Washington Post, May 18, 2004, A19
Flowers by the Dead Sea
Washington Post Interview with
Foreign Minister Dr. Muasher
By David Ignatius
May 18, 2004
DEAD SEA, Jordan - Amid the
bloodshed and bitterness in the Middle East over the past year, one good idea
has actually begun to take root: the notion that the Arab world needs political
and economic reform to survive.
The horror show at Abu Ghraib prison hasn't killed the reform push. Neither have
Israeli assassinations or Palestinian suicide bombers. Even the catastrophe of
postwar Iraq, which dreamers once liked to imagine would be a model for the Arab
future, hasn't stopped the momentum for reform.
The reform effort continues because the Arab people want change so badly they
can taste it. There's a satellite television dish in nearly every village and
Bedouin encampment these days, and people can see the new world they're missing.
A few may want to join Osama bin Laden in retreating to the 7th century, but
they are vastly outnumbered by those who want to share in the wealth and freedom
of the 21st -- if only their leaders would open the door.
The desire for reform was one theme of a gathering here this week of the World
Economic Forum. The other message was hostility toward the United States. In 25
years of covering the Middle East, I have rarely seen anti-American feeling so
intense. As Jordan's King Abdullah put it Monday, "As a friend of the U.S., this
is the first time I am really concerned about this feeling about America."
Secretary of State Colin Powell came here to try to repair some of the damage.
He looked like a diplomatic version of a punching bag, buttoned up in his blue
suit in the hot midday sun, taking shots from Arab and U.S. interviewers about
Abu Ghraib and the Bush administration's hapless efforts to deal with the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
And yet, even on this poisonous terrain, the reform trek continues. The Arabs
have decided it is their issue -- not America's. A heavy-handed effort by the
Bush administration two months ago to impose its own reform plan in something
called the "Greater Middle East Initiative" infuriated the Arabs. But rather
than sitting around sulking, they have drafted their own reform agenda -- which
they are scheduled to endorse at an Arab League summit in Tunis this weekend.
The Arab League, which spends much of its time in internal feuding or shooting
spitballs at the United States and Israel, is hardly a moral beacon. But if the
group endorses the five-page outline called "Development and Modernization
Document for the Arab World," it will have achieved something important.
According to a source who quoted what he said was a rough translation of the
draft, it would pledge support for "democracy, widening of political
decision-making, judicial independence, freedom of expression and the rule of
law in a system that respects the rights of all citizens."
The document is a statement of principles rather than an action plan -- and a
political prisoner in Egypt or Syria might take little comfort from its fine
words. But it's a beginning.
Jordanian Foreign Minister Marwan Muasher, who has prodded the Arab effort to
take ownership of the reform process, noted how far the debate has come: "A year
ago reform was not even on the radar screen of most Arab countries," he said.
"Today the debate has moved from defining the elements of reform to how to
implement it."
If the Arab leaders back the reform plan, they can then take it to the Group of
Eight summit meeting at Sea Island, Ga., in June. The United States has invited
the leaders of Bahrain, Jordan and Yemen (along with those of Afghanistan,
Pakistan and Turkey) to a lunch with the G-8 leaders on June 9. The Bush
administration hoped Egypt and Saudi Arabia would come, too, but for the moment
they've asked not to be invited, which is a reminder that there are still a few
twists and turns along the reform path.
The economic giants that will gather at Sea Island wisely plan to do more
listening about Arab reform than lecturing. Western aid proposals will mostly be
low-key, for projects such as "micro-financing" to help build an Arab middle
class, new training for teachers to improve education, and new forums for
political dialogue.
What's important right now is that a reform process is about to begin, with Arab
sponsorship. As the Bush administration finally seems to understand, trying to
impose change from the outside is impossible. And as the Arab leaders will see,
so is trying to stop it from the inside, once the momentum gathers. In a ravaged
Middle East, here's one small flower poking up through the sand.