The Arab press has heavily focused of late on initiatives, efforts and statements related to political and social reforms in the Arab states, in particular Washington's Greater Middle East Initiative, promoting democracy, the empowerment of women and education. Arab leaders and writers tend to reject any reform that is tainted as "foreign" to the region, and they often tie domestic reforms to the Arab-Israel conflict. Even some domestic voices for change are quick to disassociate their initiatives from those coming from "abroad".
"An Exercise in Hegemony"
Last month (Arabicnews.com, Feb. 21), the secretary general of the Arab League, Amr Mousa, said, regarding the American and European initiatives for political and democratic reforms in the Middle East, that "the Americans should listen to us so as we will listen to them and considered that there is 'no opportunity' for any initiatives that are not discussed with those concerned."
Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak "strongly opposes miracle remedies from abroad in the guise of reform, and rejects attempts to impose them on the region." (Al-Ahram, Feb. 26) At the same time, Mubarak told a gathering of African leaders last month that among the challenges Africa faces is "reinforcing democracy." (Al-Akhbar, Feb. 28)
The chairman of the Egyptian Press Syndicate, Galal Aref, declared, "the US plan for the Middle East is not just a public relations maneuver. It is rather an obvious exercise in hegemony by which the president of the world's sole superpower is trying to lay his hands on almost the entire Arab and Muslim world; from Morocco to Pakistan, and perhaps even Indonesia." Aref further wrote that "the war on Iraq that was in fact part of the scheme," as were the Syria Accountability Act and similar Acts proposed regarding Saudi Arabia and Egypt. (Al-Bayan, Feb. 24, United Arab Emirates)
Saudi Arabia, through its controlled press, also rejected what it called "intervention" in any Muslim state. An editorial by the Riyadh-based Okaz newspaper (Feb. 27) said: "Arabs have to stand by all other Islamic countries being targeted by foreign intervention, in order to form strong front against this foreign mandate." In fact, the newspaper commented that any proposal for reform coming from abroad is nothing but a pretext for foreign powers to intervene in the affairs of the Arab world for their own ends.
Similarly, the Bahrain Tribune editorialized (Feb. 29) sarcastically that the American approach is that "of course the first people who need to change their way of life to please the White House should be Arabs and Muslims. And since these people are not capable of thinking or of planning their lives, they should be grateful that the Bush administration is giving them the unique chance to live under the yoke of a unilateralist American empire."
Less strident, though still apprehensive, voices were heard coming from official Bahrain. According to a report in the United Arab Emirates press, "Bahrain has rebuffed US plans to encourage democracy in the Middle East, saying any political reform initiative in the region should be coordinated between the concerned countries." (Khaleej Times, Feb. 28)
Unsurprisingly, Syria also rejected "foreign reforms". Syrian Information Minister Ahmad Al-Hassan said: "Our position is that we don't want any reform project to be dictated to us from abroad. Reforms must spring from the specifics of the region and not through the diktats of external forces." (London-based Al-Hayat, Feb. 29)
From England, the Al-Quds al-Arabi newspaper (Feb. 27) praised the Saudi and Egyptian rejections of American reform initiatives, calling it "a step in the right direction, suggesting a surprise awakening, despite a late one, by two regimes which have long been known as staunch supporters of the US." In contrast, Saudi and Egyptian support for the invasion of Iraq "terrorized the entire region. It was also a project that made George W. Bush the supreme leader of the region, allowing him to decide what kind of reforms the region required," the daily said.
End the Arab-Israel Conflict First
As Amr Mousa, secretary general of the Arab League, puts it: "The sky rains initiatives as if the Middle East will be a [place of] field trials, but the proposed initiatives are incomplete. ...Our interest and acceptance of democracy and human rights, however, this is one part. Stability in the region requires solving its problems, especially the Arab-Israeli conflict." He also tied domestic reforms to "double standards" regarding "the issue of weapons of mass destruction."
Similarly, Egyptian columnist Salama Ahmed Salama commented that the Arabs rejected American reform initiatives "that neglected the Palestinian cause, the US' unwavering support to Israel and the American occupation of Iraq." (Al-Ahram, Feb. 29)
Writing in Al-Mustaqbal (Feb. 24) of Lebanon, columnist Radwan As-Sayyid explained: "The Americans have claimed that the cause of the failing peace in the region lies in the backwardness and the absence of democracy in the Arab world. Bush will be proved wrong if he believes that through his Greater Middle East Initiative for bringing freedom and democracy to the Middle East, the people of the region will overlook the Israeli occupation of Palestine and its daily crimes against Palestinians."
