The following piece was written by Norman L. Epstein, a Toronto-based Emergency physician and human rights activist
While oxygen sustains life, freedom enhances its quality. The Arab awakening breathes fresh hope that such freedom may emerge from the suffocating and brutal dictatorships in the Middle East. Nobody knows for certain what kind of political system will arise when the dust settles. Will it be a Jeffersonian democracy or a transition to a different kind of autocracy?
Notwithstanding, the significant possibility of real democracies blooming in the Middle East, there also must be a renaissance of the economic system. Otherwise, we will be reading democracy’s obituary before its actual birth. The GDP in all 22 Arab countries is exactly equal to that of Canada, which has 10% of the Arab population. This is despite the wealth generated by the world’s largest supply of oil.
Worst of all is how the wealth is skewed in these countries. The few who are obscenely wealthy have sequestered billions of dollars either by outrageous oil profits or absconding funds from government contracts or kickbacks (ala ex-president Hosni Mubarek). It goes without saying that the culture of corruption by a few can no longer be tolerated at the expense of many. The vast majority of the populace are forced to live on meagre means, in many instances no more than $2 a day. Opulent palaces overlook a landscape of closet-like dwellings.
The U.N. Development Project in 2002, authored by Arab intellectuals living in the region speaks of this gross economic underdevelopment with climbing unemployment coupled with illiteracy and the demise of education. Such poverty only exacerbates a restive population subjugated under the cloak of totalitarianism.
Although the State of Israel has often served as a convenient scapegoat for this pent up rage, one has to address the actual sources. True political freedom will not effectively evolve unless there is true economic opportunity. Although, I would not subscribe to the notion of socialism, there still must be a way to redistribute and stimulate wealth. How does this happen?
First of all, the wealthy elite have to be convinced that stability in the region cannot be sustained unless the chasm between the rich and the poor is narrowed .There needs to be an Economic Development Fund either regionally or per country. This can be accomplished by surtax on the wealthy regardless of where their assets are kept—domestically or internationally. The international banking system must be onerous in ensuring assets are traceable and transparent. Heavy penalties must be levied on institutions that are complicit in concealing such funds, whether knowingly or unknowingly as freezing such undeclared assets must be an option.
The funds must go to enhancing literacy and education with emphasis on science and technology. Full scholarships and living expenses should be offered to talented students to study and be mentored in the best scientific institutions in the world provided that they return to their home country. Laboratories and research facilities to cultivate these areas of research must be established and nurtured with qualified talent. In time, the economic development fund will offer scholarships to work in these seminal institutes.
The Economic Development Fund must set up a microcredit system, not unlike what has been successful in some parts of Africa. It should give entrepreneurs a credible plan to initiate business ventures or expand existing ones.
Foreign investment should be encouraged and draconian laws and tariffs removed. Foreign investment that diversifies the economy outside of the petroleum industry must have healthy incentives to set up shop. They reality of economic development and stability will pay off with a peace dividend. Impoverished populations optimistic about their economic well-being are less likely to be enticed into the nihilistic and violent hands of extremists.
The symbiotic relationship of political freedom and economic opportunity cannot be overstated. Eliminating one from the equation will be the death knell for the other. It will determine if change in the Middle East is phantom-like and transitory or real and sustainable in a meaningful way.
