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International
Arab League Overview
2003-08-07
Nice summary of the state of the Arab League on Atlantic Blog today. Edited for brevity.
They [the Arab League] appear to be shocked, utterly shocked, that the [Iraqi] council is not elected, and they are upset because they think it is a puppet government. So let’s do a quick review of the Arab League.

Membership:
  • Algeria: run by the military
  • Bahrain: just had its first elections in 30 years, but political parties are illegal
  • Comoros: this one actually seems to have elections, although they are dubious and it has also had some recent military coups
  • Djibouti: Fake elections
  • Egypt: fake elections
  • Iraq
  • Jordan: ruled by an unelected monarch
  • Kuwait: a monarchy maybe becoming democratic
  • Lebanon: this one is actually a democracy, but that doesn’t really matter since it is a puppet state of Syria
  • Libya: ooh, tough one here
  • Mauritania: fake elections
  • Morocco: ruled by unelected monarch
  • Oman: unelected absolute monarch
  • Palestine: enough said
  • Qatar: absolute monarch
  • Saudi Arabia: ruled by unelected monarch
  • Somalia: governed by, roughly, no one at all
  • Sudan: even the CIA is dismissive of their elections
  • Syria: ruled by unelected dictator
  • Tunisia: fake elections
  • United Arab Emirates: absolute monarch
  • Yemen: the last time around, the president suffered the ignomy of only getting 96.3% of the vote
So, generously, really generously, out of the other 21 states in the Arab League, you might call Bahrain, Comoros, Kuwait, and Lebanon democracies, if you want to use the word loosely. The rest are absolute monarchies and dictatorships. Lebanon is a puppet state of Syria. This is the outfit that wants to complain that the Iraqi Governing Council is an unelected puppet regime that does not represent the will of the people.
Posted by:Dar

#2  It's not London, or even Paris, but it's still better than 90% of the rest of the Arab world. If the rest of the region only managed to come up to the level of Morocco, it would be such an improvement the world would be shocked. Unfortunately, I only see the rest of the Arab world trying to bring Morocco (and anywhere else) down to their lowest level.
Posted by: Old Patriot   2003-8-7 3:37:38 PM  

#1  Let me stick up for Morocco. There are transparent and open parliamentary elections there, as long as candidates respect the Three Rules (see below). PM is appointed by king based on what king wants/composition of parliament; PM names ministers. Parliament ranges from left to right, secular/religious.

So yeah, it's not Western Europe, but better than anything in rest of Arab world. Unspoken but understood limits are placed on what parliament and PM can say/do, unfortunately, but the Alouite throne is not akin to the Windsor Royal Family criticism tolerance level. It is what it is. For instance, the late Hassan II ('62-'00)on a French TV interview was asked why Morocco had political prisoners. Hassan sent a chill down Moroccan collective spines by saying, "There are no political prisoners in Morocco, only traitors." How does one become a traitor, Hassan was asked. Instant answer: A traitor is anyone who: 1) questions the legitimacy of the Alouite throne; (2 questions the role of the military; 3) questions the "marocanite" (accent over e, pronounced 'tay')of the former Spanish Sahara. Other than that, according to Hassan, any Moroccan can say or do anything. In practical terms, nobody could question, directly or indirectly, the king's competency in any domain, question in the least how the military was conducting itself in the Sahara, or question Morocco's sovereignity in the Sahara.
So the Ministry of Interior/secret services had carte blanche to pick up someone making noise, for example, about the documents showing a line item re the special set-aside Royal budget under the supervision of the Ministry of Budget and Economy detailing the king's receiving the equivalent of $200,000/day from the Moroccan treasury. No kidding, folks. That's direct, with picture of said line item, from a mid-nineties article in "Le Canard Enchaine"

Eventually, Hassan took his foot off the pedal in early '90's to redress his heavyhandedness. Let's hope his son, Mohamed VI, is more tolerant of criticism, because, as far as I know, the Three Ways to Become a Traitor still exist. In sum, Morocco sounds a lot like Turkey, just the power behind the scenes in the Golden Horn is not a king, but the military.
Posted by: Michael   2003-8-7 12:43:42 PM  

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