The Road to Impersonality: Nurturing Civic Virtue in Qatar
Around 3pm Bangalore time, Wednesday 23rd of March, I return to my hut room. Going against the holistic doctor’s advice, I extend my hand to reach the iPhone situated in the safe, and looking for Aljazeera News text messages for the latest developments of the democratic spirit that has sprout in the Arab world in less than four months! Several corrupt regimes are cracked soft, biscuits-like, crushed one after the other.
“Is it too good to be true?”
Arabian blood is the price shed for those who became used to the privilege of corrosive power. They need to be awakened to new realities. A newly born sympathy of Western powers supporting the Arab street uprisings against their long supported dictators. But, is it really new born?
The Broker Prize winner, Indian writer and activist Arundhati Roy, in reference to toppling Saddam Husain’s regime by western coalitions in 2003 called it: “The Instant-Mix of Imperial Democracy: Buy one ,Get One Free"[2].
Zbigniew Brzezinski, the former US National Security advisor, asserted in a speech to the Carnegie Council in 2005 “Unfortunately, the Iraq issue has created a real crisis of credibility[3]”. He advised the US government to take notice of the inevitable, “Global political awakening” manifested by the growth of youthful populations and a surge in global connectivity. He emphasized the need to change their style of global management.
The balkanization model of democracy in Iraq should not be repeated elsewhere in the GCC bloc or the Arab World. Otherwise we not only face the same old embarrassing style of global management that ignores the youthful non dogmatic component of the global awakening, but the awakening of the historical theological conflicts within different fractions of religious and ethnic groups in the Arabian society. Sectarian and fraction-based democracy is not encouraged within western countries; ironically, it is promoted by the western governments elsewhere in the world.
Joseph Massad, an associate professor of modern Arab politics and intellectual history at Columbia University in New York warned in a recent article of the consequences to the policy a western government adapts in the Arab World under the name of protecting religious minorities rights which would create the perfect ferment for violence and instability in the region: “Fanning the flames of panic and sectarianism will only lead to more such violence without improving the security situation nor would it bring about the sought after civic peace”[4].
On the other hand, we are happy to see that the dominant majority of Arab streets uprisings avoided the flag of the clergy, and actually, were demanding the basic civil rights that are secured under the rule of law in other parts of the world.
Most interesting is reading the Indian and Asian reflections on the democratic outcries of the Arab world. Some are pure utilitarian. Pranay Sharma of Outlook India magazine interviewed a Dubai-based Indian businessman in the perfume industry, who said that: “Democracy in the Gulf countries may not necessarily be a good thing for Indians, since it is naturally going to be propelled by a strong dose of nationalism. This might blow away the interests of 5.5 million Indians in the GCC who remit $32 billion annually”[5].
On the other hand other observers see that Asia has good lessons to teach the Arab world. Getting rid of dictators is not the end of the story, there are many Asian countries where democracy exists in name only, toppling down some dictators years back ended with the evolution of new ones, a continuous circle of “elections” engineered to keep the status quo intact. Hanna Beech of the Time magazine wrote: “elections are held, but vote buying taints the results. Politics is dominated by the same old families[6]”.
But, she suggests that there are some good Asian lessons too, such as South Korea and Indonesia, where toppling down long seated dictators ended in the right path to nation building, brick by brick.
I personally think, the Indian continent among the Asian countries has the longest history of “elections in action”, which creates a living tool of analysis for what is coming, good and bad. Voter turnout is high in India but it is a tricky indicator. Political effective engagement requires wealth and strategy, both are in the hands of elite groups. Democracy and corruption have lived side by side in India for a long period of time, but freedom of expression is a sacred practice and there is a growing body of legislation fighting corruption, encouraging civil participation and defending public interest.
Prerequisites to democracy are freedom of expression, freedom of association and the rule of law. These are the corner stones of successful democracy building.
For example, the laws that regulate freedom of expression in the GCC require a court order or “habeas corpus” to take any action against a writer, but still this legal umbrella is not really enforced in many cases. Moreover writers can be taken to courts by public companies or organizations which take advantage of prohibitive publication laws. The legal process which takes years of financial and non-financial agony would render freedom of expression through writing a risky endeavor. Criminalizing writing about public concern under the defamation principle within the current publication laws is a fine sword in the heart of public opinion nurture and build. Writers have to be either very careful about what they write by practicing self censorship or choose not to write at all.
