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on 20-07-2002 18:06
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By Khalil Abdel Alim
“Surely Allah changes not the condition of a people, until they change their own condition.” Holy Quran 13:11
Some Western writers, journalists, and columnists tend to focus on and accentuate the negative aspects of conditions indicated in the recently released report on the contemporary status of the Arab world. But the good news is that: “A team of nearly 30 authorities in various field, including
sociologists, economics, and experts on Arab culture presented papers. A core group drawn from these authorities and representing a wide variety of Middle Eastern and Arab majority African nations have completed the report.” According to a New York Times article - The survey, the Arab Human Development Report 2002 - Published by the United Nations Development Program and the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development were recently published in Cairo. It was described by one usually critical of Arabs, columnist Thomas Friedman as, “brutally honest.”
Report Open and Honest
The transparent analysis was done, as reported by Ms. Khalaf Hunaidi, former deputy prime minister of Jordan and now the director of the sponsoring United Nations Development Programs, ”by Arab intellectuals from a variety of disciplines, who do not fault others for what they see as the ‘deficits’ in contemporary Arab culture.” As her comments were reported in the New York Times she said, “she had asked the authors, ‘to come and look at this problem and decide: Why is Arab culture, why are Arab countries lagging behinds?’” “It’s not outsiders looking at Arab countries, it’s Arabs deciding for themselves.”
Human Resources in Arab World
The humanitarian focus of the report points out that rather than oil or any other natural resource the real wealth and hope of the Arab countries are the people-women, men, and children. The 22 Arab states today have an aggregate population of 280 million people that is projected to grow to 480 to 459 million by the year 2020.
Lack of Freedom and Democracy
Despite the Islamic requirement for democracy and the right of the people to have a voice in their affairs the report notes an astounding deficit in freedom and democracy in the region. The Arab scholars point out that by using the freedom index the Arab world has less freedom than any of the seven regions of the world. In the 1990s, they had the lowest freedom score. Also, indicators that measure “voice and accountability” show that Arab societies manifest, “a number of indicators measuring various aspects of the political process, civil liberties, political rights, and independence of the media.” On these counts the Arab region has the lowest values of all regions of the world.
Intellectual activity is repressed and there is a pervasive lack of intellectual freedom in most of the Arab world. An American based Arab scholar reports that there is a sense that the state and “religious vigilantes” repress life in the Arab world. He added, “Arabs today feel monitored.” He indicated that the decline in intellectual freedom is partially due to the increasing power of a lower middle class that is literate but not well educated. Part of the reason for the Arab brain drain is this oppression that causes many intellectuals to see exile as their only option. He attributes the rulers even those elected who stay in power for life and who create dynasties as part of the problem, “People just don’t know how to overthrow, how to reform, how to change them.”
Need for Women’s Rights
The report echoes a universal complaint of the Arab world and contemporary Muslim society in general-the oppression, suppression, and denial of rights and education to women. In this regard the report states, “Sadly the Arab World is largely depriving itself of the creativity and productivity of half its citizens.”
In political participation, women hold only 3.5 per cent of seats in legislatures in Arab countries compared to 11% in sub-Saharan Africa and 12% in Latin America and Caribbean countries. In some countries, they are denied the right to vote or to hold office. Also, one in every two Arab women can neither read nor write.
Knowledge Gap
The large scale illiteracy and deficiencies in the education system causes a capability gap that causes weak systems of scientific research and development and low access to Internet Computer Technology (ICT). Only 0.6% of the Arab population use the Internet and personal computer penetration is 1.2%. Much of this is attributed to Arab brain drain. Despite their tremendous oil wealth the report indicates that the Arab world is ”richer than it is developed.”
Problems in Education
When Arabs ruled Spain from the 7th to 13th century they translated hundreds of books and transmitted classical knowledge to the West to spark the Renaissance but this report reveals that the whole Arab world only translates 300 books a year now-one fifth of what Greece translates today. Despite some progress in school enrollment over 65 million Arab adults-almost two-thirds of them women are illiterate.
External Forces That Impact
No part of the Third World is totally responsible for its current, social, political, economic, or religious condition. Over four hundred years of Western imperialism and colonialism has contributed much to those conditions. The report highlights the present situation in Palestine and the horrific oppressive plight of the Palestinian people who now suffer over thirty-five years of brutal oppressive occupation by the settler- Zionist state of Israel. The occupation retards political, economic, and social growth and development for millions of Palestinians directly and millions of others indirectly in the region. The oppressive occupation and treatment by the Israelis is sanctioned, supported, and enabled by the United States which Israel controls more than the other way around. It is a classic situation of the tail “waging the dog.” Enlightened Arabs and other observers know that the onus for Arab development is on them but the condition of the thousand pound Zionist guerrilla begs for an international intervention for a solution as has been the case in the Balkans and other regions.
Solutions for a Future for All
The report concludes by stating that the removal of poverty should be at the top of any agenda for change. It states a need for economic development to promote human development and human development to promote economic development.
One commentator quoted the conclusive statement of the report as: “what the region needs to ensure a bright future for coming generations is the political will to invest in Arab capabilities and knowledge, particularly those of Arab women in good governance and in strong cooperation between Arab nations… The Arab world is at a crossroads. The fundamental choice is whether its trajectory will remain marked by inertia…and by ineffective policies that have produced the substantial development challenge facing the region, or whether prospects for an Arab renaissance, anchored in human development, will be actively pursued.”
As the verse of Qur’an cited above implies they must also return to the spiritual and intellectual base of knowledge that once made Arab civilization “the ornament of the
world.
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Last update : 20-07-2002 18:06
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