In Focus: The Arab reform process Democracy is feasible only when it takes on board the specifics of the society it seeks to govern, writes Galal Nassar I have had the honour to receive an invitation from the director of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Ismail Serageldin, to attend the seventh annual conference on Arab reform, due to convene on 1 March. The title of this year's conference asks, "In a world that is shaping itself anew, where are the Arabs?" It is a compelling question, one that should inspire every Arab intellectual to reassess the course of reform in the region, especially when it is compared to other countries around the world, though hopefully participants will bear in mind that we do not want to recklessly adopt policies unsuited to our geography and culture. Political parties are the pivots of the democratic process. Without political parties there can be no democracy, or even a semi-democracy. You have a dictatorship, pure and simple. There is no in between. The concept of political reform is intrinsically connected to political parties and the part they play in the reform process: at the very least there must be a role for them in the realisation of reform and political developments that aim to lay a secure foundation for the establishment of a democratic society incorporating the principles of plurality and the peaceful rotation of authority, in the manner of the systems of government that prevail in the democratic West. Any role for political parties in steering the reform process in the Arab world begs the much broader question of the state of democracy in the region. After all, it is impossible to discuss political, economic or even social and cultural reform without considering how democracy -- or a democratic culture -- is faring. Democracy is founded upon the principle of full equality between free citizens. It is the manifestation of a social contract between citizens and their government that is committed to the equal right of all to freedom, dignity and justice and opposed to the exercise of tyranny and the subjugation of others. But can we simply import such concepts and systems, like cars or ready-made clothes, in order to solve the problem of dictatorship in the Arab world? Can we create political parties that function like those in the West? Democracy is an authentic part of Western culture. It evolved in a particular material, social and intellectual environment far removed from that prevailing in the Arab world, where the perpetuation of dictatorship has led to cultural and political passivity. What is needed is to develop a new and deeper concept of our culture, one that transforms it into a vital and active force rather than a subordinate and dependent one. This cannot be stressed enough in light of persistent Western attempts to prevent us from building a culture that might produce a specifically Arab democracy. Since the colonial era there has been an uninterrupted Western drive to annex Arab society economically and prevent us from building a material world of our own. Instead, we are forced to construct a material world through the agency of persons and ideas tailored by the West. A material world that is not the product of persons and ideas that are authentically our own cannot produce a culture that conforms to an Arab Islamic society. Annexation, thus, becomes a process of alienation, the appropriation and elimination of Arab civilisation as a presence in the general future of humanity. We must find our own way to move to the head of the train of human society, instead of learning how to follow others. Western democracy is the fruit of a noble humanitarian effort that conforms in some respects -- though not in others -- to the divine expectations of man. Western democracy was born in the homes of freemen living in a world filled with slaves. It did not propose liberating the slaves. Islam, by contrast, realised its promise of freedom, dignity and equality through the slaves that embraced it, having laid down the systems for their manumission and the victory of the new human being. Islam performs a vital social role and to strip it of such a role is to imagine that human beings have been transformed into angels. Since democracy is a part of human heritage we must fight to comprehend and assimilate it. But if we are to successfully rise to this task we must also affirm our own civilisational identity. Simultaneously, we must develop democratic attitudes among the young and stimulate the democratisation of political life so that political parties can take their rightful lead in this process, as vanguards of political reform rather than props for dressing a democratic façade. Political reform in the Arab region appears to be proceeding in several directions. Some governments claim that they can produce reform or political development without having to consult anyone. Not only do they think that their executive powers make them the ablest agency for the task, they also see themselves as possessing a legitimate mandate, as if their authority somehow proved that it is they, and not their opponents, that best represent the hopes and aspirations of the people. In many Arab countries democracy is in its early infancy. Democratic mirage perhaps best describes the condition: there is the promise of maturing into real democracy though it is a promise that is forever out of reach. The Arab world's rulers are uncomfortable with the idea of political parties, even though these, too, are for the most part in their infancy. Apart from ruling parties in some Arab countries it is impossible to say with any degree of confidence that effective political parties exist on the Arab political map though even so, the parties that do exist in many Arab countries could perhaps try to use their political capital, whether among the public or in the corridors of power, to leverage themselves into positions where they could become more active partners in reform. Political parties could be instrumental in the process of repair and reconstruction precisely because it is a complex and multi-faceted process. They could make their influence felt in the formulation, or reformulation, of legislation governing civil freedoms. The most important are laws regulating the electoral process, the activities of political parties, the press, professional syndicate activities and public assembly. Since the laws governing the electoral process are the most crucial to political reform in Arab countries, political parties should fight until the bitter end to forge legislation that meets the people's aspirations, providing for a system based on proportional lists so as to ensure the broadest possible representation of the people in parliament, the central arena of the democratic political fray. As weak and fragile as Arab political parties are at present, they can make a difference. They can push demands that promote general welfare, democratic reform and a general climate conducive to broader public participation. Conversely, as long as the political waters in the Arab world remain stagnant, we will not be able to speak of political reform, let alone comprehensive development. In some Third World countries, political reform will remain elusive until the ruling party loses its monopoly on power. Most Arab ruling parties were founded by a ruler once he had come to power, usually on the back of a tank. After several years of naked military rule the leader decided that it was time to polish up his image. He shed his military uniform, donned W coat and tie, founded a national party and allowed his cronies to set up a few little parties of their own. Now he could smile to the cameras and boast of being democratic and tolerant of plurality -- though only to a limited degree, because the Arab peoples were not yet mature enough for real democracy. This type of ruler remains the self-appointed pater familias of the Arab masses in the absence of established democratic traditions, and he will remain so until Arab political parties get their act together, step into gear and push for real and substantial political reform. Not that their path will be easy. They will have many obstacles to overcome. We are, after all, a part of the Third World that has yet to wake up to the sea changes that have swept the rest of this far flung domain. Some of our regimes actually see themselves as paragons of true democratic representation and the Western model as chaos disguised as democracy. Political reform, then, should be a partnership between civil society and the government, in which political parties are the principle partner. Only such a partnership can turn reform from a type of paddling in the air into a dynamic process that will stir the political arena into life and move our countries steadily towards fair and transparent elections, truly representative parliaments and the peaceful rotation of power. The peaceful rotation of authority between political parties or party coalitions has been the dream of Arab peoples for decades. They should not be left standing in the global backwaters while their leaders act as their moral guardians. The Arab world has reached the age of maturity and has the right to see its governments transformed into beacons of democracy and political plurality. Perhaps this dream will begin to coalesce into reality in some parts of the Arab world over the next few years.
