Changes in the Arab world

DUBAI, U.A.E. — Arab movers and shakers — along with quite a few Westerners too — gathered in Dubai for a two-day conference focusing on the “Arab world and the Media, with emphasis on ’Getting it Right.’”

Surprisingly, the news from the Arab world is not all bad for President Bush. Several of the observers and panelists attending the Dubai conference agree that change is coming to the Arab world.

The American president, who is pushing for greater reform and democracy in the Arab world, may yet be getting his wish, albeit it may be coming at a far slower pace than he would like. One quasi-certainty is that the Middle East is unlikely to unilaterally adopt true democracy before the end of Mr. Bush’s mandate.

“We are seeing a major reform movement from Morocco to Syria take place,” said Saudi Arabia’s Prince Walid bin Talal, one of the richest men in the world. Replying to a series of questions, the Saudi billionaire said Arabs should get more involved in “getting it right.”

“We can change things,” he told the audience of several hundred people gathered in a resort complex resembling something out of “One Thousand and one Nights.” The prince cited as an example the recent French riots, which Fox News had labeled the “Muslim riots.” Prince Walid said he immediately telephoned Rupert Murdoch (the major shareholder of Fox) and told him it was wrong to portray the Paris disturbances as “Muslim.” He went on to explain that there were a number of other social-economic as well as racial facets to the disturbances.

“Within minutes,” said the Saudi prince, Fox corrected its reporting. Indeed, this is a good example of how to get involved. However, it helps if you are a rich Saudi prince who happens to be on a first name basis with the owner of a major U.S. television network.

Still, change is slowly seeping into the fabric of Arab society, largely thanks to the proliferation of satellite television and the Internet. Even in mostly totalitarian regimes where the media is tightly controlled by the government, change is beginning to creep in, if ever so slowly.

Joshua Landis, the first American blogger to comment freely from Damascus on his blog site “SyriaComment.com,” said he was surprised the Syrians allowed him so much leeway. “I kept waiting for the knock on the door in the middle of the night which never came,” said Mr. Landis.

Mr. Landis estimates the number of Syrian bloggers to be around 60 or 70. This may be a relatively small number, but given the state of the Internet in Syria and the government’s tight control on access to the World Wide Web, it is still an accomplishment.

Mr. Landis and several other panelists agreed that “everyone in Syria wants to see a change,” but stressed that Syrians were terrified of change coming in the form of a civil war like the one that devastated Lebanon for almost 18 years. Or, they look at their other neighbor, Iraq, and tremble with fear that the same might happen to them.

Accordingly, said Mr. Landis, Syria’s “disease” is that they believe they can prevent unwelcome change by adding more security, more secret police and more intelligence forces. The result is less openness and greater government control.

Of course no Middle East conference could be complete without some U.S. bashing. In the friendly United Arab Emirates, let’s say it was more gentle knuckle-rapping. Once again we heard what is becoming the mantra in many parts of the Middle East: The Arab world’s animosity for the Bush administration should not be translated as animosity for the American people.

“There is a big difference between the American people and the Bush administration,” said Prince Walid. And the reason for much of this distinction stems from the fact that U.S. foreign policy maintains double standards when it comes to dealing with the Arab-Israeli conflict and other major policy decisions involving Arabs.

“These double standards create hate towards the administration,” said the Saudi prince. “But the hate is not directed at the American people.”

The same argument is often heard from Casablanca to Ramallah. The Saudi prince cited America’s “lack of understanding” of the Arab world as being at the core of anti-American feelings in the Arab world.

Claude Salhani is international editor for United Press International.