Pakistan Without Musharraf
August 20th, 2008 by Sarah
An editorial in the L.A. Times lauds Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf’s decision to resign earlier this week, but questions whether Asif Ali Zardari or Nawaz Sharif have “the expertise to cope with the country’s most daunting challenges — runaway inflation, religious extremism and ongoing conflict with India.” Despite this, the editorial remains hopeful. “Democracy can and will work even in parts of the world where so far it has seemed a dismal failure. All it takes is a little patience; Pakistan’s people and army just need to provide it.”
On the other hand, Syed Saleem Shahzad at Asia Times Online reports on yesterday’s Taliban attacks in Afghanistan, claiming that the Taliban seized upon Musharraf’s resignation and the power vacuum it created in the country. Pakistan “is clearly a government of disunity, destined to endless feuding and paralysis - a situation militants will exploit to the full, as they have since Musharraf shed his uniform last November.”
Likewise, William B. Milam in the Daily Times (Pakistan) compares Musharraf’s resignation to the ending of Casalanca, where the key players made sacrifices to a “greater good.” Miliam, however, “doubts it will be sufficient for Pakistan to overcome its existential crisis.”
Meanwhile, Peter Wonacott and Zahid Hussain in the Wall Street Journal reports that Pakistan’s civilian government hit a snag after the PPP asked to review the issue of restoring the judges dismissed by Musharraf. Xenia Dormandy, a South Asia scholar at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government predicts that the infighting will worsen. “I’d be stunned if the current coalition lasted to next fall.”
Posted in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Reform, Terrorism | Comment »
Letter From A Cairo Jail
August 14th, 2008 by Adam
In a letter to Senator Barack Obama from Tura Prison near Cairo, former MP and political prisoner Ayman Nour calls on the Senator to “…lead the world towards real freedom and justice,” and reach out to reformers in Egypt and the Middle East. Nour also states that, “Both Reform advocates and prisoners of opinion and conscience in Egypt, Syria, Palestine and other countries, are expecting your consistent support of their rights to life, freedom, and change.” Nour, a candidate in Egypt’s 2005 Presidential election, has been imprisoned in Egypt since 2005 on politically motivated charges meant to silence his calls for political reform.
To read the Arabic language version of Nour’s letter, click here.
Posted in Egypt, Election 08, Human Rights, Reform | Comment »
Mending Fences in Turkey
August 7th, 2008 by Adam
An editorial in the Christian Science Monitor suggests now that the AKP has escaped being banned it must reach out to secularists in order to stabilize Turkey’s polarized political system. The editorial says that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan must follow the court’s warning to not push his party’s religious agenda to tamp down tensions between Islamic and secular forces. However, the most important initiative the AKP could undertake would be to refocus on EU accession talks, which would be a powerful reforming tool.
Posted in Political Islam, Reform, Secularism, Turkey | Comment »
Morocco’s Moderates and the Chances of Reform
August 5th, 2008 by Adam
Shadi Hamid, POMED’s Director of Research, writes at Democracy Arsenal that, Abdelilah Benkirane, the recently elected leader of Morocco’s PJD, is indicative of the problems plaguing democratic reform in the region. Benkirane is a referred to as a “moderate,” but Hamid refers to him as traditionalist that is unwilling to upset the status quo. He is only called a “moderate” because he is unwilling to criticize the monarchy, the biggest impediment to Morocco becoming a democracy. Hamid claims that unless Morocco’s opposition is willing to drop its non-confrontational attitude towards the monarchy than it will lose its chance to be an important player in moving ahead political reform.
Posted in Morocco, Reform | Comment »
The Battle Over Turkey’s Political Future
July 30th, 2008 by Adam
Writing in the Daily Star, Fadi Hakura sees the current crisis in Turkey surrounding the AKP as representing a groundbreaking ideological shift in Turkey’s political system. He sees the emergence of a secularized Islam and the electorate’s desire for a focus on economic issues rather than narrow religious ones as evidence of the formation of a new political order. Hakura’s best evidence of this political change and the shift away from the nation’s past ideological battles is the military’s silence. Their inaction is due to the fact that, “…Turkey is fast becoming a diverse society, as opposed to a once-monolithic bloc of secularists and Islamists, the military is adapting to altering political, economic and societal conditions.”
However, an editorial in Financial Times sees the Turkish crisis as dire and a setback to the progress the country has made. The editorial says, “To argue the country can muddle through a deposition of its government because the army has closed four Islamist parties in the past misunderstands the scale of the crisis. The battle between secularists and conservatives has reached a critical point.”
Posted in Political Islam, Reform, Secularism, Turkey | Comment »
POMED Notes: “Democratic Development in the Middle East and North Africa”
July 29th, 2008 by Adam
Today, the Project on Middle East Democracy (POMED), the Middle East Institute (MEI), and Americans for Informed Diplomacy (AID) hosted a discussion with representatives from three conferences sponsored this spring by POMED and AID, in which young Middle Eastern and American leaders developed and ratified policy recommendations on how to improve America’s impact on Middle East reform. The participants included Erika Spaet and Sara Ait Imoudden from the Rabat Conference, Dina Elshinnawi and Mohamed Sabbah from the Cairo Conference, and Emily Crawford and Tharwat Alazab from the Amman Conference.
For POMED’s complete notes on the discussion, click here.
Posted in Democracy Promotion, Event Notes, Events, Foreign Aid, Reform, US foreign policy | Comment »
A New Relationship?