Voices for Reform
The London-based Al-Quds al-Arabi newspaper, which praised the Arab rejection of Western initiatives for reform (see above), did, however, call for leaving the issue of Israel and Iraq aside and drawing up an original Arab plan for reform. The newspaper condemned "Arab regimes' corrupt and repressive policies, which have made the region one of the world's most backward with regards to economic development, democracy, and freedoms." After all, the editorial stated, "the US is the one that came up with these regimes, nurtured them and now wants to get rid of them after having used them."
In the Al-Ahram column of February 29 (see above), Salama Ahmed Salama also wrote that no one can be blamed for the attempted imposition of foreign reform initiatives except the Arabs, who didn't exert enough efforts on their own. The columnist specified the areas of education, economics, human rights, democratic elections and responsiveness to the demands of the Arab people as in need of domestic initiatives for reform.
Even more positively predisposed to reforms, the Kuwaiti prime minister, Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, told Egypt's Al-Ahram newspaper last month, "I believe that we have to be cautious over rejecting things and cling to the old because a certain side wants it to be changed." Al-Sabah warned against remaining in "the circle of backwardness which various international studies proved that our region suffers the most."
Domestic efforts at reform were also played up in Arab media in the wake of the foreign initiatives.
As reported on Arabicnews.com on February 21, "representatives for the private and public educational sectors from 21 Arab countries discussed in Beirut for the first time means of developing educational and learning curricula." However, as a nod to Arab concerns, the gathered experts "denied that such efforts for reforms are a result of foreign pressures, especially the American pressures."
Speaking at the three day conference, which was "attended by 1500 Arab specialists including 17 ministers," Lebanese Finance Minister Fouad Al-Sanyoura emphasized that the reform proposed by Arabs "includes the Islamic thinking." Even as "our programs need the change and development," Al-Sanyoura said, it is "not a reason for extremism [in reform]."
In Doha, a regional workshop on human rights concluded at the same time. Attended by more than 50 experts from the Gulf Cooperation Council states and Yemen, the attendees called for merging human rights concepts in the curricula of the GCC member states.
Similarly, a Moroccan jurist, Khalid Naciri, who chairs the Arab League's human rights committee, said that a new Arab charter of human rights is short of the universal declaration of human rights. (Arabicnews.com, Feb. 21) It's shortcomings include overlooking freedom-restricting legislation in force in some Arab states, the failure to explicitly emphasize elections transparency and honesty, and its superficial reference to education for human rights. As Arabicnews.com reported, "He deemed it would have been appropriate to grant more importance to the culture of tolerance and political openness." Naciri also pointed to Morocco as one of the leaders in proving that "democracy and the respect for human rights are not contradictory with Islam."
"An Exercise in Hegemony"
Last month (Arabicnews.com, Feb. 21), the secretary general of the Arab League, Amr Mousa, said, regarding the American and European initiatives for political and democratic reforms in the Middle East, that "the Americans should listen to us so as we will listen to them and considered that there is 'no opportunity' for any initiatives that are not discussed with those concerned."
Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak "strongly opposes miracle remedies from abroad in the guise of reform, and rejects attempts to impose them on the region." (Al-Ahram, Feb. 26) At the same time, Mubarak told a gathering of African leaders last month that among the challenges Africa faces is "reinforcing democracy." (Al-Akhbar, Feb. 28)
The chairman of the Egyptian Press Syndicate, Galal Aref, declared, "the US plan for the Middle East is not just a public relations maneuver. It is rather an obvious exercise in hegemony by which the president of the world's sole superpower is trying to lay his hands on almost the entire Arab and Muslim world; from Morocco to Pakistan, and perhaps even Indonesia." Aref further wrote that "the war on Iraq that was in fact part of the scheme," as were the Syria Accountability Act and similar Acts proposed regarding Saudi Arabia and Egypt. (Al-Bayan, Feb. 24, United Arab Emirates)
Saudi Arabia, through its controlled press, also rejected what it called "intervention" in any Muslim state. An editorial by the Riyadh-based Okaz newspaper (Feb. 27) said: "Arabs have to stand by all other Islamic countries being targeted by foreign intervention, in order to form strong front against this foreign mandate." In fact, the newspaper commented that any proposal for reform coming from abroad is nothing but a pretext for foreign powers to intervene in the affairs of the Arab world for their own ends.
Similarly, the Bahrain Tribune editorialized (Feb. 29) sarcastically that the American approach is that "of course the first people who need to change their way of life to please the White House should be Arabs and Muslims. And since these people are not capable of thinking or of planning their lives, they should be grateful that the Bush administration is giving them the unique chance to live under the yoke of a unilateralist American empire."
