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Politics : Stockman Scott's Political Debate Porch -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: lurqer who wrote (39303)	3/11/2004 4:31:49 PM
From: lurqer	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 89467

It's hard to gain trust when you've got a "record". Democracy Anyone? Arabs Distrust U.S. Democracy Drive By Jefferson Morley Who wants more democracy in the Middle East? That's the question U.S. officials have been asking the Arab world over the last 10 days by sharing details of the Bush administration's Greater Middle East Democracy Initiative with governments in the region. The answer, judging from the widespread criticism of the U.S. proposal in the Middle East online media, seems to be "not us." But the pervasive criticism of the U.S. initiative -- as a sham, a ruse or a pretext for Israeli expansionism -- obscures the differences between Arabs uninterested in democracy and Arabs who favor democracy but don't trust the United States. The U.S. proposal sounds ambitious. As The Post reported last month, "the initiative, scheduled to be announced at the G-8 summit hosted by President Bush at Sea Island, Ga., in June, would call for Arab and South Asian governments to adopt major political reforms, be held accountable on human rights -- particularly women's empowerment -- and introduce economic reforms." And it may already be having an effect. "Saudi Arabia's first independent human rights organization has won royal blessing in the latest sign of political reform within the conservative Muslim kingdom," Aljazeera.net, the Web site of the Arab cable news channel, said on Wednesday. The approval of the National Human Rights Association "comes as the United States seeks to promote reforms across the Arab world," the site noted. However, Saudi officials "made clear the new organization would be guided by domestic values in Saudi Arabia." The results of an unscientific survey on the Aljazeera.net home page suggest that while many in the Arab world oppose U.S. pressure, a significant minority may welcome it. In response to the question, "Should Arab countries yield to U.S. reform plans?" 52 percent of the 20,000-plus respondents said no. Forty percent said yes. But for most Arab and Muslim commentators, U.S. support for Israel is the largest obstacle. To them, Israel's treatment of the Palestinians is the region's most blatant violation of democratic ideals -- and is ignored by the initiative. "The intentions of the US towards 'liberating' people in this part of the world from rulers who have been in power for a long time cannot be taken in a positive manner if the US continues to call [Israeli prime minister] Ariel Sharon a man of peace," wrote a columnist for the Bahrain Tribune last week. The reaction has been perhaps most negative in Egypt. Last week the government-controlled Al Ahram Weekly reported that a top U.S. diplomat had visited Cairo "in a clear American bid to contain Egyptian anger stirred up by the initiative." U.S. Undersecretary of State Marc Grossman, Al-Ahram reported, "did his best to convince Cairo that the initiative was not a tool aimed at imposing American-style reform on Egypt and the Arab world. 'Reform cannot and will not be imposed from outside,' Grossman said." Egypt is certainly a test of U.S. resolve. President Hosni Mubarak is unelected, has compiled a dismal human rights record and is grooming his son Gamal to succeed him. His government is also the recipient of the largest amount of U.S. foreign aid of any country in the world, except Israel. The slavishly pro-government Egyptian Gazette, another state-owned newspaper, says Egypt needs no outside suggestions: "Self-made changes are far better and more profitable than external and transatlantic measures." Other Arab writers are less complacent. "It would, of course, have been ideal if the countries of the region had embarked . . . on a course of democratisation and reform," former ambassador Hasan Abu Nimah wrote Wednesday in the Jordan Times. "But since . . . there are no signs that they are about to, and since the region is indeed sinking deeper into backwardness and undemocratic practices, why should its leaders complain about foreign prodding? Does anyone truly expect any of the many self-styled leaders in the region who claim that reform should start from within to step down and allow the people to democratically elect a leader? " Nimah mistrusts the U.S. initiative because he doesn't believe the United States is actually willing to sacrifice its undemocratic allies in the Arab world to democratically-elected governments with anti-American policies. "Even if Washington would require such [democratic] changes, how could they be achieved?" he asks. "And if achieved, how could Washington cope with elected governments which will definitely be far more hostile to the US than the current ones?" Among Arab advocates of democracy, the view of Azmi Bishara, an Arab who serves in the Israeli parliament, is representative. Having seen the democratic rights the Jewish state extends to its Jewish citizens makes him eager to achieve the same rights for Palestinians. Writing for the Arabic Media Internet Network, a West Bank-based Palestinian Web site, Bishara says "the U.S. attempt to dress up its policy of hegemony in the guise of democracy must not discourage Arab democratic forces from pressing for democracy." "Citizenship rights, equality before law, judicial independence, civic liberties and women rights are democratic principles that must not be abandoned just because American propaganda is using all of the above for its own purposes." washingtonpost.com lurqer