DAMMAM, 15 August 2003 —“If all the resources — time, money and creativity — are spent defending issues, people will only remember those issues. There is a need to present the Middle East as individual countries. And, as always, the best defense is a good offense. Right now, since there is no discussion about the positives, the image of Saudi Arabia is being defined by the negatives of others,” asserted David T. Dumke, during a recent visit to the Kingdom.
Dumke was visiting Saudi Arabia to promote MidAmr Group, an organization that he established with Maya M. Berry to improve US-Arab relations on the economic, political and cultural fronts. In addition to its two principals, the MidAmr Group has joined together a pool of diverse, bipartisan professionals drawn from the US government, private sector and leading non-governmental organizations in Washington, D.C. to break through the logjam impeding the growth of US-Arab ties.
Dumke is a graduate of Indiana University, with majors in history, political science and Russian. He is currently completing a graduate degree in Muslim-Christian relations at Georgetown University. Before founding MidAmr Group, he worked in the US Congress in a variety of capacities over the last decade, most recently as the Legislative Director for Rep. John D. Dingell (D-MI), the most senior member of the US House of Representatives and the Ranking Member of the powerful Energy and Commerce Committee. Dumke was responsible for managing the Congressman’s legislative staff as well as developing and implementing all legislative initiatives, particularly international affairs, defense and trade. Due to the large number of Arab-Americans in Dingell’s constituency, Dumke became intimately acquainted with the serious difficulties facing the US-Arab relationship “I never knew much about the Middle East until I started working for Rep. Dingell, but I learned the issues for my job,” said Dumke. “Believe me, it was a very frustrating experience, especially watching how issues involving the Middle East are played out.”
At the close of the 107th Congress in December 2002, Dumke and Berry formed the MidAmr Group and set out to change focus, opinion and policy in the United States in regards to the Middle East. In its efforts to support the peace process, shape public opinion and influence decision-makers, MidAmr attempts to utilize all tools “business, political, and cultural,” to foster understanding of the region, explain the implications of US policies and underscore the critical need for regional stability.
“I am a political realist,” explained Dumke. “I don’t think that governments can do the job of bringing the level of understanding needed to the people to solve the problems in the Middle East. The private sector in Middle Eastern countries needs to work together to educate people on the politics. That’s why I am here, working for the formation of a new organization, the US-Gulf Economic Development Council. Members of the Council would be drawn from the private sector in both the US and Middle East who have business ties to the region and who are interested in improving the political situation.”
Dumke believes that while US-Arab ties are at an all time low, there are still good stories about continuing relationships between both Americans and Arabs.
According to Dumke, those experiences need to be brought out in the open and allowed to resonate broadly.
“Without a focused, continuous, coordinated effort to change US policy and public opinion, US policy will not change, and the government-to-government, business-to-business, and people-to-people relations between the US and the Arab world will suffer,” Dumke commented. “Certainly, a close eye must be kept on US policymaking in Washington. However, there is more to do than monitoring activities in Washington. Currently, the bulk of the work devoted to improving US relations with the Arab World focuses on government-to-government contact. People-to-people and business-to-business contact is largely overlooked. All three relationships are essential in order to influence policy. Significant change in US policy is achievable by going directly to the American people, who are often misinformed, have not formed an opinion or otherwise remain open minded.”
MidAmr Group aims to improve relations between the Arab World and the US by lobbying to influence Middle East policy in Washington and engaging in grassroots educational efforts in the US heartland.
“Because I come from a political background, I know what is possible, especially working collectively,” said Dumke. “If you ask Arabs what moves the American political system, they don’t really know. Neither do Americans understand how the Middle East works. To complicate everything are the many challenges to the US-Arab relationship right now. In my opinion there is no time for finger pointing.
To move the relationship forward we must find common ground and despite the naysayers on both sides, moving the US-Arab relationship forward is the only practical, responsible goal.” Dumke stated that during his visit to Saudi Arabia he was extremely well received and that he met with individuals from both the public and private sector, all of whom encouraged the MidAmr effort. In addition, Dumke briefed many senior Saudi media representatives on MidAmr’s activities. He pointed out that the Kingdom’s media is far freer now than in the past and the local newspapers are often pushing discussion and debate on topics at the heart of US-Arab affairs.
It was not surprising that an American should notice and embrace such a change in the Saudi press. After all, the right to “Freedom of Speech” is an American ideal.
Yet it is curious that the US government often does not seem to appreciate discussions of US-Arab relations in the Middle Eastern media. “The US encourages a free press,” explained Dumke, “but then the American government is very sensitive to how it is portrayed in the media. Unfortunately, they think that the foreign press is like it was twenty years ago. At that time a representative of the US government could call a leader and change how a story was being covered. Now, there is a lot more information being exchanged through the Internet and independent media. It’s just impossible to exert that same level of control.”