Jordan Times
Monday, May 23, 2005
'People power' on the
rise in the Middle East — WEF panelists
By staff reporters
DEAD SEA — Democratic change in the Middle East was high on the agenda of
officials and experts on the second day of the World Economic Forum.
Recent events such as the January elections in Palestine and Iraq, popular
mobilisation in Lebanon, constitutional changes in Egypt, and legal amendments
granting Kuwaiti women the right to vote, as recently as last week, provided
much food for thought to participants from the Western and Arab worlds.
Panellists in an afternoon session dedicated to assessing democratisation across
the region agreed that “people power” is on the rise in the Middle East.
They also agreed that this was due to a combination of circumstantial events,
such as the deaths of Lebanese PM Rafiq Hariri and Palestinian President Yasser
Arafat, as well as external and domestic pressures.
UN Assistant Secretary General Rima Khalaf said recent developments towards
liberalisation could be attributed to a general realisation that “the status quo
is no longer sustainable.”
Amongst the factors that prompted such realisation, Khalaf, who is also director
of the regional bureau for Arab states at the UN Development Programme, cited
the 9/11 terror attacks, US presence in the region — as an instrument of
pressure on countries reluctant to introduce reforms — and what she termed as “a
metastasis of terrorism.”
All these factors prompted Arab regimes and decision makers to embrace new
courses, she suggested.
“For the regimes, the choice was between sharing some of the power or keeping it
all,” she said. “Now, their new choice is between sharing some of their power or
losing it all.”
Granted that a fresh momentum for reform and wider political participation has
permeated the region, panellists differed as to what extent this was due to
external pressures — mainly US policies and more or less vested interests — or
genuine internal dynamics.
In Iraq, the people seized the momentum created by US intervention, said Iraqi
Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari, reiterating that the Iraqi political process
is geared towards the building of an “open, tolerant society” and the
establishment of a “responsible and accountable” government.
Jacob Zuma, deputy president of South Africa, said a combination of external and
internal interests since the end of the cold war brought about calls for more
democracy across the globe and in the Middle East.
Referring to the experience of the South Africans' fight against the apartheid
regime, Zuma highlighted the importance of clear political platforms at the
inception of a political process.
“In South Africa, we were able to put the country's interests above those of
this or that ethnic group,” he said. This could be achieved thanks to the fact
that, in the South African political process, public debate started from
political issues and only later to the drafting of a constitution, which was
therefore the end-goal, and not the starting point, of the process.
“We didn't start from the constitution, but from a discussion on political
issues,” Zuma said, in a not-so-veiled contraposition with the way the Iraqi
political process is being structured.
“We knew external influence was there, but we knew it would not go to the extent
of dictating our direction and tempo,” he added.
Elizabeth Cheney, US principal deputy assistant secretary for near eastern
affairs, spoke in defence of US policies in the region.
“We are at a truly historic moment in the Middle East and North Africa, a moment
that is giving a lot of people tremendous hope in the future,” she said.
She said President George W. Bush operated a drastic shift in US foreign policy,
fostering change rather than protecting the status quo, and reverting a course
that had characterised US policies for 60 years.