Democracy and freedom of speech mean little to youth

Democracy and freedom of speech are not considered important by large numbers of Iraqi youngsters, according to the latest research into national political opinions.
An uncompromising report, seen by Gulf News, revealed 40 per cent of students in Iraq would be content to see a return of dictator-style leadership. The study is due to be officially published tomorrow.
Yasser Al Askary, a member of the pro-democracy group that carried out the investigation, called the findings “grim” and said Iraq’s future as a progressive nation had to be seen as in doubt. He told Gulf News: “This shows just how bad the situation is. I was an optimist about democracy in Iraq before I saw the results. But my initial reaction is that this is pretty depressing. I’m disappointed.”
The research was carried out by the Iraqi Prospect Organisation (IPO), an independent group set up to push for democracy while Saddam Hussain held power.
Between December last year and January, it sent out teams of trained pollsters to university campuses in Basra, Mosul and Baghdad as part of a wide-ranging opinion survey.
After detailed interviews with 834 students, their findings were not what the IPO had expected. “We thought more people would be positive towards the idea of democracy,” Al Askary said in a telephone interview from London.
“This is a somewhat grim picture, especially as these students are supposed to be future leaders. It shows that, unless action is taken to educate people about democracy, the experiment with it in Iraq will fail.”
The survey revealed almost 50 per cent of students at four of Iraq’s top educational institutions would be content to see the army interfere in politics.