An Educator Learns the Hard Way

"The minister will not interfere with the universities," Bakaa told the 25 presidents and institute directors. "The heads of the departments, the deans and the university presidents are in charge of the higher education system. It's not the ministry."

Agresto smiled. It was just what he wanted to hear.

Agresto had made academic freedom a top priority. He believed that the minister of higher education, a political appointee, should not have the power to fire a university president. Students, he insisted, should be protected from religious or political intimidation.

These new policies were included in an academic bill of rights, which the university presidents endorsed this spring. Agresto saw the document as one of his most significant achievements.

Later in the meeting, Agresto distributed copies of a revised education law written by the CPA that included the rights document. He said the CPA had decided not to promulgate the law and instead was giving it to the ministry with the hope that it would be approved by the university presidents and the minister. The changes would have more legitimacy, Agresto figured, if they were enacted by the new minister, rather than the occupation authority.

Bakaa did not endorse the CPA draft, but he promised to take "what's best" from it. It seemed enough to satisfy Agresto.

"When I look at the rest of Iraq, sometimes I get very discouraged," he told the presidents. "But here at this meeting, I'm not discouraged at all."

But in a more reflective and private moment next to the pool, with pipe in hand and Iraq's future on the table, Agresto was far more sober. He said he still believes Iraq will become a democracy, but not the sort of democracy the Bush administration envisions.

"Will it be a free democracy? A liberal democracy?" he said. "I don't think so."

NEXT: Barriers to democracy