments across the Middle East and north Africa are beginning to 
see the need for change. Morocco has a diverse new Parliament. King 
Mohamed has urged it to extend the rights to women. Here is how His 
Majesty explained his reforms to Parliament: ``How can society achieve 
progress while women, who represent half the nation, see their rights 
violated and suffer as a result of injustice, violence, and 
marginalization, notwithstanding the dignity and justice granted to them 
by our glorious religion?'' The King of Morocco is correct: The future 
of Muslim nations will be better for all with the full participation of 
women.
    In Bahrain last year, citizens elected their own Parliament for the 
first time in nearly three decades. Oman has extended the vote to all 
adult citizens. Qatar has a new constitution. Yemen has a multiparty 
political system. Kuwait has a directly elected national assembly, and 
Jordan held historic elections this summer. Recent surveys in Arab 
nations reveal broad support for political pluralism, the rule of law, 
and free speech. These are the stirrings of Middle Eastern democracy, 
and they carry the promise of greater change to come.
    As changes come to the Middle Eastern region, those with power 
should ask themselves: Will they be remembered for resisting reform or 
for leading it? In Iran, the demand for democracy is strong and broad, 
as we saw last month when thousands gathered to welcome home Shirin 
Ebadi, the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. The regime in Tehran must 
heed the democratic demands of the Iranian people or lose its last claim 
to legitimacy.
    For the Palestinian people, the only path to independence and 
dignity and progress is the path of democracy. And the Palestinian 
leaders who block and undermine democratic reform and feed hatred and 
encourage violence are not leaders at all. They're the main obstacles to 
peace and to the success of the Palestinian people.
    The Saudi Government is taking first steps toward reform, including 
a plan for gradual introduction of elections. By giving the Saudi people 
a greater role in their own society, the Saudi Government can 
demonstrate true leadership in the region.
    The great and proud nation of Egypt has shown the way toward peace 
in the Middle East and now should show the way toward democracy in the 
Middle East. Champions of democracy in the region understand that 
democracy is not perfect. It is not the path to utopia, but it's the 
only path to national success and dignity.
    As we watch and encourage reforms in the region, we are mindful that 
modernization is not the same as Westernization. Representative 
governments in the Middle East will reflect their own cultures. They 
will not and should not look like us. Democratic nations may be 
constitutional monarchies, federal republics, or parliamentary systems. 
And working democracies always need time to develop, as did our own. 
We've taken a 200-year journey toward inclusion and justice, and this 
makes us patient and understanding as other nations are at different 
stages of this journey.
    There are, however, essential principles common to every successful 
society in every culture. Successful societies limit the power of the 
state and the power of the military, so that governments respond to the 
will of the people and not the will of the elite. Successful societies 
protect freedom with the consistent and impartial rule of law, instead 
of selectively applying the law to punish political opponents. 
Successful societies allow

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room for healthy civic institutions, for political parties and labor 
unions and independent newspapers and broadcast media. Successful 
societies guarantee religious liberty, the right to serve and honor God 
without fear of persecution. Successful societies privatize their 
economies and secure the rights of property. They prohibit and punish 
official corruption and invest in the health and education of their 
people. They recognize the rights of women. And instead of directing 
hatred and resentment against others, successful societies appeal to the 
hopes of their own people.
    These vital principles are being applied in the nations of 
Afghanistan and Iraq. With the steady leadership of President Karzai, 
the people of Afghanistan are building a modern and peaceful Government. 
Next month, 500 delegates will convene a national assembly in Kabul to 
approve a new Afghan constitution. The proposed draft would establish a 
bicameral Parliament, set national elections next year, and recognize 
Afghanistan's Muslim identity while protecting the rights of all 
citizens. Afghanistan faces continuing economic and security challenges. 
It will face those challenges as a free and stable democracy.
    In Iraq, the Coalition Provisional Authority and the Iraqi Governing 
Council are also working together to build a democracy, and after three 
decades of tyranny, this work is not easy. The former dictator ruled by 
terror and treachery and left deeply ingrained habits of fear and 
distrust. Remnants of his regime, joined by foreign terrorists, continue 
their battle against order and against civilization. Our coalition is 
responding to recent attacks with precision raids, guided by 
intelligence provided by the Iraqis themselves. And we're working 
closely with Iraqi citizens as they prepare a constitution, as they move 
toward free elections and take increasing responsibility for their own 
affairs. As in the defense of Greece in 1947 and later in the Berlin 
airlift, the strength and will of free peoples are now being tested 
before a watching world. And we will meet this test.
    Securing democracy in Iraq is the work of many hands. American and 
coalition forces are sacrificing for the peace of Iraq and for the 
security of free nations. Aid workers from many countries are facing 
danger to help the Iraqi people. The National Endowment for Democracy is 
promoting women's rights and training Iraqi journalists and teaching the 
skills of political participation. Iraqis themselves, police and border 
guards and local officials, are joining in the work, and they are 
sharing in the sacrifice.
    This is a massive and difficult undertaking. It is worth our effort. 
It is worth our sacrifice, because we know the stakes. The failure of 
Iraqi democracy would embolden terrorists around the world, increase 
dangers to the American people, and extinguish the hopes of millions in 
the region. Iraqi democracy will succeed, and that success will send 
forth the news, from Damascus to Tehran, that freedom can be the future 
of every nation. The establishment of a free Iraq at the heart of the 
Middle East will be a watershed event in the global democratic 
revolution.
    Sixty years of Western nations excusing and accommodating the lack 
of freedom in the Middle East did nothing to make us safe, because in 
the long run, stability cannot be purchased at the expense of liberty. 
As long as the Middle East remains a place where freedom does not 
flourish, it will remain a place of stagnation, resentment, and violence 
ready for export. And with the spread of weapons that can bring 
catastrophic harm to our country and to our friends, it would be 
reckless to accept the status quo.
    Therefore, the United States has adopted a new policy, a forward 
strategy of freedom in the Middle East. This strategy requires the same 
persistence and energy and idealism we have shown before, and it will 
yield the same results. As in Europe, as in Asia, as in every region of 
the world, the advance of freedom leads to peace.
    The advance of freedom is the calling of our time. It is the calling 
of our country. From the Fourteen Points to the Four Freedoms to the 
speech at Westminster, America has put our power at the service of 
principle. We believe that liberty is the design of nature. We believe 
that liberty is the direction of history. We believe that human 
fulfillment and excellence come in the responsible exercise of liberty. 
And we believe that freedom, the freedom we prize, is not for us alone; 
it is the right and the capacity of all mankind.

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    Working for the spread of freedom can be hard. Yet, America has 
accomplished hard tasks before. Our Nation is strong. We're strong of 
heart, and we're not alone. Freedom is finding allies in every country. 
Freedom finds allies in every culture. And as we meet the terror and 
violence of the world, we can be certain the Author of freedom is not 
indifferent to the fate of freedom.
    With all the tests and all the challenges of our age, this is, above 
all, the age of liberty. Each of you at this endowment is fully engaged 
in the great cause of liberty, and I thank you. May God bless your work, 
and may God continue to bless America.

Note: The President spoke at 11:05 a.m. in the Hall of Flags at the U.S. 
Chamber of Commerce. In his remarks, he referred to Vin Weber, chairman, 
National Endowment for Democracy; former President Lech Walesa of 
Poland; former President Vaclav Havel of the Czech Republic; King 
Mohamed VI of Morocco; President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan; and former 
President Saddam Hussein of Iraq. The Office of the Press Secretary also 
released a Spanish language transcript of these remarks.