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Topic Discussion III
Participation in
Democratic Decision-Making:
The Vital Voices of Women, Civil Society and
Pluralism
Room 1
(10 of 16 pages)
Now I want to go a little bit further because my organization fund basically programs
for NGOs in the Middle East. I want to look at some real issues and challenges facing these organizations and I'm
sure and confident that you can give some very good feedback on them. The real question is not whether or not civil
society is good or needed. The question is when they become really autonomous, and really effective, and they start
to cut from the space where the government or traditional political parties operate, I think then there is likely
to be a backlash and a challenge. Some of the backlash I think maybe have one of the ladies mentioned it, is that
they question the motives and the agendas both of funding and if the funding is local, they'll still question the
agenda, the ideological agenda or the political, or whatever agenda they have. And the most dangerous thing is
that this backlash can infiltrate or can precipitate itself in legislations against the NGO. Not literally regulating
it, but restricting it in a big way. And in Egypt recently, there has been a lot of fuss made about this growing
vibrant sector. The NGOs. And some legislations were passed, which has nothing to do with the foreign funding,
or with the foreign agenda, but very much gives a leverage on control over that sector of the NGO. So the point
I want perhaps most of you if you can refer to in your comments, is would you consider as a healthy space that
should be given to the sector of the NGOs and what sort of legitimate regulation that need to be put into that
sector. There are without doubt there could be a possibility of corruption, there could be a possibility of overlapping
and it's not a perfect sector, but everybody I think agrees it's a needed sector, it's a very important one. The
question is how to give more attention to the detail and move forward with it? And I welcome your remarks. Thanks.
Frank Loy: Thank you. I think that was helpful comment and I would be pleased if people spoke to the issue
raised about just how to define the space where these organizations can operate legitimately. Mr. Koni (ph).
Mr. Koni: Thank you. I applaud what my brother for Morocco has just said. If the politics must be only the
work of the parties. When we say in large participation for democracy, we mustn't forget the context. Poor people
and amphetitism (ph) and in this condition indicated person who has the means will go further in this route. That
the press in the emerging democracies, the actor of the political life in multi party system actors give the work
to the press and the fight is not direct. It is through the media. And the NGOs with exterior financing have the
same result. I would like to enlighten people here how do we do in the context of this poor population and how
it can have the people conscious of the problems. People who are poor and who can be corrupted. Thank you.
Frank Loy: Thank you, Mr. Koni (ph). Let me call next on Mr. Al-Quidr.
Mr. Al-Quidr: Thank you. As I listened to sister Horia from Morocco speaking of party pluralism, we all
smiled because we knew that she was only reflecting the current situation in Yemen, in the process of democratization.
And realizing pluralism diversification of the political life is sought by recreation of artificial or imaginary
parties, the purpose of which is to oppose the opposition. We can put this in the term of an equation. One plus
one equals zero. This very often is the desire, target and objective. With the purpose of obstructing the natural
opposition to the political party in power. Therefore unless there are certain controls which impede the natural
development of political activity, then the process of democratization will always remain an illusion. For example
it is not worthy that we desire to understand democracy and I belong to a totalitarian party which wanted to base
itself on solid ground in a government which in a country which was seeking democratization. Of course we are a
backward society and we are composed of clans and tribes, but does this constitute an obstacle to stand in the
way of further education and further efforts to put our heads together in order to solve a problem which is common
to us all. And also to involve the local communities which international express the reviews and showed participate
in seeking solutions for the problems. But a continued fear of local elections constitutes an obstacle impeding
democratization. One of the typical problems we face is that of trade unions. In the southern part of the country,
we had a totalitarian regime and the same problems existed, but following the reunification and until now, no democratic
elections were conducted in these set ups or organizations. In other words elections should be conducted that should
result in representations of the local communities and not only the official authorities. But if we pave the way
for these organizations to express the viewpoints of the participants and the actual grass roots, and if they have
the opportunity to participate by voicing their problems and sufferings of their electoral college, then this would
contribute to alleviating their problems and towards the affecting of real democratization. Thank you, sir.
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