Much ink has already been spilt, and rivers of it will follow this month, with the fifth anniversary of the Arab Spring already having begun. Some are calling it the “Arab Winter”, given the civil wars and the devastating displacement of people and loss of life that have ensued in countries such as Libya and Syria.
To the peoples of those states, Barack Obama’s words of May 2011 – that they were living through a time of “historic opportunity” – must seem mournfully bitter now.
One aspect that all would have to agree on, however, is that during its early phase there was a widespread supposition by outside commentators that there would be a flourishing of liberal parties, politics and values once the governments changed in the relevant countries.
Yet liberals and liberal parties fared extremely badly almost everywhere.
As Politico magazine noted: “In Egypt’s first parliamentary vote, seculars, liberals and leftists combined won 16 per cent of seats” – a derisory result, which some sought to explain away with the distinctly thin excuse that they weren’t organised enough.
They, too, seem to have shared the assumption that in a free contest of ideas, majorities would automatically eschew conservative politics in favour of ever-expanding liberties – and so did little to make this come about. “We were very good on destruction and very bad on construction,” said one activist quoted in Politico.
The reality was that throughout the region, the presence of substantial numbers of liberals and the support shown for liberal ideas was, for the most part, barely evident, both in elections and in new political realities.
Today, it is not only in the Middle East that liberalism is in trouble or under siege. The conservative American columnist Ross Douthat observed that in the dying days of 2014 something seems to have shifted. “For the first time in a generation, the theme of this year was the liberal order’s vulnerability, not its resilience.”
In Europe, they are threatened by the rise of new parties on the far left and the far right. In America, liberals may have a voice in the Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, but they are so powerless in Congress that even the incremental gun reforms Mr Obama is currently proposing have had Republicans queuing up to condemn him. If their situation is poor in the US, it is hopeless in Russia and China.
They appear to be in full scale retreat in India and Bangladesh, as they are in the many developing countries where no politician would describe him or herself as a “liberal” if they wanted to stand a chance of being elected.
I write this with no satisfaction. In the context of the UK, I have always been a liberal (for periods with a capital L, at others with lower case one) and continue to believe that some of the country’s greatest achievements and political shifts have been due to Liberals or Liberal-minded leaders.
But then liberalism has very strong roots in Britain. I feel confident in supporting it there as a creed that stems from British values. In much of the rest of the world, its roots are very shallow, have mainly grown from imported seeds, and fared best in the soil of elites who disdained what they regarded as the regressive views of unenlightened majorities.
The evidence for this – frequently provided electorally – has led the western liberal triumphalism of the post-Cold-War era to give way to hand-wringing when the liberal ideas that their most earnest proponents believe to be universal are inexplicably rejected. But as one columnist put it: “Russia is democratic. That’s why it’s conservative. Its people demand it.”
The fact is that traditional cultures that liberals accuse of being oppressive, and religion, have a much stronger hold on a large part of the world than a belief system that many feel actively tries to disrupt and impose alien values on their own ways of life.
The proponents of untrammelled liberty and progress push against gates run by those who prefer stability and cohesion, or who put community far above the individual and in many cases, those gates are not giving.
It is time for western liberals to be more respectful of this. The anniversary of the Arab Spring is an opportunity for them to reflect that they may be right to support calls for reform, but for reforms that are appropriate to the relevant cultures, and which work towards aims that we can all agree on, like good governance, inclusivity, sustainability and improved education. Reforms that aim to let loose what many view as a libertarian free-for-all are clearly what many populations simply do not want – and that’s their right.
Are western liberals still arrogant enough to think this should be imposed on the rest of the world? Somewhat surprisingly, one such columnist – the Financial Times’s Janan Ganesh acknowledged the true state of affairs just yesterday. “Those of us who really are mad about freedom,” he wrote, “are a minority, and not a substantial one.”
Even making that admission places Ganesh in a still smaller minority. Others must join him, if the lessons five years on across the Arab world are to be drawn correctly.
Sholto Byrnes is a senior fellow at the Institute of Strategic and International Studies, Malaysia
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Business Insights
- As per the document, there are six filing options, including choosing to report on a realisation basis and transitional rules for pre-tax period gains or losses.
- SMEs with revenue below Dh3 million per annum can opt for transitional relief until 2026, treating them as having no taxable income.
- Larger entities have specific provisions for asset and liability movements, business restructuring, and handling foreign permanent establishments.
Electoral College Victory
Trump has so far secured 295 Electoral College votes, according to the Associated Press, exceeding the 270 needed to win. Only Nevada and Arizona remain to be called, and both swing states are leaning Republican. Trump swept all five remaining swing states, North Carolina, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, sealing his path to victory and giving him a strong mandate.
Popular Vote Tally
The count is ongoing, but Trump currently leads with nearly 51 per cent of the popular vote to Harris’s 47.6 per cent. Trump has over 72.2 million votes, while Harris trails with approximately 67.4 million.
A Cat, A Man, and Two Women
Junichiro Tamizaki
Translated by Paul McCarthy
Daunt Books
The specs
Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
Power: 620hp from 5,750-7,500rpm
Torque: 760Nm from 3,000-5,750rpm
Transmission: Eight-speed dual-clutch auto
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh1.05 million ($286,000)
Checks continue
A High Court judge issued an interim order on Friday suspending a decision by Agriculture Minister Edwin Poots to direct a stop to Brexit agri-food checks at Northern Ireland ports.
Mr Justice Colton said he was making the temporary direction until a judicial review of the minister's unilateral action this week to order a halt to port checks that are required under the Northern Ireland Protocol.
Civil servants have yet to implement the instruction, pending legal clarity on their obligations, and checks are continuing.
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Business Insights
- Canada and Mexico are significant energy suppliers to the US, providing the majority of oil and natural gas imports
- The introduction of tariffs could hinder the US's clean energy initiatives by raising input costs for materials like nickel
- US domestic suppliers might benefit from higher prices, but overall oil consumption is expected to decrease due to elevated costs
Our legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
COMPANY PROFILE
Initial investment: Undisclosed
Investment stage: Series A
Investors: Core42
Current number of staff: 47
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The bio
Favourite vegetable: Broccoli
Favourite food: Seafood
Favourite thing to cook: Duck l'orange
Favourite book: Give and Take by Adam Grant, one of his professors at University of Pennsylvania
Favourite place to travel: Home in Kuwait.
Favourite place in the UAE: Al Qudra lakes
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Wicked
Director: Jon M Chu
Stars: Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, Jonathan Bailey
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AWARDS
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From Zero
Artist: Linkin Park
Label: Warner Records
Number of tracks: 11
Rating: 4/5
PROFILE OF SWVL
Started: April 2017
Founders: Mostafa Kandil, Ahmed Sabbah and Mahmoud Nouh
Based: Cairo, Egypt
Sector: transport
Size: 450 employees
Investment: approximately $80 million
Investors include: Dubai’s Beco Capital, US’s Endeavor Catalyst, China’s MSA, Egypt’s Sawari Ventures, Sweden’s Vostok New Ventures, Property Finder CEO Michael Lahyani