Return to Transcripts main page
Live From...
Political Science Professor in Baghdad Says Iraq, People Have a Lot of Assets Left
Aired April 14, 2003 - 15:55 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: British Prime Minister Tony Blair is sharing some of his vision of the reconstruction of Iraq. Blair says he would like to sea a broad-based interim authorities of Iraqis take over most governing functions within a few weeks. Blair also said he'd like to see a new Iraqi constitution approved about a year after that interim authority takes power.
Well there is no question that Iraq has lost a great deal during the past decades under the Saddam Hussein regime. But a political science professor in Baghdad says the country and its people have a lot of assets left. He talked with CNN's Richard Blystone.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RICHARD BLYSTONE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): His voice is hoarse, he says, from something that's not really his style: joining the cheers as a crowd tore down a statue of Saddam.
PROF. GAILAN RAMIZ, BAGHDAD UNIVERSITY: The basic problem, really, is that people have been imprisoned psychologically, mentally, for 35 years. And therefore, I think coming out from this tunnel (UNINTELLIGIBLE) we hope that they'll be able to act constructively for a future.
BLYSTONE: Political science professor Gailan Ramiz, 10 years in the foreign ministry, six months in prison, has lived most of Iraq's bloody modern history and is still an optimism.
RAMIZ: We have our Islamic religion which teaches us human dignity. We have our language which teaches us what beauty is and what art is. We have our history which tells us what our grandfathers were able to fulfill.
Our culture is a constructive tool to build a future upon. Iraq has more than 7,000 years of history. And therefore, we can assume that we must have picked up some experience from all that history. And, therefore, we can assume that we must have picked up some experience from all that history.
I honestly think no nation, no race, no religion can claim that we have always been democratic and all been humane. Europe, even modern Europe, had more tyrants than the Arabs have had in the 20th century. We have never had a tyrant who could be equated with Adolph Hitler, that will send six million people to the gas chamber, because our culture could not produce a scientific ethnic cleansing.
This is a Western concept. I don't believe, really, Iraq has to be a Switzerland to be democratic. The sociological foundation of political power that will sustain democracy exists in Arab culture.
If the Americans are true liberators, they should not mind if people tell them go after liberation is done. But the Iraqi people I think are realistic enough, and they expect that American troops in Iraq to be for a temporary basis.
The Iraqi people understand, also, that this liberation from Saddam Hussein could not have come easily from them because he was a tyrant. And a tyrant that I say with a little shame myself, a successful tyrant a great deal, really. He had demonized the Iraqi soul.
We need an Iraqi leadership that can tell the Iraqi people, don't think of the past. If there is any problem of the past we cannot solve, let us not force ourselves to solve it now, because human issues, humane issues, psychological issues cannot be solved in the present. Things that we can explain, let us explain. But things that that we cannot explain, let us close the books on them.
BLYSTONE: So the professor's seminar ends with a chapter yet to be written. Richard Blystone, CNN, Baghdad.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WOODRUFF: Perhaps the wise perspective of someone who has been around for a while.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Have a Lot of Assets Left>
Aired April 14, 2003 - 15:55 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: British Prime Minister Tony Blair is sharing some of his vision of the reconstruction of Iraq. Blair says he would like to sea a broad-based interim authorities of Iraqis take over most governing functions within a few weeks. Blair also said he'd like to see a new Iraqi constitution approved about a year after that interim authority takes power.
Well there is no question that Iraq has lost a great deal during the past decades under the Saddam Hussein regime. But a political science professor in Baghdad says the country and its people have a lot of assets left. He talked with CNN's Richard Blystone.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RICHARD BLYSTONE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): His voice is hoarse, he says, from something that's not really his style: joining the cheers as a crowd tore down a statue of Saddam.
PROF. GAILAN RAMIZ, BAGHDAD UNIVERSITY: The basic problem, really, is that people have been imprisoned psychologically, mentally, for 35 years. And therefore, I think coming out from this tunnel (UNINTELLIGIBLE) we hope that they'll be able to act constructively for a future.
BLYSTONE: Political science professor Gailan Ramiz, 10 years in the foreign ministry, six months in prison, has lived most of Iraq's bloody modern history and is still an optimism.
RAMIZ: We have our Islamic religion which teaches us human dignity. We have our language which teaches us what beauty is and what art is. We have our history which tells us what our grandfathers were able to fulfill.
Our culture is a constructive tool to build a future upon. Iraq has more than 7,000 years of history. And therefore, we can assume that we must have picked up some experience from all that history. And, therefore, we can assume that we must have picked up some experience from all that history.
I honestly think no nation, no race, no religion can claim that we have always been democratic and all been humane. Europe, even modern Europe, had more tyrants than the Arabs have had in the 20th century. We have never had a tyrant who could be equated with Adolph Hitler, that will send six million people to the gas chamber, because our culture could not produce a scientific ethnic cleansing.
This is a Western concept. I don't believe, really, Iraq has to be a Switzerland to be democratic. The sociological foundation of political power that will sustain democracy exists in Arab culture.
If the Americans are true liberators, they should not mind if people tell them go after liberation is done. But the Iraqi people I think are realistic enough, and they expect that American troops in Iraq to be for a temporary basis.
The Iraqi people understand, also, that this liberation from Saddam Hussein could not have come easily from them because he was a tyrant. And a tyrant that I say with a little shame myself, a successful tyrant a great deal, really. He had demonized the Iraqi soul.
We need an Iraqi leadership that can tell the Iraqi people, don't think of the past. If there is any problem of the past we cannot solve, let us not force ourselves to solve it now, because human issues, humane issues, psychological issues cannot be solved in the present. Things that we can explain, let us explain. But things that that we cannot explain, let us close the books on them.
BLYSTONE: So the professor's seminar ends with a chapter yet to be written. Richard Blystone, CNN, Baghdad.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WOODRUFF: Perhaps the wise perspective of someone who has been around for a while.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Have a Lot of Assets Left>
