Only extremism wins when politicians behave badly
Sholto Byrnes
But on occasions we fail very badly to meet the standards we urge others to adopt. Last Friday, the Ukrainian prime minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk was addressing parliament when an MP picked him up and tried to remove him from the podium (Mr Yatsenyuk clung on with one hand while being hoisted in the air), causing a full blown fistfight to erupt.
It is not the first brawl to take place in the Kiev assembly, nor is it the only one whose proceedings have been marred by pugilism: legislatures in Nigeria, South Korea, Taiwan, Mexico and several Indian states, amongst others, have all witnessed outbreaks of violence among members.
It has to be conceded that at first mention, the incongruity of a schoolyard-type scuffle taking place in such a serious setting may seem humorous. But then consider this: also in the last week, Rodrigo Duterte, the frontrunner in the Philippines presidential race, has admitted shooting dead at least three suspected criminals.
He has boasted before that there would be plenty more extra-judicial killings if he were elected. Human rights groups are dismayed, but it only seems to boost the city mayors tough guy image.
The merits of electing representatives to debate and vote on a countrys future look equally slim when they are filmed beating each other up especially when they happen with such regularity that one magazine headlined the latest incident Brawls in Ukraines Parliament are Almost as Good as Hockey Fights.
And this is why these instances, and all the other occasions when double standards appear to apply, cannot be brushed off. If we wish to argue that a rules-bound, orderly politics with space for debate and in which all are treated the same is superior to the cruel certainties of those who behead, enslave and deny personal choice, then the way politicians behave and the standards they are held to matter very much indeed.
The writer is a senior fellow at the Institute for Strategic and International Studies, Malaysia
