Writing Worth Reading
Writing Worth Reading
Finally, your last book choice is A C Grayling’s Towards the Light.
This is also a very interesting book, similar to Inventing Human Rights. Grayling wrote about the freeing of the mind everywhere, including outside Europe. He writes about the idea that people need constitutions, that people need freedom from oppression and also people need to express their demands to the state. This is very important because the state should try to provide benefits for the people, not keep them in jail or oppress them.
So you think the state should be a benevolent state?
Yes, and actually in our legacy here in Iraq we have some ideas about the conscience and duty of the state, which should be to give happiness to the citizens, as numerous religious leaders have told us. For me there can be no kind of enlightenment without civil society. The education system and culture play a very, very important role in the democratic state. They are essential. That is why I chose to talk to you about these books because I think they are very important to the Iraqi political process.
You are running for prime minister in the Iraqi elections – do these books show how you would like to see Iraq governed?
Yes, these books helped me to understand the history of civil rights, the history of human rights and to show how we can use the legacy of places like Britain and the United States to move our country forward. I want to sow the seeds of democracy here in Iraq.
But some people would argue that there are still plenty of problems in democratic countries like the Unites States and Britain. You could say following models like these isn’t necessarily the best way.
Well it’s true that the democracy we live in now isn’t totally complete. But I still think that democratic societies are the best systems we have to serve the demands of people. I still think they give people more chances in life. Nobody says this is the end of history. But the history of democracy will help people around the world, in places like Africa, Asia, Latin America have better lives. And that is something I really want to see in Iraq.
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Nabeel Yasin is one of Iraq’s most famous poets. His poems had him branded an enemy of the state under Saddam Hussein. He left Iraq for England 30 years ago with his wife and young son and continued to write and publish poetry from exile. Now he’s returned to his country and ran for prime minister in this month’s elections. ‘In our legacy here in Iraq we have some ideas about the conscience and duty of the state,’ he says. ‘Which should be to give happiness to the citizens, as numerous religious leaders have told us. For me there can be no kind of enlightenment without civil society.’
