Obama's advice is part of the solution
By: Mohamed Yehdih Ould Baba Ahmed
It’s neither new nor surprising for the President of the biggest democratic and institutional country in the world, to glorify freedom, promote reforms and call for the creation of opportunities for the youth. What’s striking, however, is that the President of the United States of America acknowledged and praised the achievements of the Arab and Islamic civilization, on the one hand; and warned Arab leaders that the revolutions are shaping the future of their relations, on the other hand. Obama believes that revolutions are an intellectual phenomenon that can only be dealt with intellectually, and that there is no way to repress the peoples aspiring for freedom. The US President advised Arab rulers to address the spreading revolts and uprisings by tapping the talents of their peoples and creating opportunities for the youth. This triggers several questions:
How will Maghreb governments deal with this external advice in light of the growing internal calls to adopt it?
How can the governments of the Maghreb – the birthplace of the revolution whose first spark started in Tunisia, contaminating Egypt and reaching Libya -, respond to the calls for reform, activate the existing legal arsenal to promote entrepreneurship, and meet the popular demands for change, all at the same time?
Is Obama’s advice convenient for all destabilized Arab rulers regardless of the duration of their stay in power?
The present article will attempt to tackle all these questions. But first, it’s worth mentioning that Arab citizens no longer fear or sanctify their leaders, but this unfortunately means that freedom and emancipation might be mistaken for corruption and chaos.
Returning to the topic, Maghreb regimes can adopt Obama’s advice at the collective and country levels.
1. The collective level: Establish a common Maghreb body to promote and tap all talents, by identifying talented people and offering them guidance and financial and professional support empowering them to pursue their talents. Maghreb countries can achieve integration by putting all talents together to make good use of them and assign them to various fields. Unfortunately, this is unlikely to happen due to the existing conflicts between Maghreb countries, and the region’s current circumstances that further complicate the situation.
2. The country level: Apply separate country strategies, by promoting all kinds of individual talents, and offering financial incentives to talented people. The country’s orientations should be compatible with this resolution, and develop talents that are a valuable resource and rare capital capable of ensuring a successful and smooth transition towards a true democracy, if used correctly. Exclusion and marginalization only generate a sense of hopelessness that triggers revolutions. Therefore, President Obama’s advice is part of the solution if there is genuine will to conduct a real democratic change.
Some people consider the issue more profound and complex than that, requiring more than mere reforms and improvements that may take longer than allowed by the extremely rapid pace of world events.
The question that remains unanswered is: Can Obama’s advice calm the uproar of the rebellious Arab youth tired of promises and sedatives? Only the future holds the answer.
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Your Comments
commentsبن نعوم ابراهيم About 12 months ago
After I have read the article in which his owner is praising the US President’s daring when he said that Arabs and Muslims have built a civilization that reached the highest levels of development and progress, and this is not uncommon, waiting the beginning of the twenty first century to hear the recognition of the achievements, while the Ummah (the Muslim community) attested the strength of its contribution in the progress of societies and the benefits in science, architecture and different fields, but do you know brother that the words he has uttered and which impressed you, many of them are of Arab origin? and the living language for them is a civilization achievement of the Arabs, I am saying this to reject praising glories, and there was in the issue something new about the oppression of people under the unique idea, this is not completely rejected in the realities of political systems, in fact the Western classical democracies expanded and spread in the name of individual and community freedom with specific limits that cannot be exceeded, and following the second world war, Europe has started reviewing its systems generated from renaissance in order to protect the post war reconstruction. Tyranny is often a factor of unity and existence and continuity of nations, provided that it does not become excessive tyranny and contempt. Freedom is a genetic human demand and an instinct which haunts him when he is confronted to injustice and tyranny from the leaders, for him freedom that people understand only by saying, not in all cases, is a way of regression of people from levels they could reach because people understand it as being the total denial of things from the basis, in fact the democratic glory we belong to is an integrated building of performances and agreements between the ruler and the ruled people, if we have taken what we need from the tools of governance through Shura (consultation) and consensus beginning from the basis of our civilization in religion and life and take from the developed countries what is appropriate in terms of methods and basis in an interactive and constructive way based on rationality, insight and comprehension of the provisions and methods, if the west is proud of its ideals of freedoms, it is their business, because every girl is proud of her father. The human, intellectual and cultural values that form the base of life for us is completely different from the Western societies, in fact ethics and values do not mean anything for them, so families are disintegrated, and complete dissolution of the human values as humans do not mean anything for them, then values cannot be recovered.
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