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“The Arab world
finds itself at a historical crossroads. Caught between oppression at
home and violation from abroad, Arabs are increasingly excluded from
determining their own future. Freedom in its comprehensive sense,
incorporates not only civil and political freedoms (in other words,
liberation from oppression), but also the liberation from all factors
that are inconsistent with human dignity. To be sustained and
guaranteed, freedom requires a system of good governance that rests
upon effective popular representation and is accountable to the
people, and that upholds the rule of law and ensures that an
independent judiciary applies the law impartially.
The report describes
free societies, in their normative dimension, as fundamental contrasts
with present-day Arab countries. The enormous gap that separates
today’s reality and what many in the region hope for, is a source of
widespread frustration and despair among Arabs about their countries’
prospects for a peaceful transition to societies enjoying freedom and
good governance. Moreover, persisting tendencies in Arab social
structures could well lead to spiraling social, economic, and
political crises. Each further stage of crisis would impose itself as
a new reality, producing injustices eventually beyond control.
The Arab world is at
a decisive point that does not admit compromise or complacency.
If the Arab people
are to have true societies of freedom and good governance, they will
need to be socially innovative. Their challenge is to create a viable
mode of transition from a situation where liberty is curtailed and
oppression the rule, to one of freedom and good governance that
minimizes social upheaval and human costs, to the fullest extent
possible. History will judge this a transcendent achievement through
which the region finally attained its well-deserved freedom.”
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