Democracy? That’s for other Arabs

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Is the emir saying hello or goodbye?


IN AN emirate presenting itself as the face and financier of regional reform, Qataris could be forgiven for asking when they may taste at home what their leaders preach abroad. Political parties are banned in Qatar. So are demonstrations, trade unions and associations dealing with public affairs. Consultative-council elections first promised in 2004 and again with royal pomp a year ago have yet to happen. Almost no one in Qatar openly suggests that the council should have legislative power. When people express the sort of dissent that Qatar’s state-owned Al Jazeera television channel encourages in broadcasts across the Arab world, they do so in whispers, always off the record, at home.

Many Qataris take pride in the leadership their city-state has played in the Arab awakening over the past two years. But some now question whether the emir, Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, is frittering their wealth away on foreign ventures. “What have billions bought us in Syria?” mumbles a Qatari official. “We’ve failed to bring down Mr Assad and left 4m Syrians homeless.” Others in an emirate long loyal to a puritanical Wahhabist version of Islam wonder why they are helping the troublesome Muslim Brotherhood abroad.

Similar mutterings are being more often heard about where the money for the grandest public projects or foreign investments ends up. “They could have got it for half the cost,” tweeted one Qatari, after the government announced it was allocating $40 billion to a rail network in time for the football World Cup in 2022. With no public forum for consultation and no openness about the oil wealth the ruler regards as his own family’s, criticism, such as it is, gets aired in the majlis, the gatherings held by members of the ruling family in their homes. More outspoken, however, are the comments posted online in chat rooms.

In an economy with a GDP of $183 billion, average income is $100,000 a year for Qatar’s 1.9m people, but that includes migrant workers, mostly from Asia, many of them paid a pittance. The 12% who are citizens get far more. Qataris have—in effect—jobs for life, pay no tax, and enjoy free education at top foreign universities. They have also been getting repeated pay rises.

But the emir can break as well as make. Unlike Dubai, where the private sector has a pretty free rein, Qatar’s economy is largely command-driven. The emir dishes out land to his subjects to put up shiny tower blocks, then rents back the office space. Step out of line, and you lose your tenant.

As the wind of democratic change blows across the region, Qatar, like its fellow Gulf monarchies, has grown twitchy, especially about internet bloggers and social-media posts. A book entitled “The people want reform in Qatar too” by a Qatari academic, Ali Khalifa al-Kuwari, who organised monthly salons to promote his vision of “a genuinely democratic Gulf federation”, has been banned. For allegedly “inciting the overthrow of the regime”, Muhammad al-Ajami, a poet, was sentenced in 2011 to life imprisonment, later reduced by the emir to 15 years. Academics and students at branches of Western universities and think-tanks opened in Qatar take care not to speak out of turn.

Now there is talk that the emir, who ousted his father in a coup 18 years ago, may hand effective power to his 33-year-old son, Crown Prince Tamim. One of 24 siblings, he already features more prominently in the official press than his cousin the prime minister, Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani. Some say the younger man may take over as premier. Others suggest the emir may formally abdicate, allowing for a constitutional succession.

It is uncertain what difference Tamim would make if he took over. Most of the other monarchs in the Gulf have frowned on the emir’s fondness for the Muslim Brotherhood, which most of them regard as a menace. Qataris who know the Sandhurst-educated prince think he may be more Islamist than the prime minister. His most public act to date has been to switch the main language of tuition at Qatar University from English to Arabic. Behind the scenes he is said to be trying to boost the Muslim Brothers in Libya. Do not expect a sudden drive to democracy.


http://www.economist.com/news/middl...o-not-include-moves-democracy-democracy-thats