Arab politics and economics must move forward together Rami G. Khouri

Opinion, June 2003, Al-Jazeerah.info

Arab politics and economics must move forward together

Rami G. Khouri

Jordan Times, 6/25/03

The three-day meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF), that just took place in Jordan, brought together some of the most dynamic businesspeople and technocrats in the Arab world who interacted with their counterparts from the Western world in total ease and mutual respect. The gathering was a powerful reminder of the human talent that exists throughout our region; it also highlighted a weakness of the contemporary Arab world — those talented Arabs who enter into public service remain totally unsubjected to any serious process of local political accountability. The danger that often results — and this is very clear at meetings such as the WEF and many others like it that take place regularly these days — is that young Arab men and women in positions of political, economic, technological and social leadership find themselves responding as much to external exhortations and models from the West as they do to the demands and concerns of their own citizens.

This is due almost totally to the lack of any serious and credible political life in every Arab country, without exception. Many go through the form and motions of politics — elections, parliaments, political parties, judicial contestation — but no Arab country has yet dared to push political reform to the point where it achieves two cardinal dimensions of a credible political culture: allowing the majority in society to express its political will, and providing opportunities for majorities to peacefully change incumbent governments and allow new groups to assume political power.

With Iran having stalled politically and the Arab states not yet attempting genuine political reform, Turkey and Israel remain the region's closest examples of a credible political culture (though Turkey remains peculiarly comfortable with the military's role as ultimate political legitimator, and Israel is democratic for its Jewish citizens, but colonial and racist for its Palestinian Arab citizens and occupied subjects).

The prevalent infatuation of young Arab businesspeople and some public sector technocrats with the Western model of free market- and trade-driven prosperity is understandable (and probably correct) at the narrow level of how to achieve sustained economic growth. Yet, I am always troubled to hear the new generation of young Arab political and economic leaders speak of economic freedom and political freedoms as two separate realms. They do not seem to appreciate that the prosperity of the West, that we seek to emulate, was the consequence, primarily, of a tradition of political liberties and constitutionalism that achieved three critical elements: it freed the entrepreneurial creative spirit of individuals whose inventiveness and hard work fired real economic growth; it provided a level business playing field defined by predictability, equity and consistency in the application of laws and regulations; and (after women and people of colour were enfranchised) it provided all with access to a political process that saw governments and ruling elites change and evolve periodically, in line with the wishes of the majority and with changes in national demographics and public attitudes.

None of these three fundamental elements of credible political life exist in any Arab country. Younger Arab leaders and their reform-minded officials speak passionately and regularly about the need to carry out political and economic reforms, in order for the Arab world to catch up with the rest of the world's advanced economies. But economic reforms are not matched by political ones, which carries risks to the credibility of those who speak the language of reform.

Political scientists and analysts from this region and abroad who analyse this phenomenon tend to agree that we continue to witness an Arab order that is defined by two very contradictory trends: an awareness of the need to open up our economy without limits, alongside a much weaker willingness to open up political systems just enough to defuse tensions, but not enough to allow the citizenry's majority will to bring about real changes in ruling political elites or prevalent public policies. In every single Arab country, the executive branch continues to enjoy virtually unchallenged freedom to pursue whatever policies it wishes, while being subjected to no significant accountability to the legislature or to public opinion.

Arab political regimes that liberalise just enough to defuse domestic tension but never achieve full political freedom and credibility will never get out of this cycle. They will only manage frustrated citizenry in perpetuity. The young business and political leaders who have livened up the Arab scene have understood the importance of opening up their economies, and they must move much faster towards understanding the parallel need to open up their political systems with equal sincerity and magnitude.

Earth, a planet hungry for peace

The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03).

The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers in the West Bank (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03).