Leading members of youth wings of Arab liberal political parties and liberal youth activists from the Arab world assembled in Ain Souchna, Egypt, from May, 3 – 7, 2008 for a workshop titled “Communicating Liberalism: Moderation Training for Multipliers”. The activity was cosponsored by the Egyptian NGO Youth Contribution for Social Aid and the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Liberty (FNF) and brought together, for the first time, young political leaders belonging to member parties of the Network of Arab Liberals (NAL). The main objective of the workshop was to improve the Arab young liberals’ programmatic knowledge about liberalism and, at the same time, also their facilitation skills. Young liberals from Morocco, Tunisia, Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan and host country Egypt attended the workshop.
Es un brote joven, débil, que debemos ayudar a crecer con robustez. Es el Network of Arab Liberals, el grano de mostaza en oriente medio.
Por cierto, Mohamed Nagui El Ghatrifi, en su charla de presentación de la Conferencia Liberal Internacional en Taiwan, nos explica perfectamente por qué a los dictadorzuelos de la región del golfo les interesa tanto que el islamismo ocupe la vida política y nos cuenta cómo tras el manto de una supuesta liberalización económica se esconde la consolidación de las dictaduras:
You may wonder how the Middle East dictators tolerated the politicization of Islam. Well they had two powerful reasons to do just that. The first was to let them hang their own selves by exposing themselves to the security and intelligence authorities. The second was that they could be readily and legally detained once they crossed any red line. And this, the dictators were shrewd enough to ensure, by simply forbidding the legal establishment of any Islamic political organization!
So the first tactic to evade real reform used by totalitarian regimes in the Arab Region was a phenomenon they actually manipulated and that was the presence of Islamists.
A second tactic to deflect the actualization of reform was the manipulation of privatization under the banner of economic reform. The Arab dictators parceled out the privatization of state businesses to their families and their cronies, thereby creating their own community of private businesses totally indebted and dependent upon them. In short, under the banner of economic reform, in particular the privatization and liberalization of the economy, we find that political authoritarianism is further entrenched, enforced and sustained
A third tactic used by these regimes was the co-opting of young technocrats, professionals and young businessmen aspiring for a liberal environment to promote their businesses by enrolling them into the regimes established political forum, which they then call a party, and thereby contain any threat or danger they may have constituted to the governing status quo.
Cuántas veces han usurpado la libertad sus enemigos para alcanzar el poder? En cualquier contexto cultural? Dénse una vuelta por los enlaces que les dejo. Tenemos mucho que aprender todavía.