In Qatar, Law No. 8 of Press & Publication 1979 allows for criminalizing and penalizing writers. According to this law writers can be subject to “penalties and jail sentences for libel and slander, including injury to dignity, as well as foreclosure and confiscation of assets of the publication[7]”. Writers who chose to express their views on public issues and who were ready to accept the lengthy and agonizing road of defending themselves against plaintiffs of alleged defamation were unfortunately stigmatized socially as fame seekers or trouble makers, both of which question the writer’s credibility and intention, thus incurring a social cost for the individual writer who would not be ready for such a public image Assassination. Within small societies, personal dynamics is the norm; and rumors add another deterrent to the writing profession.
Ali bin Sumigh al-Marri, the chairman of the National Human Rights Commission in Qatar, assured that there will be a release of a new Press & Publication law which will replace the thirty year old one of 1979. The Doha Center for Media Freedom needs to look at the legal aspect of freedom of expression, the theory and the practice in Qatar. With the nomination of its new management, fingers are kept crossed to see an initiative to the 1979 law replacement.
Another crucial step to writer’s protection is establishing a civil organization that protects writers’ rights and freedom of expression which the Qatar’s constitution safeguards.
I was asked lately by a Qatari post-graduate student on the reasons for not seeing any growth in civil society organizations in Qatar in the last few decades. The student asked: is it possible that tribes have substituted the role of the civil society organizations? My response was that the word “tribe” has become a convenient tool of analysis for those who do not bother to seek a more realistic one. The word tribe became the “jack of all trades”. Moreover sometimes tribes are attacked and condemned rather than tribal-centric or ethnocentric behavior. Or as a matter of fact the behavior of “rentierism” i.e. the collusion of individuals coming from different families tribal or non-tribal to form bands or groups of interest, accumulating rents that are not possible in a more open and competitive market.
Actually social dynamics in Qatar are governed by a new set of variables among which tribal solidarity is only a fading anchor. If the post- graduate student goes on to explore these dynamics then we might have an answer to this question.
A foreign investor, Mr. Smart had told me once that he was so confused by “who is who in Qatar?”, where sometimes “fancy tribal names” i.e. well known ones , that you expect to facilitate your business dealings are not “fancy” at all, and that some “less fancy names “ might hold the key to your business facilitation. He also noted that in his business deals he is reserved as he does not know whom this person is related to either through kin or business: “I would not know if I am stepping on someone’s toes”.
I answered him: “Qatar is a small country, and we are all related”.
Actually what I meant was not the personal ethno–tribal side of this interconnectedness but most importantly those personal ties that are interest-related and are stronger than any tribe.
I visited an old acquaintance a couple of month ago, to extend my condolences for the death of her mother. Contrary to the spirit of the occasion, she started questioning me hysterically on several public concerns as if I was representing government entities responsible for such affairs, on the basis that I might have a kin who holds a public post. The woman who herself could be related in kin or in-laws to people holding important public posts could not draw a line between what is personal and what is public. If I can accept Mr.’s Smart confusion on which is the strongest social pressure group; tribal affiliates or economic interest affiliates, how on earth can I accept this confusion from a Qatari woman?
I am sure that civic virtue cannot be built on personal relationships and contacts of any sort. This is a challenge within small societies looking for democratic transformation. But establishing the right set of rules to foster civic engagement and wider accessibility is not impossible, if we have the will to do it.
Personal networks in the past were established on a clear-cut honored set of rules and value system. The tribal egalitarian society we used to be has totally changed. Intergenerational transmission of wealth, status, social relationships and the traditional merit-based tribal and family leadership were all laid aside for an individualistic, opportunistic and outright private interest mechanism that drive social behavior trends.
One of the most inspiring works on the evolution of social behavior in human history is “Violence and Social Orders: A Conceptual Framework for Interpreting Recorded Human History“, by Douglass C. North and others. North and his co-authors present the historical evidence on the mechanism by which societies are transformed from limited access societies based on personal relationships to open access societies. They explain also why many societies that had been transformed from agrarian or pastoral societies into the so called “modern” metropolitan state societies where elections are held regularly, where they actually did not succeed in real democratic transformation. They assert that “The institutions of elections [do] not inherently produce democracy. Election requires institutions and organizations along with beliefs and norms before they produce an open access order with competition for political power[8]”.
