The Daily Star Has This Article on the Alexandria Declaration. Some 160 members of civil society from across the Middle East composed the declaration at the Arab Reform forum at the Alexandria library in March. The declaration calls for free elections, rotation of power, freedom of expression and a changing of social attitudes. Serageldin calls it “a truly revolutionary document.”
“Democracy, reform or development is like a tree,” he says. “You can make it grow by feeding its roots, not by pulling on its branches.”
Egyptian librarian pushes for ‘tolerance, openness
fROM tHE eCONOMIST COMES ANOTHER VIEW OF THE RECENT aRAB lEAGUE MEETING AND STATEMENT:
The Arab League
Hot air and cold truths
May 27th 2004 | CAIRO
From The Economist print edition
Under the rhetorical guff of summitry, a sense of reality was almost detectable
The summit meeting of Arab leaders in Tunis last week was supposed to have been about two things: political reform and a uniform stand on thorny issues such as Iraq and Palestine. In the event, the more thoughtful parts of the Arabic press coverage did indeed reflect uniformity and reform of a kind. Commentators from Morocco to the Gulf, in unprecedentedly uniform derision, variously deemed the meeting “ridiculous�, “a failure,�“empty rhetoric�, “instantly forgettable�. This expression of freedom to savage the kings and presidents-for-life who run the region was itself a better omen for reform than the verbiage of the communiqués.
Not that expectations were high. The dream of what was once known as “the Arab systemâ€?, bound by regional institutions and rituals such as annual summit meetings, has long clashed with the reality of bitter incompatibilities between the league’s 22 members. The strains have lately been further tested by the muscular regional agenda of the world’s lone superpower. America’s invasion of Iraq, its support for Israel, its icy hostility to old adversaries such as Syria, its aloofness from old friends such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia, and its sudden interest in promoting democratic values have shaken Arab palaces and streets alike. Moreover, the last time Arab leaders together offered something bold—a comprehensive peace with Israel, in March 2002—the West, especially America, seemed to take little notice.
This time, the 13 heads of state and nine lower-ranking representatives who finally met in Tunis (after the meeting’s embarrassing postponement two months ago) made a stab at addressing both their own peoples’ and the Americans’ concerns. The final communiqué restated a commitment to a comprehensive Palestinian-Israeli peace and made a new gesture to Israel by condemning “all operations that target civilians, without distinctionâ€?. It also, unsurprisingly, condemned President Bush’s recent rejection of the Palestinians’ “right of returnâ€? to Israel proper and his assertion that Israel would not be expected to give up all the Palestinian territory it has occupied since 1967. The meeting’s oddest moment was when Libya’s Muammar Qaddafi, who has recently accommodated himself to America, walked out, muttering that his fellow leaders’ cigarettes were American, just as they themselves were American stooges.
The mere inclusion of the word “reform� on the agenda was seen by some countries, such as Syria, as bowing to American pressure. Yet even Syria was enticed into committing itself to such things as “widening the sphere of public participation in government� and “enhancing the role of women�. Such pledges were, however, notably vague.
In a statement of protest, 34 Arab non-governmental organisations from 14 countries complained that there was no specific timetable for change or for elections. It was not the voice of a few hot-headed human-rights campaigners: when a gathering of well-heeled, mainly Arab businessmen were asked at a recent World Economic Forum in Jordan whether they thought their governments were sincere in claiming to want reform, 94% said no.
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