The rule of law

What stood out in your mind as you witnessed the weekend’s events in Egypt? How
the entire country stood on the edge of anarchy, largely because its people had
been denied basic conditions, treatment and rights to redress their grievances by
a heavy-handed president.

I don’t pen this blog to challenge Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s behavior through
his three decades in power. His conduct, and the people’s response to it, are by
now well-documented.

But the situation in Egypt stands as a stark reminder of the basic tenets we as
Americans have grown perhaps accustomed to, and we would do well to remind ourselves
that the freedoms we enjoy are derived through daily struggles and challenges.

It begins with the rule of law. Throughout the world today, citizens of countries
struggle with their governments for the consistency and certainty of national laws.
Newspapers are riddled with examples where government officials skirt public laws,
inconsistently applying them not for the people’s benefit, but their own.

To these regimes, laws are meant to protect their tenuous grip on power. To the
many, laws are meant to be abided by and obeyed. To the few in power, they can be
redirected for their own selfish purposes.

Just look to countries such as Venezuela, Bolivia, China, even Russia.

Something’s wrong when a country’s leader can stand in the middle of a market square,
with television cameras rolling, and declare in the name of some authority that
he is claiming private property on behalf of “the people of Venezuela.” Yet this
is exactly what happens with Hugo Chavez.

Even still, violations of the rule of law are sometimes less obvious.

Armstrong Williams is on Sirius/XM Power 169, 7-8 p.m. and 4-5 a.m., Monday through Friday. Become a fan on Facebook at www.facebook.com/arightside, and follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/arightside.