thursday, february 19, 2004
MIDDLE EAST & NORTH AFRICA
CO M M E NTARY BY ABD U L A ZI Z SAI D
A crucial point to remember
is that democratic behavior is
a form of active nonviolence
just and accountable governance.
A crucial point to remember is that
democratic behavior is a form of active
nonviolence. It is never passive. Rather
than waiting for rulers to share power
and defer to the demands of the people,
democratic leaders take the initiative.
Through adherence to clearly articulated
principles, they advance the cause of
democracy by exploiting every opportunity to represent the will of the people.
To make contributions to democratic
transformation in the coming elections,
Arab and Muslim candidates need a
plan.The following 10 principles can
help them to make the most of the present political situation:
1) Act as if the elections are real. Behave as if the rhetoric of democracy is
already a reality. Run nonviolent “guerrilla” campaigns or mock campaigns.
Write in the names of candidates who
have been kept off the ballot. Use the
“elections game” as an opportunity to
mobilize social forces and change the
rules of political engagement.
2) Network with other democracy activists to ensure active participation at
all levels – municipal, local, regional,
and national – and in all professional
and political forums. Make sure that
there is an independent candidate participating in every race.
3) Work to revitalize associational life
while making full use of existing networks. Meet with professional associations, writers unions, school teachers
and students.Visit coffee shops, specialty
stores, markets, funerals and festivals.
4) Build solidarity among independent
candidates and develop a coherent political strategy. Create a common vision, and
unite behind candidates who stand for
change and who will resist co-optation. It
does not matter who is carrying the flag
of reform, as long as the flag itself is
raised high. Reformists should not compete with one another in the same races.
5) Craft a clear, believable, and affirmative message, and boldly bring it to the
people.Win their confidence by courageously talking about issues they care
about, including problems related to unemployment, election integrity, and corruption.Talk about the widely felt desire
for real choices and real participation.
6) Actively advertise your position on
the issues and work to catalyze more
grassroots public discourse about political
affairs. Make posters with veracious information and appealing mottos, and distribute brochures and leaflets describing your
political positions. Encourage the people
to talk about what decent people can expect from their government.
7) Use the campaign to unify the people.Appeal across the lines that divide
polities, allowing some to rule on the basis of class, tribal, ethnic and sectarian
divisions. Help people find a common
purpose that transcends fear and passive
submission to “machine politics.”
8) Tap the energy and hope of
younger generations. Involving the
youth in the campaign means working
for change in the future, even if the present campaign does not lead to an electoral victory.Youth involvement can also
help to renew the hopes and heighten
the political engagement of elders.
9) Court attention from the regional
and international media. Efforts to
broadcast the aims of independent candidates should not come at the expense
of grassroots political activism, but they
can play a valuable role in reducing the
ability of the regime to engage in repression or electoral manipulation.
10) Always remember that it is the issues you are running on, not your personality. It does not matter whether you win
or lose, as long as the race itself helps to
educate the people about their shared situation and strengthen demands for political reform.The more you focus on the issues, the more your candidacy will come
to symbolize popular demands for performance, integrity and accountability.
By adhering to these 10 principles, independent candidates can run compelling
campaigns whether the elections are real
or not. Boycotting elections results in dissipation of energy, fostering apathy and
disillusionment. People sit on the sidelines and become convinced that they are
merely spectators in a game that they
cannot change. In contrast, participating
in elections by running real campaigns
about real issues empowers the people. It
also puts ruling regimes on the defensive,
forcing them to try to justify exclusionary
practices that, in the final analysis, are
self-serving and unjustifiable.
It is imperative that competitive candidates with visions of democratic change
connect with the people, with their base.
Protagonists of change must convince the
people that there are credible alternatives,
and help them to appreciate a fundamental principle of nonviolence: the power of
a government ultimately depends upon the
consent of the ruled.Withdrawing it does
not immediately make a regime less oppressive, but it defeats the purpose of oppression.And when people refuse to cooperate with abusive power, they dissolve
that power’s social basis. Governments reflect their people and it is the people who
must find the courage to change.
