Frihed vinder terræn i Mellemøsten

I slutningen af december 2005 udgav den amerikanske NGO Freedom House deres Global Survey for 2006. Freedom House rapporter er værd at læse fordi de modsat andre NGOer indenfor demokratisering og menneskerettigheder alene kæmper for det liberale demokrati og klassiske negative frihedsrettigheder, ikke social retfærdighed i form af positive socio-økonomiske rettigheder. Freedom House’s rapporter er ligeledes fri for den ulidelige politiske korrekthed parret med anti-amerikansk og anti-kapitalistisk retorik, der præger typiske NGO’er indenfor samme område.

2006 rapporten er især bemærkelsesværdig fordi den vidner om små men signifikante landvindinger for frihed i Mellemøsten. Af rapporten fremgår det bl.a.:

The global survey, "Freedom in the World," shows that although the Middle East
continues to lag behind other regions, a measurable improvement can be seen in
freedom in several key Arab countries, as well as the Palestinian Authority. In
another key finding, the number of countries rated by Freedom House as Not Free
declined from 49 in 2004 to 45 for the year 2005, the lowest number of Not Free
societies identified by the survey in over a decade. In noteworthy country
developments, Ukraine and Indonesia saw their status improve from Partly Free to
Free; Afghanistan moved from Not Free to Partly Free; and the Philippines saw
its status decline from Free to Partly Free.

According to Thomas O. Melia, acting executive director of Freedom House, "The modest but heartening advances in the Arab Middle East result from activism by citizen groups and reforms by governments in about equal measures. This emerging trend reminds us that men and women in this region share the universal desire to live in free societies."
"As we welcome the stirrings of change in the Middle East," said
Mr. Melia, "it is equally important that we focus on the follow-through in other
regions and appreciate the importance of the continuing consolidation of
democracy in Indonesia, Ukraine, and other nations.

[…]Although the countries
of the Middle East lag behind other regions in areas such as adherence to
democratic standards, independent media, the rights of women, and the rule of
law, the past year witnessed modest positive trends. Lebanon experienced the
most significant improvement; its status improved from Not Free to Partly Free
due to major improvements in both political rights and civil liberties that
followed the withdrawal of Syrian occupation forces. Elections exhibiting
increased competition in Iraq, Egypt, and the Palestinian territories; the
introduction of women's suffrage in Kuwait; and improvements in Saudi Arabia's
media environment are among other encouraging signs in the region.”

Det er også værd at bemærke at verdens folkerigeste muslimske land Indonesien er gået fra at være "partly free" til "free". Indonesien er altså mere frit end en række kristne latin-amerikanske lande såsom Ecuador, Colombia, Paraguay, og interessant nok også friere end europæiske Rusland.

Som jeg også har skrevet om på Punditokraterne er der altså grund til at nære optimisme med hensyn til udbredelsen af basale frihedsrettigheder i den muslimske verden. Bevares, der er lang vej igen og udviklingen kan vende, men som den amerikanske konservative debattør Michael Novak, citerende Solzhenitsyn, udtalte det i sin åbningstale til the “Hayek Lecture”: "the idea of truth is more powerful than all the arms in the world, and what he [Solzhenitsyn] wrote seemed in 1977 so unlikely of realization - and yet we saw the Soviet tanks halt before flowers held by civilians in 1991."

Talen der i høj grad omhandler hvad der taler henholdsvis for og imod det liberale demokratis udbredelse i muslimske lande er i øvrigt interessant læsning og, dybt kristne og konservative, Novak konkluderer, at der en grund til behersket optimisme. Hvis bare danske kultur-konservative udviste samme tro på de grundlæggende idealer som de kritiserer muslimske lande for at mangle. Men man skal nok ikke regne med at se Freedom House’s rapport citeret på Uriasposten, Polemikken, Angantyr, Filtrat, Minut eller de øvrige kultur-konservative blogs, hvor den negative automatpilot er sat til og ensidigheden (med ganske få undtagelser) råder frit.