DEAD SEA -- Post-Arab Spring Islamist rulers cannot be expected to improve the situation in their countries overnight, observers said on Saturday.
During a session on "Political Islam and Governance" at the World Economic Forum on the Middle East and North Africa at the Dead Sea, panelists said the Islamists in countries such as Tunisia and Egypt inherited weak economies and a rule that constantly violated human rights, noting that it will take time to undo the damage.
Ammar Hakim, head of the Islamic supreme council of Iraq, said it was unfair to expect so much from the emerging Islamic rulers after they inherited decades-long corrupt systems.
Citing the Turkish experience, Cuneyd Zapsu, chairman of Turkish Cyneyd Xapsu Danismanlik, said the success and popularity of the ruling Justice and Development Party did not come overnight.
"The party was founded in 2001 by members of a number of existing parties. The party won a landslide victory in the 2002 election, winning over two-thirds of the parliamentary seats," Zapsu said at the session, which was aired by the British Broadcasting Corporation.
All economic achievements the party made, and the confidence people have in it now, took Turkish Islamists more than 11 years, he noted.
For his part, Imad Abdul Ghafour, founder of the Egyptian Watan Party, stressed that people are impatient, expecting too much of a new ruler who has been in power for less than two years, adding that the Egyptian economy is suffering from huge challenges that need years to be overcome.
"The ousted regime was very oppressive of human rights and freedom of expression. Political and economic corruption were present on a very large scale," he said.
"We are working on enhancing freedoms and accountability, but without the public's understanding the mission will be very tough," Abdul Ghafour noted.
A presentation displayed during the session showed that in Egypt, economic growth in 2010 was around 5.1 per cent, but the figure dropped to 1.8 per cent and 1.5 per cent in 2011 and 2012 respectively.
The figures also showed that unemployment rates in Egypt in the year that preceded the 2011 revolution stood at 9.5 per cent, as opposed to 11.5 per cent in 2012.
Hakim argued that there is no such thing as "political Islam", stressing that the parties that have made it to power after the Arab Spring are using Islam as the basis of their ideologies, but they cannot be seen as representatives of Islam as a religion.
"These parties are adopting Islamic discourse to sell themselves to their local communities," he said.
"Unfortunately, when they fail to meet the demands of the public and fulfil the promises they made before the revolution, observers blame Islam for their failure," Hakim noted.
© Jordan Times 2013
