Arab Human Development Report politicized - Gulf News
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By As'ad Abdul Rahman, Special to Gulf News
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In Washington, Richard Boucher, the State Department spokesman, said that "our overall appraisal of the report is it fits in the pattern of the previous two reports that focused on the need for reforms within the region. "It is not even so much that we disagree with the problems. We tend to disagree with these sorts of gratuitous statements about where they come from."
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But in a departure from the two earlier reports on Arab society in which the group focused almost exclusively on problems within the Arab world, this study says the United States and Israel have also played an important part in suppressing Arab freedoms.

The Bush Administration had objected to language in early drafts that said Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories and the American occupation of Iraq only served to impede Arab human development.
The report also said that one result of the American invasion of Iraq was that "the Iraqi people have emerged from the grip of a despotic regime that violated their basic rights and freedoms only to fall under a foreign occupation that increased human suffering".

The Bush Administration reportedly threatened to reduce financing for the development programme if such language was not removed from the text. To avoid such an outcome, the development agency released the report under its own name, but with a disclaimer in the preface.

"The Arab development crisis has widened, deepened and grown more complex to a degree that demands the full engagement of all Arab citizens in comprehensive reform. Partial reforms, no matter how varied, are no longer effective or even possible."

In part, the study blames the demise of democracy and freedom in the region on the structure of Arab states, which have become highly centralised, mostly offering their citizens only a small margin of freedom. Even in the region's limited democracies, the report says "societies and economies are organised in a way that prevents growth of an effective opposition".

The report argues that the global war on terror "has made the abuses worse and has given governments an excuse (which was, in any case, hardly lacking in the past) to arrest, torture and ignore rules on fair trials." The report further noted that "in few Arab countries are presidents elected with more than one candidate and with term limits".

The report dismisses the notion that "Arabs do not want democracy or are not properly suited for it". It bluntly blames their leaders for withholding it. "The leaders permit corruption and then use the threat of arrest, and intelligence services to ensure loyalty. Corruption spreads through all parts of political and economic life and chokes off the chance of growth. If the repressive situation in Arab countries today continues, intensified societal conflict is likely to follow. Nor would a transfer of power through violence guarantee that successor regimes would be any more desirable."
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Read the whole article.

My take. It was a mistake for the Bush administration to block the report. The fact of the matter is that US policy past and present is part of the problem. It was a masterstroke for the Bush administration to draw so much attention to the report. Bush's attacks can only enhance the credibility of the report.

The report lays blame where it needs to be, and sets the groundwork for Arabs to take charge of the democracy project. You cannot take in the report and come away with the conclusion that the fate of the Arab world is not in its hands. The US simply is not that powerful even if you believe that it plays a large and damaging role.

AHDR 2004 can be downloaded here.