Saturday, February 26, 2000

BEIRUT (R) - Participants at a U.N. meeting attributed poor living
conditions in the Middle East to a dearth of democracy.

"Without democratic governance, then all human development projects are in jeopardy," said Mahdi Hafez, regional adviser of the U.N. Industrial Development Organisation. "Governance and human rights issues are key
to our countries."

The three-day conference, which opened on Wednesday, was organised to discuss ways to strengthen the role of the U.N. Economic and Social
Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA).

ESCWA, which groups 13 countries, said in a recent report that
expenditure by Arab nations on basic services such as healthcare and education was minimal, with Jordan on top spending 3.7 per cent of its gross domestic product.

Some participants blamed the poor social indicators on the lack of
widescale democratic practices, which they said were a result of cultural factors such as the "pharaoh syndrome."

"Whenever any Arab takes a position of authority, they automatically
become like pharaohs, issuing orders without consultation," said Ismail
Sabri Abdullah, a former Egyptian minister and current head of the
Cairo-based Third World Forum.

"This is a characteristic of our society; not only are the leaders
undemocratic, the people are too."

Alien concept

Abdullah said democracy was an alien concept to many Arabs, who were
not taught to think for themselves at home or school.

"It's very difficult to impose democracy for above. People have to be
used to having rights so that they can use them," he told Reuters.
"Therefore, education is key."

ESCWA's director general, Hazem Beblawi, agreed. "Arabs lack the
concept of democracy. They don't understand it." In many parts of the
region, demanding democracy was akin to treason, Moroccan Researcher
Ali Oumlil said.

"We have some of the worst human rights violations yet rights defenders
are seen as foreign agents, idolators, anarchists, the enemy," he said.

"Human rights are such a hot topic in this region yet our countries are
lagging behind. Why?"

Ghassan Salameh, lecturer and author of "Democracy without Democrats," said most Arab leaders had no interest in toppling the status quo by
giving the people a say in their actions.

"Democracy did not emerge because people asked for it," he said on the
sidelines of the meeting.

"If we look at Europe, we will see that the establishment of a
democratic government did not happen accidentally. It was set up to remedy a civil war or facilitate taxation, that is there was a vested interest. Once we have a similar situation in the region, then we will have democracy."
 
Reproduced by permission of IMRA, Independent Media Review and Analysis, Israel.

http://www.imra.org.il/story.php3?id=3532