Some might confuse this argument with another, that “our societies in the GCC did not reach “democratic maturity”, which is a very disturbing notion, since adopting this argument will only freeze social openness and evolution.
North’s argument is a qualitative one as he described all the necessary conditions that should come with the democratic process, what he denoted as social accessibility, among which are the: rule of law, wide accessibility to civic and business organizations and the transformation of social interaction from personal networks and relationships to impersonal sets of social attributes that are standardized and applied to everyone who meets certain objective criteria[9]”.
Abdul-Aziz Mohammed Al Khater a well known Qatari writer puplished an article on the 28th of April appeared in al Watan newspaper on the decline of
the middle class in the GCC where one class has a wider accessibility to economic surplus than the other. He stated, although the middle class did not vanish yet as it did in other Arab societies, but we do see continuous erosion. I agree with him on the erosion phenomenon, and I think that his analysis of the “intertwined relationship” between the two groups of social categorization, “Rulers” and “The Ruled” is correct . The relationship between different segments of the society is historical and very important for the continuity of existing political systems in the GCC. Although he warns that if erosion is to continue then we might face a socio-economic polarization that would break down the stability of these societies. I would like to add that the classification of the Qatari society into classes might be disguised sometimes to the analyst because of the unity of the society’s ethnic roots. Actually polarization is taking place within same families and same tribes but covered up at least for now by this historical factor, which I would like to call the “logo” factor. The logo factor confuses the external observer of who is who as mentioned above. Regardless of logo sharing i.e. sharing familial and tribal name, at one end we can see the salaried and waged income group, and on the other end we see the opportunist group, with huge accessibility to estate acquisition, corporation and growth.
Also an Important post on the accessibility to civic organizing is written by Dr. Hassan Al-Sayed on his blog[10]:
Dr.Hassan, a Qatari Judge at the Qatar Financial Tribunal of the Regulatory division of the Qatar Financial Center, and the former dean of Qatar University’s Faculty of Law, is one of the most well presented and honest professional opinions among Qatari writers on the web. He wrote on 22nd of
February a post of the title “Tahafet Al Qawaneen”, indicating the need to re-examine the stringent conditions and statutes that might limit access to civic organizing compared to the growth of charity-based organizations.
I think that one step to reduce the personalized and stigmatized response to independent opinions regarding public and social policy in our small society is to protect Qatari writers from vulnerability and risk due to weak legislations, or due to the misconduct of individual and personal interpretations of the law. Accessibility to protection is built first by replacing Law No. 8 of 1979 to one that reflects Qatar’s regional role in supporting the Arab democracy revival.
Secondly, civic association in general and the association around the writing profession are vital. It is part of a process to establish the necessary conditions for a successful democracy. Democracy cannot be built where social interaction and individual growth is based on personal networks, where the individual persona is confused with the social persona, and where the identity of any official post is lost sometimes because the identity of the individual who holds the post is the dominant one. Civic association will replace fading ethnic and tribal association, and it will combat the growing opportunistic association that is detrimental to long term social solidarity
[1] Civic virtue is the cultivation of habits of personal living that are claimed to be important for the success of the community. The identification of the character traits that constitute civic virtue have been a major concern of political philosophy. The term civility refers to behavior between persons and groups that conforms to a social mode (that is, in accordance with the civil society), as itself being a foundational principle of society and law. Wikipedia .
[2] A speech delivered by Roy in 2003 at the Riverside Church in New York city. http://www.terraincognita.50megs.com/roy.html
[3] The Choice: Global Domination or Global Leadership .a speech delivered to the Carnegie council 2004. http://www.carnegiecouncil.org/about/welcome.html
[4] Bloodbath in Alexandria :Sectarianism and Its Discontents. http://www.counterpunch.org/massad01112011.html
[7] http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/qatar-perspective.html?start=20
[8] North-Wallis-Weingast. Violence and Social Order: A conceptual Framework for Interpreting Recorded Human History. Cambridge University Press. 2009.pp15
[9] Previous reference .
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