Remarks ofHis Excellency
Mr. Ahmed Mohamed Luqman
Director General of the Arab Labor Organization
to the WorldPublicForum"Dialogue of Civilizations"
Ninth Session (Rhodes 6-10 October 2011)
His Excellency, Mr. Vladimir Yakunin, President of the World Public Forum,
Ladies and Gentlemen, members of the Forum Steering Committee,
Ladies and Gentlemen, Participating as experts, intellectuals and media figures,
I would like to thank the secretary of the Forum for the kind invitation I received, along with a group of Arab figures, to attend this ninth session of the Forum, held in Rhodes. This charming island has always been a meeting point for different civilizations, from the North, South, East and West. Rhodes was a witness to war and peace, and at all cases, it has played a pivotal role in cultural and civilization enrichment not only in the region but also in the world as a whole.
This is my first participation in this forum where I witnessed richness of thoughts & profound analysis flowing from a distinguished group in the corners of this forum .
From this fascinating and captivating island, we can feel the shakes that the Arab region witnesses . Millions in several Arab countries were longing to social justice, freedom of expression, the right to elect their rulers and regimes. As millions stormed the streets in peaceful demonstrations, they suffered systematic violence and pressures, and while paying a last farewell to their innocent victims, other victims fall. These masses craved nothing but reforms, fighting corruption, decent work opportunities, and appropriate living conditions. In some cases, where innocent victims continue to fall, a day after another, it is evident that reforms, social justice and citizenship would not be realized unless a real change would be reached.
The spirit of the Arab peoples was clearly evident : peaceful persistence to realize change, despite the fall of thousands of innocent victims, and the continue of protests. This is an unprecedented approach to stress the determination to realize peaceful change. This also marksthe new effective role of youth, and shows how efficient social networks could be in breaking the monopoly of mass media. This approach shows the high organization and communication capabilities of social networks that shocked official regimes and observers.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I would like to express my gratitude to His Excellency Mr. Vladimir Yakunin President of the Forum for his keenness to add the issue of changes in the Arab World in the Agenda of the Forum. Whereas the media likes to dub the issue of change in the Arab world as “the Arab Spring”, it is described as “major developments and changes” by Arab Foreign Ministers in their summit meeting, held in 02 March 2011. As well, I congratulate Mr. Fred Delmer for being nominated as the president of this forum .
The significance of discussing this issue in the Forum is to find the relation between what happened in the Arab World & what is going on, and the objectives, mechanisms and limitations of the World Public Forum. Dialogue of civilizations and the outcomes of contacts of civilizations run effectively in this Forum amongst elite intellectuals, individuals and institutions whose main objective is the advancement of humanity and the promotion of reconciliation and mutual understanding among people . Current events in the Arab World, which is taking place near Rhodes come at the heart of what the Forum discusses. Therefore, we would like to draw your attention to several remarks:
I. Current events in the Arab World are dubbed as the “Arab Spring”, a nice and romantic tag needed by Arab popular revolution. However, we are worried that this would be a reference to a leaving season, which would be followed by an autumn, when leaves fall, and winter when everything is frozen.
II.Participants in the World Popular Forum do not judge Arab political regimes, leaving this task to Arab peoples. As the Forum shall not suggest what peoples and regimes should do in concert, it cannot ignore the agonies of millions and their calls for freedoms and social justice. In addition, economic and political interests shall not influence decisions of WPF participants.
III. The resurrection of the Arab World unites its dilemmas and aspirations. Arab peoples do not recognize political borders, as they reacted spontaneously to movements of other Arab peoples, without any consideration to distance, incomes, national wealth or political regimes. This dictates a new approach to the Arab World, where elements of accord outdo elements of discord, as it is a world of peoples, not only a world of regimes.
IV.Peoples of the Arab Spring presented a landmark new practice in the history of humanity as millions sought the attainment of radical change through peaceful means. Although they faced the excessive use of force and the fall of innocent victims, they maintained their peaceful protests even when arms are available to all parties. Violence and bloodshed did not serve but to escalate the minimum level of demands, from social justice and the right of work, to eliminate corruption, realize real reforms and change ruling regimes.
While this peaceful approach to realize change is new to humanity, it proved its validity, although some regimes use the extreme force against protesters. This unique encounter deserves a new more considerate and sympathetic assessment to the Arab peoples.
