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Show P9 Six Wtdntday, February 18, 1987 Do it Now that University of Utah students have been bedazzled with ASUU's miniature version of e political glitz and glamour, it's time for them to look at what the individual candidates have to offer. Behind the slick, professional posters and memorized rhetoric each party is offering lie the true campaign issues voters rarely reach. This is unfortunate, because though their posters would make them seem so, not all candidates are equal. And, as usual, it's up to the voter to distinguish big-tim- self-servi- ng hoopla from sound, concrete proposals. If this year's ASUU election is like its predecessors, the task won't be an easy one. The first difficulty voters face is the short time between candidate filing deadlines and the actual elections. Because ASUU contenders have less than a week to display their posters, launch an advertising blitz and speak to the issues, most end I : up spouting tag lines at their audiences and begging them to "come talk" later. But since a week isn't much time to seek out candidates, most students don't bother. They cither decide to vote on the basis of posters, forum messages or what they read in the Chronicle. IWnWS SONSHNa 10 M ed, anecdotes. Since forums provide little or no opportunity for refutation, even hard-hittin- g questions become meaningless. Candidates avoid straightforward answers, and they are rarely made to questions. clarify themselves through follow-u- p And finally, even the Chronicle can't be completely successful in bringing forth all the campaign's issues. Although we provide students with coverage of all candidate forums, news analyses on platform issues and any other election information we uncover, it's impossible for a newspaper to present the totality of a party's attitude and motives. To discover that, students must look at posters, attend forums, read the paper and most importantly, make an effort to meet the candidates in person. As we've said, this won't be easy, and there isn't much time left in which to do it. Nonetheless, all students should contact as many candidates as possible in the next few days. Unfortunately, it's the only way voters can find out what kind of issues and ideas those smiling faces actually represent. THE DAILY UTAH CHRONICLE The Daily Utah Chronicle is an independent student newspaper published during fall, winter and spring quarters, excluding test weeks and quarter breaks, by the University Publications Council. Editorials reflect the opinion of the editorial board, and not necessarily the opinions of the student body or the administration. Subscriptions are $25 a year, $10 an academic quarter. All subscriptions must be prepaid. Forward all subscription correspondence, including change of address, to the Business Manager, Daily Utah Chronicle, 240 Union, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah 841 12. . tmmn Deforming democracy alternatives. well-intention- fcYE'J WUCf OF Donn Walker There are problems with each of these First, as everyone knows, posters reveal little or nothing about a party's campaign. For the first time in several years, some candidates have put platform issues right on their signs, and they deserve to be commended. But even these efforts don't go far enough in providing students with adequate information. Second, even though the forums are they aren't very meaningful tools in deciding one's ballot. The main problem is that they are forums not debates. Moderators ask basically bland questions, and most of the candidates respond with banal answers or trite Vfl"W So, the Soviet Union is on an irreversible path toward "broad democratization"? Yes, it is if you believe Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev's platitudes the most which came two recent of days ago at an international peace forum in Moscow. . , And yes, it is if you throw out the West's definition of democracy and replace it with the Soviet Union's parallel version. Gorbachev himself lent insight into the totalitarian concept of democracy last Monday, emphasizing that any changes in Soviet society would only be based on the "socialist values of the ruling Communist Party." That precludes, of course, any broad, Western-styl- e democratic reforms in the Soviet Union. Such measures would mean, among other things, a respect for fundamental human rights rights the Soviets pledged to uphold when they signed the Helsinki Accords in 1975. Concessions in that direction are likely a long way off, if likely at all. How do we know? The point was driven home last week on