Recent events in Yugoslavia and Georgia demonstrate that the social power
generated by serious electoral campaigns
can bring victory to democratic forces
even if the immediate result at the polling
station is “defeat.” The symbolic power of
not bowing to intimidation cannot be underestimated.Those who run broad-based
campaigns are likely to win the people
even when they lose elections. By refusing to let regimes steal elections without
a fight, they demonstrate that it is possible to participate in public life without
compromising basic principles.
What matters most for those who run
is the cause and the message, not personal ego.Too often people honestly working for social change and the improvement of human life become so involved
with the struggles their work entails that
What matters most for those
who run is the cause and the
message, not personal ego
they either become frustrated and burn
out or become so angry and power oriented that they fail to present a humane
alternative to the order they wish to replace.They become ideological purists
or people who want to win at any cost.
But in democracy the true goal is not
winning an election. Rather, the goal is
implementing the values that are the
substance of a democratic society. It is
participating in the political process, promoting honest dialogue, establishing
safeguards for dissenters, and serving
others. By running campaigns that embody these principles,Arabs and Iranians
can help their societies to imagine
democracy first, and eventually realize it.
Foreign intervention cannot bring
democracy to the Middle East. Only authentic democrats can bring democracy,
by inspiring the people to demand it and
practice it. Like a fragile flower that
grows in its own native soil, democracy
cannot be implanted by an external power. Rather, it must be cultivated by those
who know best how to make it grow and
blossom.As Gandhi would remind us,
means and ends are inseparable. Create
the means – the substance of democracy
– through determined actions that embody democratic principles, and the ends
of democratic transformation will follow.
Abdul Aziz Said, professor and director of the
Center for Global Peace at the American University in Washington, wrote this commentary for
The Daily Star
ALG E R IA
I R AN
Violence blamed on Islamic
fundamentalists leaves 2 dead
ALGIERS: Two people
were killed in Algeria in
violence blamed on Islamic fundamentalists,Algiers
newspapers reported
Wednesday.
An armed civilian was
killed Tuesday by three
armed Islamists close to his
home in the Boudermes region, 50 kilometers east of
Algiers, reports said.
Meanwhile, an armed Islamist was shot dead Monday evening by security
forces in an ambush in
Beni Snous, in the Tlemcen
region some 540 kilometers to the west of Algiers.
During the past two weeks
the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC),
an Islamist group linked to
Osama bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda network, has stepped up
its attacks in its stronghold
of the Kabylie region in the
east of the country.
Last Thursday the group
killed seven policemen in
an ambush in the region.
That attack came after five
policemen were killed in
the regional capital of Tizi
Ouzou on Feb. 5. – AFP
Khatami wants to make speech
in Cairo
CAIRO: Iranian President
Mohammad Khatami wants
to visit Cairo and make a
speech at Al-Azhar, one of
the most prestigious centers
of Sunni religious education, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher said on
Wednesday.
Iran’s reformers are keen to
restore long severed relations with Egypt, but Cairo
is holding out until Iran
carries out a decision to
change the name of a Tehran street named after the
assassin of former Egyptian
President Anwar Sadat.
Maher said Khatami “was
looking forward to conditions permitting him to visit
Egypt and making a speech
at Al- Azhar,” the official
Egyptian news agency MENA quoted him as saying.
Egypt and officially Shiite
Iran have had no full diplomatic relations for decades.
Maher was speaking after
meeting Khatami on Tuesday in Tehran where he was
attending an economic conference of Islamic countries. His predecessor met
Khatami in Tehran in 1997
and President Hosni Mubarak saw him in Geneva last
year but high-level contacts
between the two governments are rare. – Reuters
KUWAIT
Bahraini dissidents prevented
from entering city-state
KUWAIT CITY: Kuwait
barred two Bahraini dissidents who arrived at its airport Wednesday, said one of
the dissidents and a Bahraini opposition group.
