 |
| The people's will - coming soon to Qatar |
" 'The Arab foreign ministers,' as one prominent figure in the democracy-promotion world said to me, 'have learned from these meetings exactly how to thwart democracy, not how to help it.' The sessions have taught local leaders the dangers of Western-supported and genuinely autonomous NGOs, and regimes across the Arab world have cracked down on them. Many human rights groups have been hounded out of existence; only the most reliably docile ones are permitted inside the forum’s doors."
James Traub writing in Foreign Policy Magazine on last week's Forum for the Future in Doha. The Forum was the initiative of George W Bush and the G-8 nations, and was founded in 2004 with the aim of promoting democracy and civil rights in the Middle East and North Africa, but Traub now says it achieves the exact opposite. He calls for the Forum's abolition and for the United States to align itself "more clearly and convincingly on the side of those who clamour for change".
Traub also mentioned that World Cup 2022 bid winner Qatar, which hosted the Forum, "has no independent NGOs, not to mention free elections or free press. Qatar’s National Human Rights Committee, which played a featured role in the event, is a state body, not an independent organization."
The Qatari government, however, in the wake of the civil unrest and ongoing regime change in Tunisia, was last Friday the only Arab regime to express support “of the will of the Tunisian people,” according to Doha-based Al Jazeera TV, quoted by Reuters. So we can assume that if the Qatari people take to the streets of Doha demanding reform or revolution, the current rulers will happily step aside and accede to their will. In Qatar, equality, justice and democracy are merely a demonstration away!
No comments:
Post a Comment