Less strident, though still apprehensive, voices were heard coming from official Bahrain. According to a report in the United Arab Emirates press, "Bahrain has rebuffed US plans to encourage democracy in the Middle East, saying any political reform initiative in the region should be coordinated between the concerned countries." (Khaleej Times, Feb. 28)
Unsurprisingly, Syria also rejected "foreign reforms". Syrian Information Minister Ahmad Al-Hassan said: "Our position is that we don't want any reform project to be dictated to us from abroad. Reforms must spring from the specifics of the region and not through the diktats of external forces." (London-based Al-Hayat, Feb. 29)
From England, the Al-Quds al-Arabi newspaper (Feb. 27) praised the Saudi and Egyptian rejections of American reform initiatives, calling it "a step in the right direction, suggesting a surprise awakening, despite a late one, by two regimes which have long been known as staunch supporters of the US." In contrast, Saudi and Egyptian support for the invasion of Iraq "terrorized the entire region. It was also a project that made George W. Bush the supreme leader of the region, allowing him to decide what kind of reforms the region required," the daily said.
End the Arab-Israel Conflict First
As Amr Mousa, secretary general of the Arab League, puts it: "The sky rains initiatives as if the Middle East will be a [place of] field trials, but the proposed initiatives are incomplete. ...Our interest and acceptance of democracy and human rights, however, this is one part. Stability in the region requires solving its problems, especially the Arab-Israeli conflict." He also tied domestic reforms to "double standards" regarding "the issue of weapons of mass destruction."
Similarly, Egyptian columnist Salama Ahmed Salama commented that the Arabs rejected American reform initiatives "that neglected the Palestinian cause, the US' unwavering support to Israel and the American occupation of Iraq." (Al-Ahram, Feb. 29)
Writing in Al-Mustaqbal (Feb. 24) of Lebanon, columnist Radwan As-Sayyid explained: "The Americans have claimed that the cause of the failing peace in the region lies in the backwardness and the absence of democracy in the Arab world. Bush will be proved wrong if he believes that through his Greater Middle East Initiative for bringing freedom and democracy to the Middle East, the people of the region will overlook the Israeli occupation of Palestine and its daily crimes against Palestinians."
Voices for Reform
The London-based Al-Quds al-Arabi newspaper, which praised the Arab rejection of Western initiatives for reform (see above), did, however, call for leaving the issue of Israel and Iraq aside and drawing up an original Arab plan for reform. The newspaper condemned "Arab regimes' corrupt and repressive policies, which have made the region one of the world's most backward with regards to economic development, democracy, and freedoms." After all, the editorial stated, "the US is the one that came up with these regimes, nurtured them and now wants to get rid of them after having used them."
In the Al-Ahram column of February 29 (see above), Salama Ahmed Salama also wrote that no one can be blamed for the attempted imposition of foreign reform initiatives except the Arabs, who didn't exert enough efforts on their own. The columnist specified the areas of education, economics, human rights, democratic elections and responsiveness to the demands of the Arab people as in need of domestic initiatives for reform.
Even more positively predisposed to reforms, the Kuwaiti prime minister, Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, told Egypt's Al-Ahram newspaper last month, "I believe that we have to be cautious over rejecting things and cling to the old because a certain side wants it to be changed." Al-Sabah warned against remaining in "the circle of backwardness which various international studies proved that our region suffers the most."
Domestic efforts at reform were also played up in Arab media in the wake of the foreign initiatives.
As reported on Arabicnews.com on February 21, "representatives for the private and public educational sectors from 21 Arab countries discussed in Beirut for the first time means of developing educational and learning curricula." However, as a nod to Arab concerns, the gathered experts "denied that such efforts for reforms are a result of foreign pressures, especially the American pressures."
Speaking at the three day conference, which was "attended by 1500 Arab specialists including 17 ministers," Lebanese Finance Minister Fouad Al-Sanyoura emphasized that the reform proposed by Arabs "includes the Islamic thinking." Even as "our programs need the change and development," Al-Sanyoura said, it is "not a reason for extremism [in reform]."
In Doha, a regional workshop on human rights concluded at the same time. Attended by more than 50 experts from the Gulf Cooperation Council states and Yemen, the attendees called for merging human rights concepts in the curricula of the GCC member states.
Similarly, a Moroccan jurist, Khalid Naciri, who chairs the Arab League's human rights committee, said that a new Arab charter of human rights is short of the universal declaration of human rights. (Arabicnews.com, Feb. 21) It's shortcomings include overlooking freedom-restricting legislation in force in some Arab states, the failure to explicitly emphasize elections transparency and honesty, and its superficial reference to education for human rights. As Arabicnews.com reported, "He deemed it would have been appropriate to grant more importance to the culture of tolerance and political openness." Naciri also pointed to Morocco as one of the leaders in proving that "democracy and the respect for human rights are not contradictory with Islam."