Ibrahim Sharif and Sheik
Ali Salman were stopped
at Kuwait airport’s immigration barrier where passport officials said they
could not enter the country, Sharif told The Associated Press.
“When we asked why we
were barred, they said we
don’t know,” Sharif said in
a phone interview conducted after he flew back
to Bahrain.
Sharif belongs to the National Democratic Action
Society and Salman is a
senior member of Al-Wefaq, the biggest opposition group in Bahrain.
They had flown to Kuwait
to speak to political sympathizers on their opposition to Bahrain’s 2002
constitution.
Sharif said: “It is clear
there are people in
Bahrain’s security who
prevented us from getting
into Kuwait to explain the
proceedings of the constitutional conference.” – AP
LE BAN O N
Lahoud endorses Arab-Latin
America summit
BRASILIA: Lebanon’s
president on Tuesday endorsed Brazil’s plan to
host a summit of Arab and
Latin American leaders
later this year and said he
hoped his country would
become Brazil’s gateway
to other Arab nations.
Emile Lahoud met with
his Brazilian counterpart
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva
at the start of his weeklong visit to Latin America’s largest country.
Lahoud said in a speech
that a summit of Arab and
Latin American leaders
would “promote cooperation in all fields.”
Silva and Lahoud signed
mutual cooperation agreements in the power generation and construction
fields, among others.
Turning his attention to
the Israeli-Palestinian crisis, Lahoud said he rejects
the resettlement of Palestinian refugees on Lebanese territory.
“Such a resettlement
would cause dangerous de-
mographic changes in Lebanon and thus jeopardize
the stability, security and
peace in the Middle East.
On Wednesday Lahoud travels to Sao Paulo, Brazil’s
largest city, and heads later
to Rio de Janeiro, where
Brazil’s world famous Carnival starts Friday. – AP
SYR IA
UK Damascus embassy closed
to public for security reasons
LONDON: Britain has
closed its embassy in Damascus, Syria to the public
for security reasons, but
Syrian authorities said
Wednesday that the move
was unnecessary.
The embassy has been shut
to the public since Feb. 10
but continues to function,
the Foreign Office said.
“There is a high threat to
Western, including British
interests, from terrorism in
Syria, as there is in other
countries in the Middle
East,” said the travel advice section of the Foreign
Office website.
“Syrian authorities regard
the British measure to be
unnecessary, particularly
in view of the Syrian Foreign Ministry’s response to
all reasonable and logical
requirements that guarantee preserving the security
of the embassy and its
staffers,” a Syrian Foreign
Ministry spokeswoman
said in Damascus.
“The Syrian Foreign Ministry confirms that the security of all embassies,
diplomatic missions and accredited consulates in our
country is completely preserved,” said the spokeswoman, speaking on condition of anonymity. – AP
YE M E N
United Kingdom names new
ambassador to Sanaa
LONDON: Britain named
its new ambassador to
Yemen on Wednesday.
Michael Gifford will take
over the position in July,
replacing Frances Guy, the
Foreign Office said, adding
that Guy will be transferred to another diplomatic appointment.
Gifford, 42, has been deputy head of mission at the
British Embassy in Cairo,
Egypt since 2001. He previously worked in the Foreign
Office’s counterterrorism
department, and has held
diplomatic positions in
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and
Abu Dhabi in the United
Arab Emirates. – AP
US Army chief to watch joint
military exercises
SANAA: US and Yemeni
armies, navies and air
forces are to conduct joint
exercises under the eye of
the head of US Central
Command, General John
Abizaid, who arrives here
Saturday, official government sources told AFP.
President Ali Abdullah Saleh will also observe the
war games to will be staged
off and around Yemen’s
southern port city of Aden.
