Path of good intentions
If democracy is truly to take root in the Arab world, the impetus for change must come from within. John R Bradley listens to debate at the Inter-Governmental Regional Conference in Sana'a
Arab leaders reached a broad consensus here on Monday that democratic principles may "rescue" the autocratic regimes of a region plagued by a lack of development, endemic corruption and routine human rights abuses, but strongly rejected the notion that democracy and freedom of expression can be imposed from outside.
Addressing the Sana'a Inter-Governmental Regional Conference on Democracy, Human Rights and the Role of the International Criminal Court, the biggest gathering of its kind ever held in the Middle East, Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh hailed democracy as a "rescue ship".
"Democracy is the choice of the modern age for all people of the world and the rescue ship for political regimes," Saleh told more than 600 delegates from 40 countries and international organisations, including the European Union, the Arab League, the Organisation of the Islamic Conference and the International Criminal Court.
Yemen, which introduced a multi-party parliamentary system in 1993, three years after unification, is the only Arab country that can stake a claim to being a working democracy, despite being the most impoverished.
"I believe no other country in the region would dare to host such a conference, especially now," said Emma Bonino, former European Commissioner for Humanitarian Affairs and a founder of the Italian NGO "No Peace Without Justice", a co- sponsor of the Sana'a conference.
Organised in the wake of the US-led invasion of Iraq and US President George W Bush's stated intention of promoting democratic change in the region, the Sana'a gathering also came on the back of two reports from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), which also co- sponsored the conference.
The UNDP reports lambasted the region's rulers for deficits in political freedom, blanket press censorship, faltering systems of education, repression of women and the stunting of scientific and developmental research.
Yemen and Morocco have included the UNDP studies in university curriculums.
However, the Arab authors caution that the impetus for change in the Middle East must come from inside their own society: "Such reform from within, based on rigorous self-criticism, is a far more proper and sustainable alternative, in contrast to efforts to restructure the region from outside."
At the conference, Arab League Secretary- General Amr Moussa echoed that sentiment, calling for "democracy" to be viewed "as a process, not a decision imposed by others".
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, in a similar message to the delegates, affirmed: "Democracy belongs to the people. It cannot be imposed from the outside."
However, Moussa also claimed that policies adopted by the world's big players in relation to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict hinder the development of democracy in the Middle East, contradicting the UNDP report's finding that Arab regimes have long used the conflict as an excuse to distort the development agenda, especially by diverting resources to military spending.
The US-led invasion of Iraq, viewed with disdain by the vast majority of Arabs, is also widely viewed to have undermined -- at least in the short-term -- gradual moves towards regional democracy.
Osama Bin Laden's warning that the US intends to create a new empire throughout the Gulf, aired in a video message broadcast by the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera television station last week, has many more sympathetic listeners than do claims by US Secretary of State Colin Powell that the Bush administration is on the side of ordinary Arabs suffering under repressive dictatorial regimes.
The latest issue of the most influential Arabic language weekly, Al-Majalla, has a lengthy article on Egyptian journalists it claims secretly make fortunes by taking money from the US government to promote democratic discussion which goes against pan-Arab interests.
One reason the Sana'a conference was almost universally welcomed was that it was a EU, rather than a US, initiative. The US governmental delegation was very low key.
The oil-rich Gulf states of Kuwait, Qatar and Oman, which all sent high-level delegations, held themselves up as examples of Arab countries which are taking slow but concrete reform initiatives in the context of their cultural and religious heritage. All held at least partially free democratic elections last year, after decades of autocratic rule.
Members of regional giant Saudi Arabia's un- elected Shura Council were also in attendance. Saudi Arabia announced plans for its first local elections last year, but has since dismissed rumours that elections were also scheduled to take place for the Shura Council.
The Saudi government subsequently arrested hundreds of demonstrators protesting against human rights abuses. Many received lengthy prison terms or were sentenced to floggings, none of which has been publicly condemned by the US State Department.
Opposition parties in Yemen largely dismissed the Sana'a conference as conforming to Arab governments' entrenched habit of talking more than acting.
"When everyone goes back home, little action will follow," one prominent opposition figure predicted. "I hope it will not be a repetition of the 1999 Emerging Democracies Forum in Sana'a, which came out with a wonderful declaration that is still locked in a drawer awaiting implementation."
