Daily Alert Archives

Reforms in the Arab World Are Purely Cosmetic

(Gulf News-Dubai - Muhammad Muslih A series of "political reforms" have been recently introduced in some of the 22 states of the Arab world, conferred by ruling elites as a makruma, or gift, upon oppressed societies that have been afflicted with a general state of depression at least since the 1967 war with Israel, or even much earlier. All these measures are nothing but outward manifestations of reform granted by leaders who either feel that they are firmly enough established in power not to be threatened by them or who want to make a nod of good will to Washington's public statements about the need for democracy in the Arab world. Yet the instruments that ensure total submission to authority are still in place, and the minimum necessities of liberal democracy are absent. One obstacle to real reform in the Arab world is asabiyya - tribal or elite or group solidarity. In Egypt, Syria, and Algeria there are asabiyya of military and/or military-supported politicians with ties to dominant business groups, sometimes reinforced by kinship or intermarriage. In Jordan, Morocco, and the Gulf states there is the asabiyya of a ruling family held together by ties of blood. Another prohibitive force is represented by a relatively new aggregate of business elites, local agents for foreign industrialists, who have linked up with the ruling political elites because they want a stable order. Washington's security policy is by itself a guarantor of the survival of the old repressive Arab order, whose keepers will continue to use security and the excuse of conflict with Israel to delay real political and economic reform at home. Washington provides political and security cover to its Arab allies, regardless of their human rights record or progress in the direction of political openness. The writer is professor of political science and Middle Eastern studies at Long Island University in New York.)
2003-11-05 00:00:00
Full Article