Seven gunboats delivered
by Washington to Sanaa
last week as part of stepped
up military cooperation in
the aftermath of the Sept.
11, 2001, suicide attacks in
the US would join the maneuvers, the sources added.
Yemen, at the request of
Washington, has cracked
down on suspected members of the Al-Qaeda terror network which was
blamed for the attacks and
has received US help in
fighting the militants.
Seventeen US sailors died
and another 38 were
wounded when suspected
Al-Qaeda suicide bombers
blew up the destroyer USS
Cole in Aden on Oct. 12,
2000. – AFP
I S R AE L
President visits Toulouse, Tel
Aviv’s twin city
TOULOUSE: Israeli President Moshe Katsav visited
European aircraft maker
Airbus on Wednesday in
Toulouse – Tel Aviv’s twin
city for more than four
decades – on the third day
of a state visit.
At Airbus headquarters in
the southern French city,
Katsav toured the assembly line of the A330-A340,
then viewed a life-sized
model of the A380 superjumbo, accompanied by
Industry Minister Nicole
Fontaine and Airbus President Noel Forgeard.
Katsav was visibly surprised when the Airbus
chief explained that the
European aircraft chalked
up more sales in 2003
than its US rival Boeing.
“I felt great pride that he
could become aware that
Europe, when it unites, is
capable of truly exceptional performances,”
Fontaine said later.
Katsav went on to a lunch
with Toulouse Mayor
Philippe Douste-Blazy, a
sign of the friendship between this city in southwest France and Israel’s
capital, twinned for over
40 years. – AP
MIDDLE EAST MEDIA REVIEW
A daily selection of views from the Middle East and North Africa, compiled and translated by The Daily Star
US-sponsored television is just like Saddam Hussein’s Baath-controlled media
AR AB P R E S S
Al-Rai (Amman)
The daily criticized the US-owned alHurra television station that began
broadcasting this week in the Middle
East, saying it was “condemned by
the Arabs until it proves otherwise.”
The paper said the new channel
was unlikely to succeed in its declared intention to “close the gap between the Arab world and America.”
It said that the gap between the
Arabs and the United States stems
from the “blatant US bias siding with
the Israeli onslaught against the Palestinians and their legitimate rights,and
the gap deepened due to the unjustified American aggression on Iraq.”
The paper asked if the channel
could “convince (Arabs) of the justice of the American policy toward
the Palestinians and prove that the
American occupation of a great
Arab country is a blessing for Iraq
and the Arab world.”
It recalled that al-Hurra has taken
over the same satellite channel that
was once used by former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s regime, in
the same way that US troops have
occupied the presidential palaces in
Iraqi cities.
The article went on to say that
the parties behind al-Hurra claimed
that the channel will contribute to
spreading democracy in the Arab
world, “but we know the lie of this
claim, for America is an ally of the
corrupt dictatorships as long as
American interests are being met.”
Al-Quds al-Arabi (London)
The daily commented on the start of
the US satellite channel Al-Hurra:
“By insisting on having (US President George W.) Bush as its inaugural guest, it reminded us of Arab
channels in the 1960s and 1970s
that served Arab dictatorships.
“The presenter who conducted
the interview with Bush acted as if
he was interviewing an Arab leader
in his own station. He was keen on
asking polite questions in order not
to anger his boss and risk getting
fired,” the daily said.
The paper added that although it
is still too early to start judging the
station and its general outlook,
what has been seen is far from real
freedom, as the channel’s name indicates. “The station does not appear to have the same freedoms enjoyed by its counterparts in the US.”
The daily suggested that the
$100 million budget to finance the
station, paid for by the US administration, was not allocated for the
sake of permitting opposing views
on its airwaves.
“The Iraqi Governing Council
which is an American product par
excellence has been continuously
trying to restrict the operation and
freedom of theArab satellite stations
by closing their offices and forcing
them to stop using terms like ‘resistance’ and ‘occupation,’” it added.
