Sisyphus and democracy

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Our region is backsliding on democracy. The current situation reminds one of Sisyphus, the man doomed to push a rock to the top of a mountain, only to fall back down and have to start all over again. His curse seems to have passed from the annals of Greek mythology to our present, with democracy being the ever-falling rock.

The Arabs have been striving for democracy for a century now. Blame it on imperialism or military regimes, or Israel, but it is still a fact. However hard we tried, we never got there. How does one reverse a history of despotism? How does one replace a legacy of tyranny and corruption with a future of justice and tolerance?

Arab society has been divided along ethnic, doctrinal and tribal lines for so long. Throughout the last century, Islamists slandered leftists, and liberals slammed the pan-Arabs. Some Arab regimes have been able to suppress these rivalries, but only for a while. We have failed to create a climate of mutual respect and recognition. We have failed to create a climate of co-existence among all the rival components of our society. This is why outsiders, be it Israel or the West, have been running circles around us. Look at Lebanon, Somalia, Iraq or Sudan. Whose fault is it that our region has turned into an arena for foreign intervention? Can we take responsibility at least in part for this horror that surrounds us? Governments alone can no longer deal with the raft of ills that has befallen us. We need to engage civil society and the public in policymaking.

All Arab regimes are at the end of their tether, regardless of ideology. So let's admit it: our polities are undemocratic, our economies unproductive, and our societies repressed. This is why our region is falling apart. Our only hope is democracy. So let's get this rock to the top of the mountain and keep it there for a change.