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DECEMBER 1999, pages 119-120 Diplomatic Doings
The Middle East Policy Council held a policy forum Oct. 12 at the National Press Club in Washington, DC to discuss Tunisia’s first multiparty presidential election on Oct. 24. This was the sixth presidential election since Tunisia gained independence from France in 1956. Nominated by the Democratic Constitutional Rally, which is Tunisia’s ruling party, President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali ran for a third five-year term of office. Parliamentary elections were held on the same day as the presidential election. Georgetown University’s Center for Contemporary Arab Studies research professor of politics Mamoun Fandy gave an overview of the democratization process in the Arab world. Stability and continuity are essential to Middle Eastern countries, Fandy said, with monarchies dealing very smoothly with the transition between one leader and the next, as took place in the recent past in Bahrain, Jordan, and Morocco. Stability is also quite certain in republics that act like monarchies, like Iraq and Syria. Egypt, Algeria, Yemen and Tunisia actually are working toward democracy, Fandy said, though they won’t have Jeffersonian democracy overnight. Their governments are gradually empowering political parties, which bodes well for democracy. Moncef Cheikhrouhou, director general of Dar Assabah newspaper publishing group, which publishes dailies Assabah in Arabic and Le Temps in French, discussed the role of Tunisia’s independent press in the election campaign. He said that Tunisia’s press is helping the country’s transition to democracy. Secretary-General of the Ettajdid Party Mohamed Harmel said he had no hesitation in lending his party’s support to the re-election of President Ben Ali during this period of change because Tunisia needs the stability and reforms he offers. “We can’t build democracy overnight and immediately create a European-style democracy but we must take into consideration our own history,” Harmel said. “This is a democracy in transition and we support the process of change and transition.” Former Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs Robert H. Pelletreau said “there is no serious challenger to this generally popular president while the economy is good, tourism is booming and the Solidarity Fund is taking from the rich and giving to the poor like Robin Hood.” Pelletreau concluded by saying Tunisia hoped that by cautiously expanding pluralism and appealing to the moderate Arab mainstream populace, the country will avoid the destabilizing winds blowing from Algeria. —Delinda C. Hanley
The U.S.- Arab Chamber of Commerce in Washington, DC honored on Oct. 7 Abdullah Dabbagh, the former secretary-general of the Saudi Council of Chambers of Commerce, a roof organization for all regional Saudi chambers, who now is a member of Saudi Arabia’s Majlis al Shura, the nation’s consultative council, which advises King Fahd bin Abdel Aziz. Mr. Dabbagh served for four years as commercial counselor in the Saudi Embassy in Washington, DC, from 1976 to 1980, before returning to Riyadh and joining the Council of Chambers. The luncheon, held in conjunction with the annual U.S.-Arab Chamber of Commerce board meeting, marked Mr. Dabbagh’s retirement as co-chairman of the Washington, DC organization, which he helped found. Among many roles in U.S.-Saudi relations, he was a member of a team of U.S.-educated Saudi government and private sector leaders who arrived in the U.S. in the fall of 1990, at the beginning of the Desert Shield buildup of international military forces in the Kingdom. At the luncheon, Mr. Dabbagh was presented with a crystal eagle from his fellow board members. Expressing his thanks, Mr. Dabbagh singled out each of the speakers and other old friends in the room for brief but touching personal reminiscences of incidents he had shared with them during the formative years of an economic and political alliance of great importance to both nations. —Richard Curtiss
“It’s good to be back among friends,” said King Abdullah II of Jordan, who studied in Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service from 1987 to 1988. He had returned to the Georgetown campus Oct. 13 to dedicate the new facilities of the University’s Center for Contemporary Arab Studies (CCAS). The Jordanian ruler congratulated CCAS, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary as the only academic institution in the United States devoted solely to the study of the modern Arab world. The king credited much of the economic and social development now occurring in Jordan to the training that he and other Jordanians received at Georgetown. Following the ceremony, King Abdullah and Queen Rania mingled with students and faculty. Funds for the CCAS facility were donated several years ago by Nemir Kirdar and colleagues in Investcorp, a Bahrain-based company. —Delinda C. Hanley |
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