The repetition of the mantra of information has exceeded real achievements in development, writes Awatef Abdel-Rahman* For the past few years, Arab governments have been using the term "communication" in everything having to do with culture, politics or the economy. Officials promise us that the age of information is around the corner, and that soon we'll have access to that multi-faceted panacea: e-government. We're told that e-education is a few months away and that the Arab market will be bolstered through e- commerce. Reality tells a different story. How could the information society materialise in a region with 70 million illiterate and 80 million living on the poverty line? There is a massive gap between the official view and the practical and scientific requisites of the information age. Knowledge is not about owning a computer set. It is about how one uses it. It is impossible to create an information society through sheer information. It is equally impossible for an information society to develop before civil society reaches maturity. But our officials want to impart an unrealistic aura on the information society, while censoring all critical thinking on the topic. In the Arab world, the term "communication" is being hailed as a magic wand. We will use communication to save the day. We will use communication to catch up with the advanced world. Or so we hope. Arab governments are paying more attention to communication than to unemployment, poverty, illiteracy, democracy, education, culture and the media. Our officials are promoting communication technology in an attempt to hide the structural shortcomings, corruption and despotism that have brought havoc upon our region. Our officials talk about computers to avoid addressing areas where change is needed -- such as the economy, culture, the media, political practices and civil society. The information society is not an end in itself, but a means to development and structural reform. The development we need cannot be achieved in the absence of civic-minded media. The development we need cannot be implemented in the absence of a civil society worthy of its name. The continued obsession with the technological aspect of information would turn communication into a purely economic quest, a quest most likely to be monopolised by Arab governments and a handful of companies. We cannot afford to let Arab media degenerate into entertainment to the exclusion of enlightenment and education. But this is exactly what is happening now. The complete liberalisation of media and communications is changing the media scene, but not necessarily in a helpful way. Given the current circumstances, the privatisation of Arab media would open the door for multinational influence, which is not necessarily better than full state ownership. This is a challenge facing Arab governments at present, and no one is providing the right answer. Arab governments want to stick to cosmetic reforms. Just as the appointment of women in key positions in the judiciary and the academia has failed in improving the situation of women in general, the measures taken so far to reform the media have proved inadequate. Governments have been allowing specific individuals who are close to the ruling party or family to start their own independent media organisations, including newspapers and satellite networks. The latter mostly focus on entertainment, sports and commercials. Some Arab governments have introduced cosmetic constitutional changes and yet parliamentary and presidential elections have been marred with violence, fraud and vote racketeering, according to domestic and international human rights organisations. Some Arab countries have opened their markets to major Western corporations as part of European and US partnership agreements. If anything, this has increased the dependence of local economies on international corporations, instead of helping the country. Human development doesn't come about through technology alone. For now, Arab governments are using the information society as a way to avoid political and social reform. This reminds me of what happened right after independence, when governments in this region overlooked democratisation while pretending to be busy with creating suitable national political and economic institutions. The obsession with the technological aspect of information and communication is dangerous, for it diverts attention from the real goal of the information society: development. We're encouraging monopolistic tendencies and consumerism at a time when we should be creating a credible information society. * The writer is a professor of journalism at Cairo University.
