Jordan Times
Friday, January 23, 2004
Experts say pressure mounting in region for genuine reforms
By Alia Shukri Hamzeh
DAVOS — Arab and Western experts gathering here at a global meeting agreed on Thursday that pressure is mounting in the Arab world for political and economic reforms, but they were divided on whether genuine development could begin in five years.Debating means to achieve “Arab Renaissance,” 50.8 per cent of panellists attending a session of the World Economic Forum's 34th annual meeting believed that Arab countries could go ahead with much-needed reforms in five years, while 49.2 per cent disagreed.
The session produced frank discussions on main obstacles hindering comprehensive economic and political changes in the Middle East and ways to help the region “catch up” with developed countries.
“The Middle East is at the average level in terms of advancement. On the overall it is not bad, but that is nothing you would want to write home about,” Richard Cooper, professor of international economics at Harvard University, told the session.
Cooper said there were two special challenges facing the Arab world: The curse of oil, and the nexus between population growth and education.
He explained that most oil-rich countries manage its resources very badly and have proven unable to increase their output compared to their growing income. Cooper also noted that the Arab region, of a high population growth percentage, is struggling to provide its fast growing societies with needed education and jobs.
The Arab world needs to create around 80 million jobs in the next 17 years, according to WEF Managing Director Frediric Sicre. Many agree that this could be hard to attain unless countries in the region aggressively move ahead with their economic, social and political reforms.
“A real thrust for comprehensive reform should come from domestic constituencies,” Gamal Mubarak, son of the Egyptian president and secretary general of the ruling National Party, told the audience. This, he said, could be achieved through greater participation of the public sector and civil society.
Giving his country as an example, Mubarak said progress made over the past two decades has become entrenched in society to the extent that if an opposition party assumes power, it would not be able to reverse the course taken.
“It would be suicidal and the society will not allow it,” he said. “We are not starting from scratch. We have embarked 20 years ago on a programme for political and economic reform. We, as a society, made strategic choices, including reform of the government's role, opening the door for the private sector to lead and giving civil society the chance to debate and participate.”
His comments were made following a vote on whether Arab Renaissance largely depends on accelerating economic and political reforms in Saudi Arabia and Egypt. Sixty-seven per cent of the voters agreed and 32 per cent disagreed.
Political reforms should top the priorities of Arab governments, 44 per cent of the panellists agreed. But 27 per cent went for economic reforms and 26 per cent for education.
The audience also agreed that growing frustration among Arab citizens drives the impetus for reform in their region. Other factors were the stagnation of economies, globalisation pressures and the US “agenda” in the region.
“Arab governments and civil society institutions have failed to act in the past years in reformulating the socio-economic framework that has governed our lives for years,” Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Bassem Awadallah said. He told the panel that pressing demands of unemployment, poverty, education, human rights and democracy have not been met by solid action. He noted that Arab societies have thus far been engaged in discussion over what should have been done.
Trade liberalisation, enhancing productivity and coming up with education programmes to match output with the labour market are also issues that need to be tackled seriously.
“There should be a balance sheet of what has been done. Some Arab societies are still in denial that there is a genuine need for reforms,” Awadallah added.
Awadallah and other panellists also noted that political reforms were a genuine necessity to go hand-in-hand with economic reforms. Governments should allow political parties to grow, push forth with judicial reforms and work on enhancing women's rights, transparency and accountability, they said.