Hu Jintao has slipped out of the list of top-five dictators compiled by Parade Magazine, due to a strong showing by Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe and a surprise massacre launched by Uzbekistan’s Islam Karimov. Kim Jong-Il retains the number two spot.:
A “dictator” is a head of state who exercises arbitrary authority over the lives of his citizens and who cannot be removed from power through legal means. The worst commit terrible human-rights abuses. This present list draws in part on reports by global human-rights organizations, including Human Rights Watch, Freedom House, Reporters Without Borders and Amnesty International. While the three worst from 2005 have retained their places, two on last year’s list (Muammar al-Qaddafi of Libya and Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan) have slipped out of the Top 10—not because their conduct has improved but because other dictators have gotten worse.
January 23rd, 2006 at 4:18 pm
Most of these organizations have spook links: Reoprters without Borders and Human Rights Watch, in particular. Good to know cos the spooks are not much into democracy and condone dictatorship where it suits their interests.
January 23rd, 2006 at 11:39 pm
Some of AsiaPundit’s readers have tin-foil hats. That’s also pretty ‘Spooky!’
January 24th, 2006 at 6:29 pm
Welcome to the club.
I question whether any modern Chinese leader is a dictator, given the factionalization and complexity of the Chinese government. That doesn’t make the government itself any less autocratic, but I am not sure the power of the individual himself is unfettered.
On the other hand, he who controls the army, etc…
January 25th, 2006 at 7:40 am
I wonder if Parade Magazine has a top-10 list of colonial invaders who do stuff like:
- Make up smack about other people’s WMD
- Drop Depleted Uranium dirty bombs on others
- Brutally suppress the occupied with White Phosphorus and Napalm, both incindiary weapon banned by Genevea Convention
- Explain away Genevea Convention so troops can sexually abuse prisoners
And I wonder how does our George Bush rate on such list…
January 25th, 2006 at 7:47 am
It’s an insult to mention Freedom House in the same breath as the rest of the NGOs. Doesn’t Parade know who pays for the propaganda put out by Freedom House?
January 26th, 2006 at 12:24 am
Bobby,
I think it is absolutely ridiculous to compare George Bush to Kim Jong Il. Plus the accusations you make about the US military are false and misleading. Go to a Bush hate site and make your comments not here on Asiapundit a respectable blog site for serious comments.