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The Misery of Arab World
The
UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) document titled the
"Arab Human Development Report 2002," shows that the
Arab's level of development lags behind despite all the oil wealth,
the aggregate revenues output of all Arabs (530 billion dollars in
the year 1999) and their
societies are generally poor in abilities and possibilities.
The Arab scholars of the survey carefully dissects and analyses how
and why their world has gone wrong. The report pin-points the
barrier to a better Arab performance is not a lack of resources, but
the lamentable shortage of three essentials: Freedom, Knowledge and
Womanpower.
Interesting explanations are given for the massive failure of Arab
states to live up to the stipulations of the Declaration of Human
Rights and good governance. The need for the structural reforms
which Arab rulers have neglected out of their own self-interest.
The report calls for a re-thinking of social values and models in
Arab societies, to achieve those which encourage development rather
than undermining it. It notes that, as long as dominant groups which
strive only for power, influence and material wealth serve as the
most praiseworthy models, Arab citizens will not be much encouraged
to pursue the individual and social ideals of freedom, a solid work
ethic, knowledge and cooperation.
The
rule of law should be the foundation of all institutions; legal
codes and administrative procedures should protect civil rights for
all, especially freedom of opinion and assembly. Above all, it is
necessary to activate the voice of the Arab people through such
measures as empowering local government authorities, the organs of
civil society and by means of free media.
A
call for Freedom
Only
a deepening of genuine democracy, and the attendant changes in the
prevailing structures of government, can promote the desired
alterations. The Arab elites, the report concludes, must formulate
and demonstrate desirable modes of human behavior in a system of
good governance.
The report was prepared by a team of about 30 academics, including
highly reputed scholars such as the former Jordanian planning
minister, Ms. Rima Khalaf, the Arab League's former UN ambassador,
Clovis Maqsoud, Lebanon's ex-finance minister, Georges Corm, and the
Franco-Maghrebi sociologist Burhan Ghalioun.
The report is the first U.N. human development survey devoted to a
single region; the Arab world made up of 22 countries of the Arab
League, accounting at present for 280 million people ranging from
68m in Egypt to 565,000 in Qatar.
The group of 22 countries ranks near the very bottom in the world
(in some instances even behind sub-Saharan Africa) when it comes to
civil and economic freedoms, women's participation in public life
and the acquisition of new knowledge and skills.
The autocratic Arab rulers, whether the
President of UAE or the other, do not even tolerate criticism of
their governments. People are treated as lesser legal and
economic beings. Control over the lives of their citizens is total
and arbitrary. They
tend to be monarchies or outright dictators.
The Arab Human Development Report can serve as an indictment before
any tribunal against hundreds of Arab rulers and related royals.
The
Arab Human Development Report is available at the following Internet
link: http://www.undp.org/rbas/ahdr
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