Moscow's Arbat pedestrian mall. For four days in a row there, the entire Western world watching via television, KGB goons beat up and detained a group of Jewish dissidents who had been peacefully demonstrating on behalf of Josef Begun, an imprisoned Hebrew teacher. The security agents were aided in their task one of the days by a snowplow, which charged through the square, throwing several individuals to the ground. Western correspondents trying to record the scene were beat up as well and had their camera cables severed. Almost as repugnant was the official Soviet assertion, which no one outside the Kremlin began to swallow, that "young toughs," not security agents, were responsible for the brutality. Nor did this unequivocal public relations disaster end with that, though. Last Sunday, a top Soviet official told CBS News that Begun sentenced in 1983 to 12 agitation" years imprisonment for "anti-Sovi- et (teaching Hebrew) had been released. It appears now he wasn't, at least according to members of his family. And the word from TASS has been equally confusing, saying Begun's release is "a closed case." All said thus far, it's a striking example of the Soviet leadership's unrelenting disregard for basic human rights in this case the rights to freedom of faith-promoti- ng Editorial Board: Shauna Bona, Lisa Carricaburu, Erik A. Christiansen, Donn Walker, John Youngren Editor in Chief John Youngren Lisa Carricaburu Managing Editor Shauna Bona Associate Editor Drew Staffanson News Editor Donn Walker Editorial Editor Mike Prater Sports Editor . . Dee L. Naquin City Editor Fara Warnei Entertainment Editor , . Boone Xayyo Photography Editor Assistant News Editor Amy Page . . Erik Christiansen Assistant Editorial Editor Assistant Sports Editor Laury Livsey ...... assembly and expression. It comes at a time when the Soviet Union indeed seems to be loosening its repressive grip on certain elements of society. The reforms so much discussed in the West, the "glasnost," have laid chiefly in an increased and atmosphere of openness. Criticism of the unseemlier aspects of Soviet society once absolutely forbidden is being allowed. Thus, the nation's newspapers have been engaging in a sort of Soviet-styl- e muckraking, exposing corruption and wrongdoing. Some prisoners and dissidents are being released from jail. The government is tinkering with its laws of arbitrary arrest, imprisonment and torture. Long-bannliterary works officially termed et "Doctor Zhivago," for example are due to be published. Certainly, this increased openness is to be welcomed and cheered by the rest of the world. It is, in the words of former New York Times Editor Abe Rosenthal, a loosening of the collar around the Soviet people's throat. But at the same time, Rosenthal wrote in a Times column last week, "it would be unfeeling to the point of vulgarity for those living in freedom to pretend this was true reform." Well said. True, significant reform would, by almost any definition, concur a repudiation of Marxist-Lenini- st totalitarianism. It would mean a pluralistic society, one where the Communist Party would share responsibility and power with other political voices. It would embrace respect for human rights and an unbridled interchange of thoughts and ideas. All political dissidents and prisoners would be released from jails and prisons. There would be an end to the supression of peaceable demonstrations on behalf of religious activists and Hebrew teachers. But if Secretary Gorbachev's own words are to be believed and he is the Soviets' top man this is not the path of rebirth the Soviet Union will follow. Any reforms, he says, will be carried out "according to the socialist values of the ruling Communist Party." That's all well and good. But remember: That's how it's been done there for going on 70 years. Donn Walker is a senior in political science and the Chronicle's editorial editor. well-publiciz- ed ed anti-Sovi- Assistant Photo Editor Steve Wilson Assistant Entertainment Editor Rosemary Reeve Kent Anderson Copy Editors Susan Burke John Pecorelli Lori Bona Reporters Christine E. Dangerfield Loreen Erickson Jess Gomez Mark Hollstein Tina Moulton Dennis Romboy Jack Wilbur Erin Calmes Photographer Business Manager Robert McOmber Accountant Kay Andersen Classifieds Accounting Clerk Collections Account Executives Production Manager Typesetters Production Staff Dawn Bacher Kim Bartel Renee Jimenez Jill Aggeler Rick Chase John Hausknecht Randy Sheya Rodney Dallin Greta Doutre Janet Taylor Mike Cleary Tammie Bostick Kenny Watanabe Distribution Holly Rondas David Orchard Christopher Stratford |
