Category Politics

Ray of Hope

Following my latest post, Khaled has written that although we have plenty of good blogs, we are still far behind our counterparts in countries like Egypt and Kuwait when it comes to using blogs as tools for stimulating political and social change. I agree with him, but I think this is not surprising, and I have written about it on previous occasions.

There are, imho, two main reasons behind this. First, the process of making decision in our country has always been restricted to an exclusive circle. Normal people hardly have any history of political participation, and our first, and only so far, democratic experience took place two years ago when we voted to elect half the members of municipal councils that we yet to see their effect on improving the quality of our everyday life. Second, I think that we as a society, as I perviously wrote here, lack the concept of collective action, even in fields that might be considered much less sensitive and dangerous than politics.

However, this is changing. The past few years have witnessed a notable increase in political awareness, and thanks to the revolution of communication and new media, people now have greater access to information and more outlets for free expression, and they are more willing to voice their opinions and discuss issues that used to be taboos. Just look at our blogosphere today and you would see a new rising generation of young tech- and political-savvy Saudis who consider reforming their country a noble cause that is worth fighting for and should not be let go, and are more than determined to make the change they dream of a reality everyone can touch. They are the hope of this nation, and we cannot afford to lose this hope.

My Bad

I did not see that coming. I mean: I really, really did not see that coming. On the opening day of the fourth Saudi Media Forum organized by SAMC here in Riyadh, the minister of interior has made some bold statements:

Interior Minister Prince Naif yesterday urged the Saudi community not to endorse the culture of segregation between men and women. The remarks were met with applause from members of the audience where the prince was speaking.

“Segregation of men and women is not correct,” Naif told an audience consisting of officials, academics and media persons, who were attending an annual communication forum organized by the Saudi Association for Media and Communication here.

Don’t get too excited, though. Arab News have emphasized on these statements and decided to use them as one of the main stories on their front page today, but unfortunately they failed to mention this: these statements were made as a response to a question on the need for a Saudi women’s media forum. Of course we will read all kinds of (mis)interpretations of these few words by our pundits over the coming few days, but, and before what is going to be a media hoopla, I believe there is only thing I should say here: I’m not holding my breath.

Arab Summit = Long Weekend

The best part about the coming Arab leaders summit in Riyadh is that the government have decided to give students and employees two days off in order to ensure the smoothness of traffic in the city as some major roads are to be blocked.

Now coming to my expectations of the summit, I would say “not much.” I mean it would be great if our leaders could do something about the political deadlock in Lebanon and the civil war in Iraq, but this seems very unlikely to happen, despite the speculations about a Saudi package engineered by Arabia’s Kissinger. The situation is all too similar to the latest GCC leaders summit: big speeches and big ambitions, but nothing that actually touches the lives of citizens or something they would look forward to.

Most probably I would be leaving Riyadh to enjoy the long weekend in Bahrain or to spend some time with family and friends in my hometown.

Who Are the Agitators?

The attack on French tourists on the hands of some unidentified armed men near Madaen Saleh northwest of the country was disturbing and brought back some bad memories that we hoped would fade away forever. Hadeel asked if we were back to square one, while Rasheed has posted the-story-behind-the-story.

Interestingly, Faris Bin Hizam, usually referred to as al-Qaeda expert, said it is not necessary for this crime to be attributed to al-Qaeda, but it definitely meets their agenda and ideology. So why after more than four years of our continuous war on terror we find ourselves in this position? Bin Hizam says, this is because “the agitators are still among us.” Methinks that all the efforts to halt terrorism are pointless if we still allow the agitators to keep on promoting their destructive ideas. Unfortunately, Bin Hizam does not go as far as telling the rest of us the names of these agitators, although he says clearly in the title that “we know them.”

The War of Hearts and Minds

Except for the Bush administration, almost everybody believes that the United States are losing the war in Iraq, if they have not lost it already. But there is another war the Americans are losing, one that some people, inside the administration and outside it, consider more important than the military battle: it is the war to win the hearts and minds of Arabs.

Have you ever heard of Hi Magazine? The answer is probably not. The magazine, launched in 2003, was targeted at Arab youth in order to give them a glimpse into living the American dream. The magazine proved to be a failure, and had to shut down after less than three years of the first issue.

