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Listen To Arab Voices

(Washington Post) Marina Ottaway - The third Arab Human Development Report, finally released by the UN Development Program after a lengthy controversy, should be required reading for Bush administration officials and for anyone interested in promoting Middle East democracy. (See Observations below.) The report reveals a complete acceptance of democratic principles and a complete mistrust of the Bush administration's efforts to promote democracy. The report, authored by a group of prominent Arab intellectuals represents an unambiguous embrace of liberal democratic ideals. There are no "buts" and "ifs" in the report, no claim that Arab countries need to develop their own form of democracy in keeping with the cultural specificity and conditions of the region. There is no claim that the Palestinian-Israeli conflict must be settled first. On the contrary, the report addresses and rebuts all such claims, concluding instead that liberal democratic values are not Western but universal, and that change must come now. Despite its hostility to U.S. policy, the report admits that pressure from the outside, particularly from Washington, may help the cause of political change in the Middle East. The writer is a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
2005-04-05 00:00:00
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