Jobs, Justice and Democracy

"My issue is cooking oil," Dya Alawa, a 37-year-old Turkish woman said on the day of Turkey's historic July election, which saw the Justice and Development Party (AKP) emerge with a resounding victory. "That's why I'm voting AKP," she told the Washington Post. For her, the election was simple: the economy has improved under AKP stewardship since 2002, her husband has less fear of layoffs at his textile factory and she can buy cooking oil at reasonable prices.

Indeed, Alawa is not alone. While the Turkish elections grabbed headlines and raised questions about the country's "secular soul"--as the AKP, a party with its roots in political Islam, won the presidency and retained the premiership at the same time--many ordinary Turks paid more attention to bread-and-butter issues of jobs, prices and the economy. Herein lies the irony of the AKP victory: it was not a victory of Islamists over Ataturk, nor was it a repudiation of Turkey's secular inheritance, as suggested by alarmed members of the secular establishment. The AKP victory was one of sound economic policy, amid an environment largely untainted by corruption, that made people like Dya Alawa feel secure about their future.

It's a lesson that the next US administration ought to learn well as it searches for a grand strategy for the Middle East and for the developing world. Far too often (and especially in the past six years), Washington has failed to listen closely enough to the voices of people like Alawa, instead preferring the urbane intellectuals who turn up in fellowships in Washington or visiting professorships at Harvard (and are granted meetings with the President and the Secretary of State). When we listen to the Alawas of the developing world, we hear a familiar refrain: we want jobs, decent wages, hope for the future and governments untainted by corruption.

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