July 28th, 2008 by Adam
An editorial in the New York Times suggests that President Bush use this week’s visit to Washington by Pakistani Prime Minister, Yousaf Raza Gilani, to open a new chapter in U.S.-Pakistan relations. This new chapter must make clear the U.S. is committed to consolidating Pakistani democracy and fighting extremism, which can be demonstrated by providing substantially more economic and social aid as well more monitored military aid. The editorial concludes, “That way, Pakistan will have reliable funding for future social programs and be able to focus American military aid on counterterrorism. It is an imperfect solution but could be the start of a better relationship — one that promotes democracy and the fight against Al Qaeda.”
Posted in Foreign Aid, Pakistan, Reform, US foreign policy | Comment »
Morocco’s Islamists and the Problem of Participation
July 28th, 2008 by Adam
The Carnegie Endowment for Peace has an intriguing report by Amr Hamzawy about Morocco’s Islamist, Party for Justice and Development (PJD). Hamzawy sees that the PJD, though entrenched in the nation’s political system, is challenged by various constraints, including the system’s semi-authoritarian nature, the power of the King, and competition to win the Islamist vote. This puts the PJD in a perpetually unstable posture as it must play by the rules to remain politically acceptable to the powers that be, while it cannot be so moderate that it alienates its religiously oriented constituency. Hamzawy mentions that while some of these factors are unique to Morocco, it does highlight the dilemmas faced by Islamist parties seeking peaceful political participation.
Posted in Islam and Democracy, Islamist movements, Morocco, Political Islam, Political Parties, Reform | Comment »
The Arab Center and Reform
July 23rd, 2008 by Adam
In an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times, former Jordanian foreign minister, Marwan Muasher says that the U.S. needs to help bolster moderate Arabs by sincerely pushing to solve the Arab-Israeli conflict in order to deprive radical elements of the idea that violence works and the moderate path will lead to failure. Furthermore, Muasher says Arab reformers must help themselves by focusing their efforts on issues more appealing to the public, such as political reform, good governance, and economic development. He concludes that Arab reformers must be at the forefront of serious, but gradual political reform because a failure to change benefits radical elements that are seen as the only alternative to the current group of elites.
Posted in Reform | Comment »
The New Turkish Political Order
July 22nd, 2008 by Adam
Looking at the Turkish Constitutional Court case to ban the AKP and the current prosecution of those who plotted a coup against the government, Soli Ozel of the Daily Star says their is reason to be optimistic about the future of Turkish politics. The attempt to ban the AKP is an attempt by the feeble opposition to maintain their relevance. Ozel says the case against the coup plotters illustrates that the Western-oriented, liberal faction of the military may be supplanting the secular authoritarianism of the old order. However, Ozel warns, “In short, the days of military tutelage over Turkey’s politics are arguably over. Whether or not Turkey’s civilian politicians, particularly the AKP (or its successor party in the undesirable event of closure), will rise to the challenge of firmly establishing the rule of law and engage Turkey determinedly in a secular, liberal, democratic path remains to be seen.”
Posted in Reform, Secularism, Turkey | Comment »
Oil Wealth and the Middle East
July 16th, 2008 by Adam
Kenneth Pollack at the International Herald Tribune has an interesting article on how Middle East nations have failed to utilize their immense oil wealth to improve their societies. Even though nations are investing more oil revenue domestically than in the past, Pollack says, “much of the money is being re-invested in projects intended to produce quick profits for investors rather than long-term political and economic gains.” According to Pollack, without oil revenue being used to address structural economic reforms, the massive infusion of wealth could exacerbate many nations’ social imbalance, fostering instability and driving citizens into the arms of extremists.
Posted in Oil, Reform | Comment »
Improving Pakistani Aid
July 16th, 2008 by Adam
The Boston Globe reports on a recently introduced bill (S.3263) by Senators Richard Lugar (R-IN) and Joe Biden (D-DE) that would provide 7.5 billion dollars in aid to Pakistan over five years. The proposed bill would differ from previous aid packages to Pakistan as it directs more funding towards social and economic development, while holding the military more accountable for the funding it recieves. The bill, which has great support in Washington and Islamabad, intends to strengthen the two nations’ bilateral relationship by helping consolidate Pakistani democracy, moving away from a solely military-to-military relationship, and making Pakistani military aid conditional.
Posted in Foreign Aid, Military, Pakistan, Reform, US foreign policy | Comment »
A Case Study in Democracy: Turkey and Lebanon
July 15th, 2008 by Adam
An editorial in the Daily Star examines the contrasts in the commitment to democracy displayed by Turkish generals and Lebanese politicians in each nation’s respective political crisis. The outward behavior of Turkey’s generals are seen as an encouraging sign that the military is forgoing its traditionally active political role and is willing to accept the supremacy of civilian authority and be bound by the rule of law. It concludes that Lebanon’s politicans would be wise to learn this lesson, as their failure to establish a independent judiciary has prevented them from being held to the scrutiny necessary for Lebanon to become a true democracy.
Posted in Judiciary, Lebanon, Military, Reform, Turkey | Comment »
Post-Bush Democratization
July 10th, 2008 by Adam
In the Daily Star, Marina Ottaway suggests that the next U.S. administration not forgo democracy promotion despite the mistakes of the Bush administration. Ottaway asserts that it would be very costly to give up on promoting democracy due to the appetite for reform and a realization among many in ruling circles that Arab autocracies may not be able to survive without significant change. She prescribes that the U.S. set low-key, modest goals tailored to each country’s experience so that democratization is seen as consistent and reasonable.
Posted in Democracy Promotion, Reform, US foreign policy | Comment »
