Arab Knowledge Report 2009: Towards Productive

The political reformproject remains asine qua non forsocieties that areseeking to buildenvironmentssupportive of theknowledge societyIn the Arab region,the legitimacyof democraticreform receivedits highest officialrecognition at the2004 Tunis Summityet joined this society. However preparedor unprepared the Arab region may be toindigenise the knowledge society, its likelyrepercussions are a pressing concern. Weare affected by everything that happens inthe world since we are an active party—eventhough, as Arabs, we may be merely secondor third level actors—to events that havealready unfolded, as we shall be to othersthat have yet to unfold. This in and of itselfgives us numerous opportunities to upgradeour knowledge systems and to begin dealingwith the issues of the new society.Given the number of problematicissues that have come to the fore as themain features of the knowledge societybegin to form, we have decided to focuson a limited sample of the former that areconnected to the knowledge society and itsrelationship to identity, the Arabic language,new ethical values, and the performanceof Arab women in the knowledge society.In addition, we will deal with politicalparticipation, while not ignoring thetopic, central to our age, of technologyitself. Clearly, in these problems there isan interaction between the local and theuniversal, the private and the public. Thejustification for this selection of issues istheir link, as a whole, to the Arab realityand our wish to develop an objectivediscussion leading to the theoreticalpreparation that must accompany theenabling environment that will permitthe Arabs, to bridge, in word and deed,the knowledge gap and to enter intoepistemological intercommunication withthe rest of the world (Kamal ‘Abd al-Latif,2003, in Arabic).THE KNOWLEDGE SOCIETYAND EXPANDING POLITICALPARTICIPATIONWith regard to this particular problematic,we seek to compare the current politicalchanges in the Arab world, directing ourgaze at political participation, hoping in sodoing to highlight the importance of thepolitical factor in bringing about enablingconditions of the knowledge society. Wepoint out that the political reform projectremains a sine qua non for societies thatare seeking, to different degrees, to buildenvironments supportive of the knowledgesociety. At the same time it is clear thatmany of the values and achievements ofthe knowledge society are inseparable fromfreedom and the construction of socialand institutional contracts in support of astate in which individual rights and the ruleof law are preserved. Attempts to achievethese goals and aspirations proceed atdifferent rates in most of the Arab world,and have done so for decades.We cannot favour the politicaldemocracy project above all others, foron the political scene globally we find thatthis project in its various forms has raisedmany problematic issues that require us totake a new look at the democratic politicalsystem. Furthermore, in many parts of theworld, including the Mashreq (eastern)Arab countries, certain appropriationsof language used within the internationalconflict and that concern the need toestablish “societies dedicated to freedom,democracy and human rights” do notconform to the principles of politicalmodernisation and the spirit of thedemocratic message (Kamal ‘Abd al-Latif,2008, in Arabic). Rather than respectingdifference and diversity, they satisfythemselves with making political reforminto a pre-packaged technical prescription.Recent and more distant historicalexperience has not seen it as such: the shifttowards democracy in numerous cases wasthe outcome of lengthy experience and theproduct of much laborious spade work toprepare the road for democracy.In the Arab region, the legitimacy ofdemocratic reform received its highestofficial recognition at the 2004 TunisSummit, when, in their closing statement,Arab leaders announced a consensus onthe need to expand democracy to enhanceparticipation in decision-making andrespect for human rights. In addition, anobserver of Arab political life may see thepolitical disputes of political parties andcivil society institutions as embedding42 ARAB KNOWLEDGE REPORT 2009