The daily said that this kind of
US-sponsored media is similar to
the previous Iraqi media controlled
by the Baath Party because US-controlled media has been dispersing
news extolling the US occupation
while purposely avoiding the view
of the other side.
Al-Hayat (London)
In reference to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s plans to unilaterally evacuate illegal settlements,
columnist Mamdouh Nawfal said
that Palestinians are convinced that
Sharon’s inclination toward expansion of the settlements in Gaza and
the West Bank is much stronger
than his inclination toward peace
with the Arabs.
“(Palestinians) believe that
Sharon will not enter a conflict with
his party and will not gamble his political career. They also believe that
the availability of a reasonable political and demographic justification,
for the withdrawal and evacuation of
settlements does not imply that
Sharon will really unilaterally evacuate the settlements without any financial and security compensation.
“The majority of the Palestinians
consider Sharon’s mobilization and
worldwide marketing of his plan as a
gambit with one purpose: to bypass
7
ACROSS THE REGION
Don’t boycott elections: Reformers fail to realize
they can win by losing
Elections are approaching in a number
of Arab countries as well as in Iran. In
virtually every country, the powers that
be are likely to use the ritual of “democratic elections” to legitimate narrowly
based regimes.Advocates of social
change are frustrated. How can they win
if elections are not competitive?
What reformers often fail to recognize
is that they can win by losing.
From a shortsighted, egocentric perspective, losing is losing. Participating in a
tainted election is not worthwhile either
because it appears to compromise personal principles or because it produces no
immediate result.Why compromise one’s
dignity by participating in an election that
cannot be won? Does not participation in
a rigged election presuppose slavish acquiescence to the status quo?
By framing the problem of electoral
manipulation in such terms, too many
Middle Eastern political activists have underestimated their own capacity to capitalize on the legitimacy crises of authoritarian regimes and effect democratic
change.When social activists boycott
elections, they give a free pass to regimes
whose legitimacy hangs by a thread.
When they participate with integrity –
even in the face of repression – they make
genuine contributions to the work of democratic transformation, giving voice as
well as impetus to popular aspirations for
THE DAILY STAR
examine the date of the writing.The
Iraqi insisted that those who had
been accused of taking oil bribes
from the former regime in return for
their loyalty would be able to “discover that all the dates are lies and
will know the paper is new and does
not look anything like Iraqi paper
used during the sanctions.”
Beirut’s Al-Mustaqbal, in its Feb. 18 edition, shows elections in Iran controlled by the conservatives
the ‘road map’ and circumvent the Israeli commitment toward it,” he said.
Nawfal added that this ploy is also
meant to disrupt the work of the International Court of Justice in judging the legality of the Israeli wall.
“Sharon intends to gainAmerican
support for building his wall, expanding the settlements in the West
Bank and the financing of these two
plans, under the pretext of covering
the expenses of the withdrawal and
the construction of new houses for
those deported from the Gaza Strip.”
Asharq al-Awsat (London)
Columnist Ahmad Dawas cautioned Wednesday that hasty elections conducted in Iraq, as some
Shiite clerics are calling for, could
trigger a civil war in that country.
“It is obvious that Iraq needs
nothing more than a simple transfer
of political power from the hands of
the US-appointed governor of Iraq,
Paul Bremer, to an Iraqi parliament
or cabinet elected directly by the
people,” Dawas said.
However, he added that there
was not even a proper census on the
number of voters within each religious community, specifically the
Sunnis and Shiites.
Dawas said that the only way to
achieve a peaceful transfer of power from the US-appointed administration to an Iraqi-elected one was
through the United Nations.
He said the UN has the knowhow and the experience to achieve
such a transfer as the one that was
achieved in Namibia, where political power was transferred from the
South African peacekeeping forces
to a Namibian national group,which
won in the elections.
