By Brian Whitaker
"Old habits die hard, and some of the new Arab leaders seem unable to break away from the authoritarian mindset. In Egypt, President Morsi has produced a new draft law "regulating" the activities of NGOs and human rights groups in much the same way that the Mubarak regime used to regulate them.
The draft is now awaiting approval from the Islamist-dominated
Shura Council. An earlier
draft attracted fierce criticism, both inside and outside Egypt but the new
version appears to be only slightly less bad.
On Thursday, forty Egyptian NGOs issued a joint statement
attacking the revised draft and accusing the government of laying the
foundations for a new police state "by exceeding the Mubarak regime’s mechanisms
to suppress civil society".......
The right of people to act collectively – and independently of
governments – for the sake of shared interests, purposes and values is one of
the building blocks of a free and open society.
Arab governments have
traditionally sought to restrict such activity, though the Arab Spring protests
raised hopes that this would change.
Restrictions on civil society, though often scandalous in
nature, tend to get less attention from the international media than more
dramatic events. For the benefit of readers who are unfamiliar with this issue,
I have posted an
extract from my book, What's Really Wrong
with the Middle East, which explains the background to the problem and why
freedom of association is vital if Arabs are to achieve accountable
government. "
No comments:
Post a Comment