ABU DHABI // Addressing regional crises must take into consideration politics, religion and the need for people to have a voice, experts say.
“If you look at research, the Middle East population stand out for their sense of not having a voice and not feeling their governments are accountable,” said Prof Kenneth Hillas at the school of public and international affairs at the University of Maine.
“It is much worse than in other regions such as Asia, Latin America and Europe.”
Experts recommended models seen in Oman and Morocco, where democratic adjustments have been made to adapt to the population’s mindset while keeping up with an increasingly globalised community.
With a more politically active population compared with 50 years ago and a rise in faith over the past 30 years, he said new governments in Yemen, Libya and Syria would need to rule on a basis of legitimacy, whether democratic, traditional or a mix.
The comments come after an Arab Barometre poll showed 80 per cent of Middle East and North African citizens agreed democracy posed problems.
“In today’s globalised world, democracy is the most enduring and efficient way to maintain government authority but it is not the only way,” Prof Hillas told a summit at the Emirates Centre for Strategic Studies.
“The pace of the world today is so fast and countries like the UAE have kept up by making themselves competitive and adjusting to the changes of globalisation.”
Those newly graduated from universities should not be neglected if new governments to keep their authority.
“There is no true democracy in any Arab country,” said Kuwait University’s Prof Shamlan Al Issa “We have been graduating terrorists and we became a hub for ISIL, Al Nusra and Al Qaeda because we haven’t prepared them.
“We are in need of young people and we should forget this sectarianism and move forward.”
Dr Abdullah Bah of the University of Nouakchott in Mauritania, said there were new players and forces behind the turmoil. “It is not just the Arab Spring. We need to be able to resolve the Arab crisis in an efficient way because so far it has been inefficient.”
Others said the UAE had a role to play in the reconstruction. “There seems to be a real desire and shift in political opinion in that, as we move forward, there will be more conflict,” said David Haines of Mercy Corps in the US.
“There seems less likely to be international intervention and more likely to be regional solutions from the Middle East for the Middle East.
“The UAE has a role to play to provide that respected leadership to create a strong united country and that’s encouraging.”
cmalek@thenational.ae
