of David Cameron and Multiculturalism

Multiculturalism is a branch of Political Philosophy that deals with the proper way to respond to cultural and religious diversity. It is not a simple choice between alternatives as the Prime Minister would have us believe. There is a voluminous library of works on this subject that dates back to ancient times.

Multiculturalism includes not only the way to deal with the moral and political claims of immigrants who are ethnic and religious minorities but also of disadvantaged groups like women, children, gays and disabled people. It claims that culture and cultural groups are to be recognised and accommodated in a society. 

Since language and religion are at the heart of  claims for cultural accommodation by immigrants, for the Prime Minister David Cameron to condemn Britain's long-standing policy of multiculturalism as a failure , is a recipe for another violent confrontation between radical islamists and western governments. This will not combat home-grown extremism but rather fuel it.

Multicuturalism is a topic that must be handled with care. The question is what is the relationship between multiculturalism and the integration of immigrants?  This has generated debates  over centuries featuring  great thoughts for and against and it will be a folly for one to dismiss any side of the discourse lightly.

My advice to David Cameron is for Britain and Europe in general to encourage a culture of contact and dialogue with the ethnic minorities. I believe his attack on immigrant multiculturalism is based on fear and anxiety about foreigners, and nostalgia for an imagined past when everyone shared thick bonds of identity and solidarity as native Brits.

The Demise of Dictatorship in Tunisia and Egypt

A dictator is a leader who does not defend an already existing constitution but attempts to impose a new one of his own making  but in the name of the people. To achieve this he violates the rights of the people and forces them to act against their will forgetting that the fountainhead of all progress is the human mind, and the mind does not function well when forced.

The violation of just one right has a dominos effect and leads to the violation of all others. Thus, for example, in violating the right to freedom of expression by banning “obscene” speech on TV, the government violates the property right of the owners of the TV station to use their property as they see fit.

Full liberation of an individual's potentialities can only be achieved in a democratic social order, one in which social conflicts are treated as the subject of social inquiry.

Democracy  protects popular interests and the expression of individuality. An insight into the anthropological nature of man would reveal a natural instinct for survival which translate into the concept of rights to life, liberty, ownership of property and the pursuit of happiness.

The fundamental right is the right to life and this is the right to take the actions necessary for sustaining the life proper to a human being. All other rights follow from this. Thus, the right to liberty is the right to act rationally on one's judgment and this includes freedom of speech and freedom of association .The right to the pursuit of happiness is the right to pursue goals for one's own fulfilment. The right to property is the right to gain, to keep, to use and to dispose of material values.

 Government is the institution that holds the exclusive power to enforce certain rules of social conduct in a nation.  In order to fulfil the natural instinct of survival and live a life proper of a human being each individual expects the government to protect him or her from criminals and foreign aggressors, and to enforce their individual rights and contracts, with the help of the armed forces, police and civil service. In the absence of this ,the people, individually and collectively  lose confidence in the government and its leadership and results in revolts.

The English philosopher, John Locke states in the “Two Treatises” that the power of the Government is limited to the public good and the fulfilling of the purposes of natural law. It is a power that has “no other end but preservation” and therefore cannot justify killing, enslaving, or plundering the citizens.

Locke explains that the legitimate government must be based on the idea of separation of powers. Today the most successful democracies have a three tier system comprising the Executve, the Legislature and the Judiciary. First and foremost of these is the legislative power. Locke describes the legislative power as supreme (Two Treatises 2.149) in having ultimate authority over “how the force for the commonwealth shall be employed” (2.143). The legislature is still bound by the law of nature and much of what it does is set down laws that further the goals of natural law and specify appropriate punishments for them (2.135). The executive power is then charged with enforcing the law as it is applied in specific cases while the judiciary is charged with interpreting the laws.

A Dictator that acts against the human nature as described above sets a stage for the kind of scenario we are today witnessing in Tunisia and Egypt and will be of no surprise if more nations both in and outside the Middle East follow suite.