INTERNATIONAL PRESS
THE CREATOR OF EGYPT, AMERICA, AND ALL LOVERS OF EQUALITY.
A VIEW FROM THE ARAB WORLD
By Rami G. Khouri, Amman, Jordan August 20, 2002

Unusually, but sincerely, I would like to commend the United States government for action it has taken in the Middle East (well, sort of, or conditionally, actually, I applaud but with recommendations, a kind of Arab "Qui, mais ... ", but I sincerely applaud nevertheless). I commend Washington for its decision last week to suspend additional aid to Egypt, reflecting displeasure with Egypt's jailing civil society and democracy activists headed by Dr Saadedin Ibrahim on flimsy or bogus charges.

This is not easy. Egypt remains for me and most Arabs something of a mythological, greater-than-life, mother figure -- a vast, ancient, beautiful, intense, culturally rich, and proud Arab land. Egypt has given us moving lessons in anti-colonial struggle, great music, fine film, and literature, and pioneering civil society and democratic institutions some three-quarters of a century ago. I bow in deep awe and affection before the Egypt that I know and love.

But, Egypt is not above human errors and weaknesses, the most disturbing being its lingering tendency to quash dissent, denigrate the integrity of the parliamentary electoral process (by repeatedly seeing the ruling party control over 80 percent of parliament), ram through restrictive laws to curb domestic political dynamism and pluralism and instead maintain exaggerated state control of society and politics.

Passively observing autocracy like a movie or a spectator sport contradicts our shared Islamic and Christian norms of equality, pluralism, tolerance, and human dignity. It is also politically counter-productive, because next week or next year anyone of us may be the jailed targets of unchecked, unbalanced, unconstrained power. We cannot keep watching this sad pan-Arab film and see it repeated every year in different countries, with new actors. We are morally obligated to act, and to speak out against human political mistakes when action is not possible.
In the absence of self-corrective domestic mechanisms, I will choose foreign pressure over foreign acquiescence any day. I'd rather see foreign powers use their aid to promote democracy rather than to finance autocracy. I say this because I feel strongly that we must collectively shed our primitive herder-gatherer and caveman inclination to rally the tribe and protect the farmstead when other cultures oppose or question our political conduct. Rather, we should promote shared, constructive political values that reflect the common humanity, rights, and dignity of all people, while preserving the social, national, and religious identities that differentiate us into distinct cultures. This could be a historic opportunity for Arabs and Americans together to define mutually acceptable political and human rights that reflect common values, and are not imposed by one culture on the other.
In pursuit of such a goal, appropriate positive and negative pressures can emanate from within countries or from abroad.

Here are the crucial provisos, though. The United States again will be widely accused of double standards in pressuring governments for jailing Arab democracy activists but remaining silent when Islamists or leftistsare harassed. Washington must also explain why it protests some rights abuses by Arab states but not when Israel is the culprit. These are not only legitimate grievances -listen up, Condoleeza, and anyone over there who may have a short attention span, this is the important part coming up -- these grievances also represent the most widespread and intensely felt criticism of the United States' foreign policy in the Arab, Islamic, and Asian worlds. You want more friends and fewer critics around the world? Start by redressing the double-standard in American foreign policy. Equally, consistently oppose all autocracies, occupations, and terror alike, and watch your friends multiply like rabbits.

So, I support the American pressure on Egypt, but not only against Egypt. This will be a good move if it is the start of a more consistent application of shared values that we identify together. It cannot be a process of America selectively dictating what is right or wrong. This will even greater anti-American sentiment if it remains a lone, episodic, act. The United States and other powers should work consistently, not selectively, to promote democracy, civil society, pluralistic freedoms, and the consent of the governed throughout the world, according to globally agreed norms. If they don't understand this in Washington, then they have not understood what Saadedin Ibrahim and his colleagues are all about. And what they are all about is simply this: that "all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights..." -the critical operative phrase being "all men".

@2002 Rami G. Khouri