By Salama A Salama The Forum for the Future, an annual event sponsored by the G8 as part of the Broader Middle East and North Africa (BMENA) initiative, was held in Manama, Bahrain. Dedicated to democracy and political openness in the region, the forum met as democracy in Egypt was facing a rough time. Across the region promises of democracy have an uncanny knack of slipping out of sight, as probity and transparency dissolve like a mirage. Democracy is something to which we profess our commitment but never quite get round to doing anything about. Arab regimes like the sound of the word but not its implications, and the argument is endlessly made that domestic reform must wait just a little bit longer so that disputes can be sorted out. A debate ensued over the wording of the final statement of the Forum for the Future, with Egypt and other Arab countries arguing against the role of civil society. Arab countries don't want non-governmental organisations (NGOs) operating unless they do so under the control of the state. Tunisia, Morocco, Saudi Arabia and Oman all joined Egypt in arguing the point, claiming that NGOs can be used as a conduit for foreign funds to be siphoned to undesirable groups. Arab countries seem to habitually forget there are civil society organisations that operate under strict state control. When, for example, such organisations want to monitor elections, as happened recently in Egypt, they meet stiff government resistance. Similar scenarios have happened in Tunisia and elsewhere. The Forum for the Future, held for the second year running with US backing and the declared aim of bolstering democracy and good governance, has failed once again to further its objectives. Indeed, it may well make things worse in the region as far as democracy is concerned. The US vision of democracy has patently failed in Iraq. Rather, it has fomented sectarianism in the country. The situation in Iraq reminds me of summer forest fire, with the flames moving from one place to another without warning. The recent bomb attacks in Jordan, blamed on militants coming from Iraq, are a case in point, signalling the pointlessness of the wide-scale military operations in Iraq and the way in which these operations are used as justification for cross-border vengeance. Nor has US pressure extricated Lebanon from the claws of chaos. Lebanon looks increasingly like a country under international custodianship, with a legal process taking place under UN supervision while domestic rivalries worsen. Lebanon needs a sensible man like Al-Hariri to put things in order. Sadly, now that Al-Hariri is gone, there is no shortage of people seeking to take advantage of the country. The international committee headed by Detlev Mehlis appears determined to embarrass the Syrian regime to the bitter end. The Syrian regime may behave in an irresponsibly heavy-handed way, but we can hardly claim that Washington is interested in bringing democracy to the Syrians. When Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice speaks of freedom and democracy in Syria one cannot help but be sceptical. For we all know she is interested only in tightening the noose around the regime. The Syrians have every reason to be defiant. Why did Arab countries attend the Manama gathering? Certainly not because it was likely to further the cause of democracy in the region. It might, indeed, have the opposite effect, giving democracy a bad name and encouraging fanaticism and religious extremism across the region. But perhaps that was the appeal of the meeting. Arab countries seldom miss an opportunity to show that democracy is overrated. Some Arab ministers proved at least that much in Manama.
