Issue No.589
Opinion
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6 - 12 June 2002 Issue No.589 Opinion |
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 | Recommend this page | ||
No magic wand
Elections are being hailed as the key to Palestinian reform. But a viable programme is needed as a rallying point, writes Islah Jad*
Elections are the new buzz word for those, inside and outside the Palestinian Authority, who hope for political reform. But can elections (municipal, legislative, presidential) infuse new blood into the Palestinian political system and redress the obvious pitfalls of decision-making? In order to answer this question we have to examine the existing political map and see what difference, if any, elections will make.
Among the range of politically active Palestinian groups only two are fairly well organised -- Fatah and Hamas. From within the Palestinian public these two groups draw their support from different sources, though both have a working doctrine of sorts. Their programmes are based on ending the occupation: both have a history of armed struggle; both use armed struggle as a way of maintaining public support and political legitimacy; and neither is eager to use elections as a conduit for political reform.
Fatah is experiencing internal divisions. Some of its ranks have opted for continued armed resistance while some argue against it. The divisions are fuelled by several factors, from personal rivalries to generational mistrust, with doctrinal differences sprouting at every step. The younger generations, generally speaking, criticise what they see as creeping capitulation, opportunism and a lack of revolutionary zest among older leaders. Elections may complicate rather than ease Fatah's internal disputes.
Hamas, so far, seems to be interested only in municipal elections. Its leaders view the legislative and presidential elections with suspicion; they are too closely associated with the Oslo accords. Hamas hopes to use the municipal elections to expand its power base and to spread its ideology in Palestinian back streets through its extensive network of social services.
Aside from Fatah and Hamas, are there any Palestinian forces capable of turning the electoral campaign into a vehicle of reform?
There is no shortage of dissenting voices on the Palestinian political stage, including Legislative Council members, civil society activists, and an array of writers and intellectuals. But most of these act individually and a not part of any cohesive movement. Few, therefore, have any hope of changing the course of the elections or providing the public with an alternative leadership or course of action.
Take, for example, the presidential elections. It is not clear if any of the vociferous advocates of reform is going to mount a challenge to Yasser Arafat's leadership. No opposition group has yet offered a credible rival to the incumbent president. None has provided a clear agenda for reform. None has articulated a programme for resistance.
A similar dilemma faces the legislative elections. It is clear that current members of the Legislative Council have proved unable to influence official Palestinian decision-making. The obvious solution is to change the deputies, but with whom? Any new elections are likely to fill the Council with deputies elected on the basis of existing political and clan loyalties, thus lessening any opportunity for change.
The last elections brought into the Legislative Council several individuals who challenged the hegemony of the executive authority. Haydar Abdel-Shafi, Hanan Ashrawi, Abdel-Jawwad Salih, Mu'awiyah Al- Masri, Azmi Al-Shu'aybi, Hassan Khurayshah, Fakhri Turkuman and Rawiyah Al- Shawwa, to mention only a few, criticised the widespread corruption, the lack of due legal process, and the absence of accountability. These individuals, however, failed to form a cohesive opposition front that might have challenged the system. Do we have any particular reason to believe that elections (even if held under a new law) will change this situation?
Elections are not a magic wand capable of turning the Palestinian political system around. Elections do not create political forces; rather, they entrench the influence of existing ones. The current parliament is dominated by Fatah simply because Fatah is a cohesive political force. Those who were elected as independents remained isolated. They did not turn into an organised or credible political force. The opposition remained feeble because it failed to formulate an alternative doctrinal challenge to Fatah and Hamas, at least as far as the option of resistance is concerned.
Under these circumstances it is hard to see how elections could be used as a vehicle for political reform. Reform will continue to remain a remote possibility until the opposition coalesces into a credible and cohesive movement, with a clear political programme, and with a vision on how to engage the entire nation in the effort of national liberation.
Both Fatah and Hamas derive their political legitimacy from their acts of resistance. Any credible Palestinian movement of reform will have to mobilise the entire nation (the media, activists and business) in an effort to resist the monstrous expansion of settlements to mention only one of the many problems facing the Palestinian people. The reform movement, if and when it takes shape, could lead the masses to resist -- inch by inch -- the digging of more roads to the settlements and the building of more homes by the settlers. But first such a movement should formulate a cohesive approach that sets it apart from Fatah and Hamas. It should, for instance, reach out more to the Israeli, the Arab, and the international public.
The reform movement should incorporate in its programme means of defending disadvantaged segments of the Palestinian population. And it should redefine the conflict as a national (not religious) quest for a Palestinian state. Only when the reform movement reaches this level of maturity will elections serve as a vehicle of change, and a rallying point for the nation.
* The writer is a Ramallah-based Egyptian academic teaching at Bir Zeit University.
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