The Bibliotheca Alexandrina under the able directorship of Professor Ismail Serageldin and his efficient team arranged a conference 9-11 December 2015 on “Democracy for the 21st Century.” The point of departure of the conference was that democracy issues became important and persistent in the Arab region during the years of the so-called Arab Spring, whose outcome was not positive in most cases. Countries like Libya, Syria, Yemen and Iraq descended into civil wars that revealed that the dream of democracy is still distant for a full generation of Arab youth. Over 14 sessions the deliberations of the conference invoked for me a number of thoughts I can put under the heading “dilemmas of democracy in the Arab world”. If we discuss democracy in 21st century, we need to examine a number of issues and lessons learned from the Arab experience, and the dilemmas that faced the Arab world in exercising democracy. While the Arab Spring slogans did not include calls for democracy, they were basically against totalitarianism, setting their sights on the right to choose national rulers. As the Arab uprisings ceded to civil wars, it became clear that achieving a stable democracy is far from easy amid prevailing deteriorating situations. This revelation motivated some scholars and analysts to conclude that Arab societies are not fit for democracy according to the European pattern. I believe that establishing relatively sound democracy in Arab countries will depend on rebuilding state institutions and reaching national reconciliation. As for Egypt, which escaped the destructive fate of other Arab Spring countries, it started, particularly after June 30 Revolution, a process of building a stable political system through a political roadmap including the drafting of a new constitution, electing a president and a new parliament. The last component of the roadmap was recently achieved. In the debate before the elections, the new parliament was called the most important in Egypt's recent history. The debate also was on whether the parliament will be truly representative of all political forces, or a reproduction of previous parliaments dominated by support for the regime. The outcome of the elections revealed a number of positive and negative features. On the positive level, the elections took place in a secure environment free of governmental interference. Among the positive signs were the seats women and Copts won in this election. On the negative level was the relative weakness of the electoral turnout, which was subject to varied interpretations. The weakness of political parties, supposed to be the backbone of any democratic system, was also a concern, along with the use of political money and its expected influence on role of parliament. Nonetheless, the outcome of the elections proved that Egypt is still on the path to a genuine democracy, which President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi alluded to. In all cases, the prospects of democracy in Egypt will depend on building a healthy economic system, reducing poverty, illiteracy and developing the educational system. This will be a long and difficult process. The writer is a former Egyptian ambassador and a member of the Egyptian Council for Foreign Affairs.
