We must give peace a chance

WHILE the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) has witnessed significant deterioration in terms of peace in the last few years, the Arab Spring has givensome hope for better days ahead in the region.
The MENA with its 19 countries is ranked eighth, only ahead of South Asia as the least peaceful place among the world’s nine regions, according to the Global Peace Index (GPI) released earlier this month.
Over the past six years the GPI average score has deteriorated from 1.95 points in 2008 to 1.99 in the following year, to 2.0 in 2010, 2.03 in 2011, 2.04 last year and 2.05 this year.
The index used 22 qualitative and quantitative indicators that were grouped around three main themes: Level of safety and security, extent of domestic and international conflict and degree of militarization in each country.
The drop in the MENA region is attributed to, a large extent, the violence that accompanied the Arab Spring, but despite that Arab population looks positively at the turmoil engulfing their region, according to a survey by the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies (ACRPS), which released it 2012/2013 Arab Opinion Index (AOI) main findings also this month. This year’s survey was conducted in coordination with its local partner institutions in 14 Arab countries during the period from July 2012 to March 2013. In total, 20,350 respondents took part in the survey through face-to-face interviews and the countries surveyed represent 89 percent of the total population of the Arab region, making the AOI the largest survey of its kind, it claimed.
AOI results indicate that the public opinion in the region views the Arab Spring favorably as a majority of respondents, or 61 percent described it as “a positive development.” Only 22 percent of respondents viewed the Arab Spring negatively, while 3 percent of those surveyed voiced outright opposition to the Arab revolutions, terming the Arab Spring as an American-Islamist conspiracy.
A majority of the Arab public believe that the revolutions have either succeeded in achieving their aims (20 percent), or will do so in the near (1-3 years, 26 percent) or medium-term future (4-7 years, 19 percent). These aims include mainly securing human rights and guaranteeing public liberties.
In addition, the survey found that half of the Arab public had “no concerns” with regards to the increase of Islamists’ political influence and their rise to power, while 16 percent of respondents indicated that they had “serious concerns” regarding the Islamists coming to power. And concerns include the possibility that Islamist movements may not abide by the principle of peaceful transfers of power.
Moreover, the survey found a clear support of the Syrian revolution as 77 percent of respondents supported the departure of Bashar Assad from power, while only 13 percent were opposed to his leaving office. Furthermore, 66 percent of respondents viewed the complete removal of regime as the best possible solution to the Syrian crisis, which contrasts with the 3 percent who voiced support for quelling the revolution. A further 10 percent of the Arab public proposes a peaceful political process as the ideal way out of Syria’s crisis
Iceland comes on the top of the most peaceful country on earth, while Europe continues to be the most peaceful region. At the same time Afghanistan occupies the rank of the least peaceful country on the index.
Of the regions that have registered a remarkable improvement is sub-Saharan Africa, which the report said, is used to be perceived as associated with political instability, drought, civil strife, but that perception seems to be changing thanks to improved economic growth that helped lift millions out of poverty.
The GPI noted that if the world is to reduce its spending on violence by approximately 50 percent, it could repay the whole debt of developing countries that is around $ 4.7 trillion and an equal amount could provide enough funding for the European stabilization mechanism and handle the cost to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. It added that the impact of containing violence was estimated at $ 9.46 trillion last year, which represents 11 percent of the world GDP in direct and indirect cost.
And that is why it is worthwhile to give peace a chance.

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