However, Hi was not the only example of American failure to communicate with the Arab public. Al Hurra is still unable to attract even a small fraction of the audiences of Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya, and I wonder if anyone in the region listens to Radio Sawa. After the failure with the old media trio, only one medium is left in Uncle Sam’s bag of tricks: the internet.

According to an official at the U.S. Department of State, they are looking now for methods to use the internet to communicate with Arab youth, and they are tackling questions such as: what kind of websites appeal to this large demographic group that represent over 60% of the population in the region? Are they interested in news, sports, entertainment, blogs, social networks, or photo and video sharing? I would say any of these topics can be of interest to them, but only in one condition: it needs to be done right. And based on previous experiences in this field, the Americans just don’t know how to do that.
I believe that they are genuinely interested in reaching out to people here. They even send some of their top officials and advisers to talk with influential as well as regular people in the region. But when it comes to taking actions they utterly fail.

The failure in choosing the proper method of communication is not the only problem though. Another major problem facing the Americans here is that most people simply don’t trust them anymore. Several years of foolish and biased foreign policy in the Middle East have made people turn down anything coming with a “Made in USA” label. They just can’t expect anything good to come out of the U.S. administration.

So, what the Americans to do in their endeavors to boost more understanding between their nation and the Arab World? First, they should stop wasting resources on hopelessly failing projects. Instead, they should focus more on cultural exchange programs on different levels. Also, instead of launching their own projects online, they might consider using and supporting some of established websites to deliver their messages.

You don’t always need a standalone website to market an idea and spread the word about it online. Many good ideas on the web gained popularity depending exclusively on word of mouth. Governments, organizations and companies can make a big buzz by small gestures on the internet. Here is a few examples:

– Sponsor a competition on a community website.
– Ask a blogger for a slot as a guest blogger on his website (if you have something interesting to say, most bloggers would agree to do this).
– Support a non-profit organization.

Issues of ethics, credibility, and conflicts of interests should be clearly addressed and handled very carefully here. It could be very difficult for all parties included to deal with these issues in such situations, and therefore they should do their best to ensure transparency while maintaining a certain level of quality and respect.

Eating Bitter Lemons

Well, not really, but I just felt like saying it :-) Now let’s get serious: Bitter Lemons International, a Middle East roundtable, have invited me to contribute to their weekly issue, which features four different writers providing their own perspectives on a particular topic. This week’s issue focuses on blogging in the Arab World, featuring Esra’a al-Shafei, Mona Eltahawy, Ammar Abdulhamid, and myself. Read, and please let me know what you think.

Responsibility and Consequences

I have been following with much concern what is going on with my Bahraini friend Mahmood Al-Yousef over the past few days. Mahmood was facing a libel case in connection with a blog post where he criticized a minister in the government. Mahmood said this morning that the case is “coming to an amicable conclusion due to sincere efforts of intermediaries,” which is a good thing, but what happened here should be a lesson for bloggers in the region on how they can practice their right to express their opinions without going to jail.

Like Mahmood, I believe in working within the system, but I’m afraid that things can be quite different on the other side of the causeway. Just last week, ten reform activists and academics were arrested for allegations that no one, except for some hypocrites in our mainstream media, believes. Of course it is always much easier and safer to go underground, but I for one can’t see myself doing that. I believe that being known and out the in the public is more effective when it comes to the cause I’m working in.

This case reminds me with a similar case that happened to a fellow blogger here in Saudi Arabia. The difference is, when our fellow blogger criticized some minister he did not face a lawsuit, but he was taken for a scary ride with some officials who told him to shut down his blog without giving much explanation, or else face the consequences. Since this blogger owned a business that dealt directly with the government and keeping the blog would directly affect his business negatively he stopped all activities related to blogging. It is a shame, because he was one of my favorite bloggers, and his blog was absolutely one of the best in the Saudi blogosphere.

I wonder what bloggers can do to avoid situations like these. Mahmood’s suggestion to arrange a workshop run by professional journalists to teach us how to criticize, but not get legally caught for their efforts is a good start, but I think there is more to do here, although I don’t know exactly what to do. More suggestions?