More democracy talk in Arab world, but little reform Seen

CAIRO, Oct. 15, 2003 (AP) — In Sudan , a government known for shutting down newspapers and shutting up dissidents releases its most prominent political prisoner. This same week, Saudi Arabia’s absolute monarchy promises elections – for city councils only, but still a major first step – and sees a small but unprecedented protest by citizens who want even more progress.

Elsewhere in the region in recent weeks, Egyptian politicians promised to overturn measures that have stifled freedoms for decades. In the Gulf, all Omanis were allowed to vote for the first time for an advisory council.

As intriguing as this coincidence of democratic events is, it’s too soon to say reform is breaking out all over.

It follows insistent calls for change from the United States, which has pledged to build a model for Arab democracy in Iraq after ousting Saddam Hussein. Iraq today is far from stable or democratic, but the presence of U.S. troops there is seen as both proof Washington is serious about transforming the Middle East and a warning to Arab leaders to fall in line or face Saddam’s fate.

For the most part, though, Arab regimes have made more promises than progress, said Nicole Choueiry, spokeswoman for the London-based human rights group Amnesty International. Saudi authorities, for instance, cracked down hard on Tuesday’s demonstrators, arresting at least 150 and declaring the protests would not be repeated.

Just a day before, the Saudi Cabinet agreed to elections for 14 municipal councils. No date was set for the vote, which would be the first in Saudi Arabia, an absolute monarchy that only has an unelected, advisory body known as the Shura Council, but no parliament.

Saudi Arabia also lacks a constitution. Public gatherings to discuss political or social issues are illegal and writers and editors are often banned or fired over articles deemed offensive to the country’s powerful religious establishment.

In Egypt, President Hosni Mubarak told his party’s congress late last month that he would cancel most emergency measures that have for two decades curtailed freedom of speech and other basic rights, but was vague on what that promise means.

In Oman, the election held Oct. 4 was the first open to all citizens -previously, community leaders and tribal sheiks selected one out of four citizens, usually of prominent status, to vote. The council that was elected, though, can only advise the ruler, Sultan Qaboos.

Talk of reform may be just a public relations ploy aimed at the international community. Meanwhile, Choueiry said, denial of basic rights and human rights abuses like arrests without trial continue in the Middle East – and in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks on the U.S., have even been stepped up in the name of fighting terror.

Abdel Khaleq Abdullah, head of the Emirates-based Khaleej Research Center, said the Middle East has seen more elections in the last three years than in the entire previous decade – but he’s not necessarily encouraged. Many of the votes have been held under the auspices of new young leaders in places like Jordan and Bahrain who may just be “seeking legitimacy” or trying to make friends in Washington, he said.

“Or maybe they are true democrats,” Abdullah said. “We have to wait and see.”

Saad al-Fagih, a London-based Saudi dissident who had called for Tuesday’s protest in his homeland, said the perception that Saudi leaders are under pressure from their longtime allies in Washington may have made it easier for some Saudis to take the risk of demonstrating.

“Maybe people see the government as a little bit weak,” al-Fagih told The Associated Press in a telephone interview Wednesday, saying he planned more demonstrations but had not yet set a date.

Until Tuesday, the Saudi reform movement had confined itself to polite petitions and newspaper commentaries calling for change. But al-Fagih said Saudis are becoming increasingly impatient as their frustration with economic problems and official corruption as well as with lack of freedoms grows.

Crown Prince Abdullah, the de facto Saudi ruler, has acknowledged the need for change, particularly on the economic front. But he has shown no inclination to reform himself or his relatives out of their privileged positions, and even some Saudi reformists accuse al-Fagih of risking chaos by calling for too much, too fast.

Saudi Arabia isn’t the only country in the region where reform is likely to be a long and difficult battle. Amnesty International, welcoming Sudan’s release of opposition leader Hassan Turabi Monday, said the country was still under security laws allowing suspects to be held incommunicado for up to nine months without charge or judicial review.

Turabi was detained in February 2001 and never tried. He had been estranged from his one-time ally Sudanese President Omar el-Bashir since 1999.

Sudan , on the U.S. list of terror-sponsoring states, may be especially sensitive to U.S. arguments that granting citizens political rights could lessen the alienation that leads some to terrorism. Khartoum has taken steps toward political reform in recent months, releasing other political prisoners and ending newspaper censorship.