Promise of
Democracy in the Arab/Muslim World?
By Dr Syed Amir
Bethesda, MD
After much controversy and
wrangling, the third Arab Human Development Report
(AHDR, 2004), sponsored by the United Nations
Development Program and authored by 39 prominent
Arab Scholars and intellectuals, was finally released
in April 2005. The first report released in 2002
identified three major deficits that had held
the Arab countries back: (1) the lack of political
rights for common people, (2) lack of knowledge
and the means of its acquisition, and finally
(3) the suppression of women’s rights.
The second report (2003) explored in details the
main areas where there was a major deficit in
knowledge and emphasized the need to enlist the
help and cooperation of the outside world, wherever
appropriate, in establishing and sustaining institutions
of higher learning and research. The current report
addresses in detail questions such as the lack
of political freedom and democratic structures
in the Arab world as the authors believe that
“of all impediments to an Arab renaissance,
political restrictions on human development are
the most stubborn.” The findings and conclusions
of the AHDR are not limited to Arabs. Indeed,
they can be extrapolated to most of the Muslim
world.
At the outset, the report quotes the admonition
of Caliph Omer bin al-Khatab delivered to the
visiting son of his Governor of Egypt. Based on
reports reaching Medina that the subject people
were not being treated well, he demanded to know,
“Since when have you compelled people to
enslavement, when their mothers birthed them free.”
The Arab scholars bemoan the fact that, some sporadic
improvements notwithstanding, the status of freedom
and democracy in their motherlands remains feeble.
The freedom of expression and creativity, for
example, is largely nonexistent in most Arab/Muslim
countries. Some brave journalists have been physically
assaulted, becoming targets of legal action, based
solely on the opinions they hold and express.
Since 2003, fear of terrorism has provided another
excuse for suppression of freedom of thought,
expression and human rights. In some cases, even
literary and artistic creativity have come under
assault from some regimes, spawning outlandish
situations, such as the ban on classic masterpieces,
The Arabian Nights and Khalil Gibran’s,
The Prophet.
Even though scrupulous provisions stipulating
freedom of thought and assembly are part of the
constitutions of many Arab countries, these rights
have been largely ignored or invalidated by various
restrictions placed on their exercise under the
guise of national security. Thus, 11 Arab countries,
while permitting press freedom in theory thwart
it by instituting various forms of censorship
imposed on publications, as well as placing strict
requirements for government licenses to publish
newspapers.
The yearning for freedom is universal, and in
western countries with established democratic
institutions the need to hold the Government accountable
has long been recognized. The third US president,
Thomas Jefferson, who framed the declaration of
independence, is reported to have commented that
‘”were it left to me to decide whether
we should have a government without newspapers
or newspapers without a government, I should not
hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.”
The Arab authors reject the notion, sometimes
put forward that lack of democratic traditions
in the Arab/Muslim countries is inherent and rooted
in their cultural or religious traditions -- the
specter of the so-called Arab/Muslim mind. Results
of respected opinion polls have consistently indicated
that the Arab people have a strong desire to “rid
themselves of the tyrants and enjoy the democratic
governance.” The report ascribes the lack
of freedom to a number of reasons, all readily
identifiable. Most grassroots organizations in
Arab/Muslim countries are routinely denied permission
to organize and evolve into effective political
parties. Elections are mostly a sham; when allowed,
most Arab countries do not permit more than one
candidate to contest them. Only Palestine, Yemen,
Algeria and Sudan allow direct elections, and
place a limit on the presidential term of office.
(Since the report was released, Egypt has also
allowed more than one candidate to enter the presidential
race, but this new constitutional amendment is
yet to be fully tested.)
The AHDR underscores the fact that merely going
through an election routine and having a parliament
does not ensure democratic participation. It cites
the case of many Arab countries where partially
or fully elected parliaments now exist; nevertheless,
this has not led to any tangible involvement of
the people in the governance. The report denounces
the discrimination suffered especially by migrant
workers, both Arab and non-Arabs, in oil-producing
countries, particularly the treatment endured
by domestic servants, among whom poor women predominate.
Female domestic servants are not the only women
placed at a disadvantage. Women, in general, have
little participation in services, political processes
and often, unlike men, are not permitted to transfer
their citizenship rights to their children if
they marry foreign men. In greater part of the
Arab/Muslim world, women need their husband’s
permission to travel or work and can be divorced
for no reason.
The panel singles out two external factors, the
continued occupation of Palestinian lands by Israel
and of Iraq by US forces, as major impediments
in the progress of human development. They estimate
that at present some 58 percent of the Palestinian
population lives below the poverty level. Between
May 2003 and June 2004, approximately 800 Palestinians
were killed, of which about 23% were children,
and over 4,000 injured as a result of Israeli
incursions, bombings and house demolitions. The
report also severely criticizes the American invasion
and occupation of Iraq. Freed from the despotic
and tyrannical grip of Saddam Husain’s regime,
the Iraqi people have now come under unremitting
foreign occupation. They estimate that as a result
of the invasion and the associated violence, nearly
100,000 Iraqis have perished. In addition, thousands
have been arrested and tortured for unproven crimes.
Until the end of 2004, the occupation forces had
not been able to restore basic facilities, such
as water, electricity or telephone services even
to the prewar levels and had spent less than 7
percent of what the US Congress had allocated
for the these purposes.
The situation is not entirely bleak, however.
The Arab intellectuals discern some welcome indications
of progress in certain Arab countries, generating
the optimism that they may be slowly moving towards
the goal of building a free, democratic society.
For example, in Morocco, the Government was recently
forced by public pressure to acknowledge past
injustices, especially the disappearance of political
opponents. There have been other hopeful developments
as well.
Since the report was completed, free and open
elections have taken place in the Palestinian
territories and Iraq, while unprecedented municipal
elections in Saudi Arabia may pave the way for
a greater liberalization of the political process.
The parliament in Kuwait has recently amended
rules, granting women the right to vote and to
contest elections. The powerful effect of the
people’s power was also demonstrable, following
the assassination of the former Prime Minister
Rafiqu Hariri in the Lebanon. It forced an unpopular
government to resign. These developments are considered
only tentative, embryonic steps toward democracy
that may ultimately usher in a new era of progress
and advancement in the region.
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