KUWAIT CITY, 16 May 2004 — Gulf Arab states must embrace real political, economic and democratic reforms before they are imposed by external pressure, speakers at a conference here on “The Region and the Future” said yesterday.
Political reform in the Middle East can only be achieved from within, with the cooperation of the countries involved, Kuwaiti Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah said at the opening of the meeting organized by Kuwait’s Parliament.
He urged Western nations seeking to inspire sweeping reform in the region to first take a more aggressive stance in helping to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as well as the Iraq crisis. Sheikh Sabah also said Iran should play a greater regional role.
Officials and academics discussed at the two-day symposium the future of the region in light of US initiatives to bring democracy, better human rights and economic reform to the Middle East.
Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad ibn Jassem, who was the key speaker at the opening session which tackled Gulf-West relations, said countries in the region have to “really believe” in reform, which must be tailored to their own needs.
He called on the GCC states to initiate such reforms before they are imposed from outside, saying that if “we did so, we will gain respect from the West and the rest of the world.”
“This is a very huge wave. It will not go away before each country does what is required in terms of real reforms. We must satisfy our people too,” Sheikh Hamad said.
“Giving up attempts to impose reform and change from the outside is the beginning of implementing the hoped for reforms from the inside,” Sheikh Sabah said.
Any democratic reforms cannot work unless they are accompanied by solutions to regional crises, the two leaders said.
“The continuous wave of violence and turmoil in brotherly Iraq constitutes a source of deep concern for us in Kuwait, all Arab countries and (other) neighboring states,” said Sheikh Sabah.
“Undoubtedly, the transfer of power on time will help restore security and stability to Iraq, (and will allow) all civil society bodies to be established,” he added.
Sheikh Hamad said international bodies such as the United Nations have been marginalized in solving both the Palestinian and Iraqi problems.
He noted that the West was indeed, currently ignoring the Arab-Israeli struggle.
Sheikh Hamad criticized Washington for not elaborating on its peace initiatives and the proposed mechanisms to implement them.
Although the existence of weapons of mass destruction in the region has been a prime concern for the West, the issue of Israel’s weapons of mass destruction has not received equal attention, he noted.
US presence in the region is important to its stability, he said, defending Doha’s ties with Washington. “If the Americans leave, who would then guarantee the stability of this region?” said the Qatari minister.
Saudi analyst Turki Al-Hamad told the gathering the Middle East does not want to accept the fact that the world has changed and has become “not a global village but an apartment building.”
He said the Gulf was “change resistant” and in need of reforming its culture. “It is not a matter of resources, it is a matter of reasoning,” he said.
Kuwait’s Parliament Speaker Jassem Al-Khorafi lamented the fact that despite international efforts to build a stable and secure world order, the Arab region continues to be a center of tension, violence and instability. He said the region still lacks the conditions requisite for a compatible partnership and the ability to compete in the international market.
Political reform will only bring its best results if it is accompanied by economic reform, Al-Khorafi added.
Patrick Clawson, deputy director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, told the conference that the West wants reform in the region, especially in the Gulf, because it is “torn by instability, yet its energy is of vital importance” to the West.
“There is a danger in a gradual process of democratization, namely, the danger that the existing power elites will claim to be making reforms when they are in fact only creating the facade of reform without any real content,” Clawson said.
During the last 15 years, he said, Western countries have spent at least $300 billion on Gulf security and suffered 1,000 deaths in two major wars — the 1991 Gulf War that liberated Kuwait from a brief Iraqi occupation and the war on Iraq last year that toppled Saddam Hussein.
Clawson said the next few months “will see the West make a deeper joint commitment to reform in the region,” as well as outlining more specifics on how its process to assist the region’s reform program works.
Much of the US reform agenda is about economic reform, Clawson said. This includes solutions for rampant youth unemployment and empowering women.
Although women in Kuwait make up about half of the work force and work in the diplomatic corps, a 1963 election law prevents them from voting in Parliament or running for public office.
Instant democracy will not work, Clawson conceded. He said the process has to be built block by block starting with civic freedoms and liberties, and first elections for offices limited importance such as municipal councils and advisory bodies.
He said if “dissatisfied young people saw that they could express their views within the framework of establishment policies, they would be less likely to turn to extremism and violence.”
The symposium is also scheduled to discuss the prospects of future developments in Iran, Iraq and the Middle East peace process as well as their impact on the Gulf region.
