The surprise decision by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to propose a constitutional amendment that would allow direct and competitive presidential elections may be a giant step for democracy in Egypt and the Arab World. Westerners used to pluralistic democracy may find it hard to understand what a potentially huge shift this will be in a country accustomed to military rule for over 50 years.
Under the current system, Egyptian citizens can only show up on the day of a presidential referendum every six years and say yes or no to the single name that appears on the presidential ballot. This explains why someone like Mubarak always received over 90 percent of the vote, albeit amid indifferent turnout. Syrian and Iraqi strongmen have done even better with this system, no doubt because they demanded that the names and addresses of voters be put at the bottom of each ballot.
Many people have long argued that democratization in the Middle East will not get far until Egypt becomes fully engaged in the process. Egypt could not truly set out on a path of democratization without first amending its constitution -- to downsize the Pharaonic powers of its president and set limits on his term in office. Mubarak, after all, is already in his 24th year as president. So the announcement that he wants competitive presidential elections is an important first step.
The regime may assume that it will be able to use the process to its own advantage, but events may not be that easy to control once people begin to feel empowered. The democratic genie is out of the bottle.
In any case, Egypt is not the only country in this troubled region that is now embarking on the road of democracy. Turkey at one end of the Middle East and Morocco at the other are already well on their way. The real groundswell this time seems to have come from the close timing and positive outcomes of recent elections in Iraq, Palestine, and to a lesser degree in Saudi Arabia.
The unprecedented demonstrations against Syria's occupation of Lebanon following the assassination of its former prime minister, Rafiq al-Hariri, show no signs of abating. Egyptian opposition groups, too, have staged increasingly bold marches and other forms of civil disobedience in the last few weeks.
The catalyst for their anger was the arrest and detention of the ailing opposition leader Ayman Nour at the end of January. The government's heavy-handed behavior reinvigorated the homegrown Kifay (Enough) movement, which has demanded an end to the Mubarak regime. Suddenly the popular wisdom that Egyptians are passive and afraid to act did not seem to be holding up. An alliance of local, regional, and international forces is uniting against tyranny-as-usual on the banks of the Nile.
The recent wave of popular pressure appears to have shaken the regime. Only a month ago, Mubarak dismissed demands for constitutional reform as "futile." But, whatever combination of events brought about his change of heart, election initiative should be welcomed. It is a necessary -- but insufficient -- first step for overhauling Egypt's stagnant political system.
Egyptians are already wary of token reforms a la Tunisia, where longstanding President Zine El Abidin Bin Ali created a caricature of a constitutional amendment that appeared to open the door for competitive presidential elections, but then staged a sham contest with a few handpicked ?"opponents." In previous Tunisian presidential referenda, Bin Ali routinely received 99 percent of the vote; he now got 96 percent.
Let us hope that Mubarak is more serious about electoral reform. As a measure of sincerity, he needs to order the immediate release of Ayman Nour and take steps to terminate the 24-year-long state of emergency, which effectively prevents political campaigning from taking place.
Mubarak should also endorse a limit of no more than two successive five-year terms for any president. Equally necessary are confidence-building measures, including open and equal access to the media, which are now state-controlled.
I have announced that I intend to contest this upcoming presidential election as a way of opening debate on these essential reforms. But I would gladly go back to my life as a private citizen once guaranteed a free and open election this fall.
If seriously implemented, these steps will transform Mubarak's legacy. Along with events in Lebanon, Iraq, and Palestine, it may well usher in an Arab spring of freedom, one long overdue.
Saad Eddin Ibrahim, an Egyptian pro-democracy and peace activist, is a professor at the American University in Cairo and heads the Ibn Khaldun Center. He is currently writing his prison memoirs.
Copyright: Project Syndicate
Father’s Day, as celebrated around the world, has its roots in the early 20th century US. In 1910, the state of Washington marked the world’s first official Father’s Day. Later, in 1972, then-US president Richard Nixon signed a proclamation establishing the third Sunday of June as a national holiday honoring fathers. Many countries have since followed suit, adopting the same date. In Taiwan, the celebration takes a different form — both in timing and meaning. Taiwan’s Father’s Day falls on Aug. 8, a date chosen not for historical events, but for the beauty of language. In Mandarin, “eight eight” is pronounced
Having lived through former British prime minister Boris Johnson’s tumultuous and scandal-ridden administration, the last place I had expected to come face-to-face with “Mr Brexit” was in a hotel ballroom in Taipei. Should I have been so surprised? Over the past few years, Taiwan has unfortunately become the destination of choice for washed-up Western politicians to turn up long after their political careers have ended, making grandiose speeches in exchange for extraordinarily large paychecks far exceeding the annual salary of all but the wealthiest of Taiwan’s business tycoons. Taiwan’s pursuit of bygone politicians with little to no influence in their home
In a recent essay, “How Taiwan Lost Trump,” a former adviser to US President Donald Trump, Christian Whiton, accuses Taiwan of diplomatic incompetence — claiming Taipei failed to reach out to Trump, botched trade negotiations and mishandled its defense posture. Whiton’s narrative overlooks a fundamental truth: Taiwan was never in a position to “win” Trump’s favor in the first place. The playing field was asymmetrical from the outset, dominated by a transactional US president on one side and the looming threat of Chinese coercion on the other. From the outset of his second term, which began in January, Trump reaffirmed his
Despite calls to the contrary from their respective powerful neighbors, Taiwan and Somaliland continue to expand their relationship, endowing it with important new prospects. Fitting into this bigger picture is the historic Coast Guard Cooperation Agreement signed last month. The common goal is to move the already strong bilateral relationship toward operational cooperation, with significant and tangible mutual benefits to be observed. Essentially, the new agreement commits the parties to a course of conduct that is expressed in three fundamental activities: cooperation, intelligence sharing and technology transfer. This reflects the desire — shared by both nations — to achieve strategic results within
RSS