V. The Arab Spring is a representation of the new effective power: the Arab youth, who were responsible for triggering the events, ignoring tamed or ideologically distorted skeleton oppositions. Although official opposition parties did not anticipate such change but they attain the power point, they soon caught the train of change. The category of youth needs special understanding, as they lived all their lives under the same regimes, whose leaders reject any attempt to hand over power, and they mobilized all their potentials to make their sons successors in power, in republican regimes. The Arab youth showed a high level of responsibility and understanding, and surprised the regimes with its domination and mastery over virtual social communication networks. The Arab youth understood one of the facts of our modern time: No power or screen can block knowledge or information ordependent on any segregation wall whatever powerful it may be .
That is affirmed by acquiring Tawkul Kerman, one of the Yemini youth leaders, Noble award yesterday, which is considered a real pride, not only for the Arab and Yemini youth but for the world youths . the youth who looks for change & seek it through peaceful means . It is a victory for the values & principles borne by the youth,
VI.This remark is of major importance, current changes pave the way for an unlimited social dialogue on the restructuring of societies, the re-discovery of national identity and delineating attitudes towards the other. In this context, some fear could grow from political Islam and religious extremism. However, we have to remember that justifications for oppression, repression and enforcement of emergency laws for decades were based on fighting religious extremism; yet, the fact is that such repressive procedures created extremism. It is clear that there is no place for extremism as the new era of freedoms dropped most of their justifications. Peoples allowed political Islam to work in public without violating freedom of others or opposing other cultures. Moderate tendencies shall be favored within a context of freedom of expression and assembly. This tendency seeks maintaining national interests and identity without undue extremism.
VII. We keep in our minds that the main reason for the eruption of protests is the lack of social justice, lack of available job opportunities, and deterioration of employment conditions. Preludes of major Arab protests took the shape of widespread labor strikes, brutally repressed, and several strikes and protests of labor categories that stormed a number of Arab countries; Responses to these demands were either unsatisfactory or late. During three months of the Arab Spring, the response of some governments to social demands exceeded their responses in several years. However, an important part of these responses were late, and came because of security rather than social reasons. The reasons behind the outbreak of the Arab Spring would be the reason of the upsurge of an Arab Autumn, unless priority is given to social development and improvement of job opportunities and conditions.
VIII.There are fears which usually accompanied revolutions in the human history, as those who launched the Arab Spring have great expectations that bypass potentials of production both socially and economically. The Arab region needs to generate new five million job opportunities every year, as the Arab labor force increases at a rate of 3.2% annually, though population growth rate is 1.9% annually. Women started to invade the labor market at a growth rate of 5% annually. The income of about one third of the Arab labor force is below the international poverty line, whereas social insurances do not cover but one fifth of the Arab labor force. In addition, social insurance provides limited protection features, as unemployment, for example, is covered only in two states. There are honest endeavors to develop this in all Arab states, but the question remains: Can the available production potentials meet this? This could be partly realized, thanks to the revenues of oil, which represent 40% of the Arab GDP. However, this is limited by global oil markets, and above all shall be available only to oil-rich countries. The same applies to direct foreign investments, which boomed in recent years, yet they were limited to few statesand certain sectors that do not generate heavy job opportunities, like investment in oil and luxury housing projects. Revenues from remittances of migrants exceed 27 billion USD annually, yet transfers from the Arab World are more than double this amount. This fragile economic infrastructure became more fragile during the Arab Spring, as expected, in addition to the major and direct damages and deficits due to the events. Facing the justifiable and escalating social demands, Arab economies struggle to survive, and hopes are to cut down the transitional period to the least possible time, enact governance in economy and management, positive international assistance, inciting latent production potentials to boom in a corruption-free environment that encourages investment.
Ladies And gentlemen,
The continuity of the Arab Spring to yield more justice and a better life is a common responsibility of all Arab peoples and freely elected rulers. Nevertheless, there is the responsibility of the international community and democracy-living states. The Arab Winter, if any, would negatively affect neighboring and distant regions, but then the real loss would be the defeat of supreme human values in justice, democracy, freedom of expression, and opening up new horizons for dialogue and cooperation between different cultures and civilizations. The Arab Spring, and yet the whole world, are in a crossroads, a defining point, and still we can have the choice .
One of the tasks and duties of our Forum is to encourage interaction of civilizations and cultures, their openness, dialogue and cooperation, as well as maintaining basic human rights. I am convinced that all participants in this Forum are keen on realizing this.
Wishing you all best of luck and success, please have a very good day.
Ahmed Mohamed Luqman
Director General,
The Arab Labor Organization
1