Dawas urged Iraqis not to make
the UN job difficult, adding that
UN Envoy to Iraq Lakhdar Brahimi had been trying to persuade Shiite religious leader Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani to stop his call for immediate elections.
“Iraq is going through a difficult
transitional stage. Experts believe
that conducting parliamentary
elections in that country without
nationwide consensus could favor
one sect in particular (the Shiites) in
grabbing the reigns of power. But
this could lead to discontent and
possibly a civil war,” Dawas said.
Al-Khaleej (Sharjah)
The daily quoted an Iraqi man as
saying that he and a group of others
had compiled a counterfeit list of
names of Arab and foreign individuals and firms that had received oil
coupons from the former regime of
Saddam Hussein.
The paper wrote that the man,
who identified himself as SajjadAhmadAli,said he and his companions
received $3,700 and gifts in return
for the counterfeit operation.
Ali said the counterfeit list was
drawn up in 10 days in December,
and explained that the documents
were steamed and dried “to make
the paper appear old.”
Ali urged those who saw their
names on this list to demand the
original copy and to scientifically
An-Nahar (Beirut)
The daily carried an article by former Lebanese Prime Minister Salim al-Hoss in which he urged the
Syrian National Assembly to draw
up an accountability bill against the
United States in response to the US
Congress’ Syria Accountability Act.
Hoss wrote that such a move
could become an “Arab launching
pad to face theAmerican challenge.”
The former premier said accountability legislation against the
US would allow Arabs to “face the
superpower with weapons of a position, although it would not frighten
a country that possesses a tremendous arsenal of mass destruction.”
“Syria’s problem would be in its
ability to switch the Arab position
at a time when some Arab regimes
… act as if they were a mere ring
around the finger of the US.”
But Hoss urged Syria to “do what
it can, so that some of the Arab leaders would be embarrassed in front
of their people … to side with
America against a brother country.”
Tishrin (Damascus)
Arabs are as divided and as uncertain as ever in the lead-up to next
month’s Arab Summit in Tunis, the
paper said.
It urged Arabs to make up their
mind on what they hope to achieve
in Tunis before going there; otherwise they will be divided and unable to achieve anything substantial, the paper said.
It recalled the recent propaganda
campaigns mounted in the United
States against suchArab countries as
Syria, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.
“Only the US-based Zionist lobby could have mounted such extremist and unfair campaigns.”
It called on Arabs to put such
campaigns at the top of their discussions in Tunis and to face them
with unity instead of division.
The paper stressed that Arabs are
in no position to waste time and
pretend not to see the problems
looming ahead. Therefore, their
unity in Tunis is their best weapon
against their foes.
The paper recalled Syrian President Bashar Assad’s call, at the last
summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, for all
Arabs to realize that they were all at
risk and that it was possible to overcome the problems through unity.
Al-Jamahiriya (Tripoli)
The daily defended Libya’s measures to open up to the West against
criticism from Arab regimes, saying
that Libya never abandoned Arab
nationalism by making a decision to
part with the era of Arab setbacks.
The daily recalled that for 30
years, Libya’s choice was Arab unity, freedom and progressiveness.
“Our country has long been one
of the strongest supporters of the
Palestinian cause to such a degree
that most of the time we were more
Palestinian than Palestinians themselves,” the daily said.
“We proposed a comprehensive
fusion of Arab countries and we
were ready to liquidate our state for
the sake of Arab nationalism. Our
motto was: ‘No to petty states, yes
to the nation.’”
The daily said that despite Libya’s
efforts to serve theArab cause, nothing materialized because Arabs
were paralyzed by their despair.
“We thought, as Libyans, that we
were boosting Arab spirits with our
efforts, but discovered otherwise.
“We figured that we were driving
Arab trains forward toward an allArab station, but we discovered that
Arabs had never been aboard the
train and they never entertained
any notion for a station.
“We never abandoned our past.
We just decided to befriend the future.” The paper urged Arabs “to
catch up to the global train that has
already left the station.”