Joint Meeting Between Board of Trustees and the International Advisory Council

On June 29th 2005, ICDS convened a joint roundtable discussion in which both ICDS's Board of Trustees (BT) and the International Advisory Council (IAC) participated. The round table was divided into two parts: one devoted to "Democratic Transition in the Arab World" and the other to ICDS's performance since its reopening in June 2003.

On the issue of Democratic Transition in the Arab World, most participants highlighted the fact that the Egyptian regime was undergoing what one panelist called "organ failure," and that Egyptian opposition has become noticeably more vibrant. In this regard, participants recommended that both opposition movements and civil society organizations should coordinate efforts in order to better exploit the regime's weakness in their struggle for democratic reform---a struggle that should continue to eschew violence, which in no way serves reform objectives.

In addition, participants once again emphasized the need to abrogate the long-standing emergency law that has paralyzed political life in Egypt for 24 years. Panelists also discussed the West's role in providing pressure for democratization and reform in the Middle East. In this respect, most of the participants agreed that real democracy can never be imposed from outside, but must instead come from within. But for domestic pressure to be effective the participants called upon the West to refrain from supporting and aiding authoritarian regimes that abuse foreign aid to suppress opposition voices calling for political reform.

In assessing the effectiveness so far of the pro-democratic forces the participants noted the failure of the reformist elite to create a widely popular constituency, reflecting the elite's own fragmentation and the absence of a unified reform agenda rather than a failure of awareness on the part of the Egyptian masses.

After these lively discussions of the political scene, the panel turned its attention to reviewing ICDS's performance and its various activities since the last meeting of the Joint Board twelve months ago. Among the issues considered were some of the challenges facing ICDS such as media attacks on the Center and the problem of fund-raising. Despite their intensity, some considered that media attacks on the Center had a beneficial aspect since they served to trigger a number of important democracy-related debates pertaining to the oft-neglected issues of Islamic reformation and the crucial role of the developed West in pressuring the regime's autocrats to open their political systems to the winds of democratic reform. As for the fund-raising challenge, panelists lamented that the domestic funding that ICDS had once obtained from local organizations and businessmen has dramatically declined, as local donors shied from providing financial support ever since the forceful closure of the Center by the government in 2001. To overcome this problem some participants recommended the convening of a conference on political fundraising to attract the attention of potential domestic donors.