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Topic Discussion I
Politics of Hard Choices
Political Transition and Economic Restructuring
Room 5
(21 of 22 pages)
Today we are talking as though we patronize the people and this should not be
coming from political leaders or people in leading positions.
The purpose is first to benefit from our problems in order to manage our crises and we face a major problem, how
can we keep democratic conditions while we face economic difficulties? For as we said economy governs politics,
the voter will rebel or will refuse any government that does not fulfill his aspirations. Aspirations on the economic
level are the main issue in the political arena. Alongside economic reforms which are necessary for all people
and I do not believe, and despite all that I said in my paper, and all the calls for introducing major reforms
in the vision of major economic powers and institutions in the dealings with smaller economies and smaller countries
yet I still stress that the countries that strive to attain the assistance of these organizations upon their free
will and because of their needs, our brothers and the opposition in Yemen accuse the government that it implements
the program that is dictated to it from the IMF or other such international organizations. In fact we do face problems
with some of the conditionalities imposed on us.
We look at this from a democratic perspective for we have to mobilize public opinion and to mobilize as much support
as possible by the grass roots and to take steps in this direction. It would have been easier for any government,
totalitarian government to take such measures, but here it is a difficult thing, and this is the title of the paper
presented to us and the reference point and I dealt with them in my presentation of the Yemen experience. I addressed
how during the last years we were able to address the problem of managing the economy through the reform perspective
and at the same time the democratization of the political system all within a very short period. Many countries
of the world have taken long periods, ten to fifteen years for the process of democratization, we have started
only three years in this process and we have faced numerous problems.
So, when it comes to participation and introducing ourselves to the experiences of other countries there is an
important point which is how can we as countries that are emerging democracies, and that are also reforming and
restructuring their economies, how can we join forces and come up with some suggestions and recommendations that
could be of assistance to us all. We are in need of international finance organizations. We are in need of assistance
from major economic powers and these countries are also in need of us, it is mutual. Thus, we should come up with
some suggestions as I see it and in my paper I presented some of these suggestions and many of the colleagues also
presented suggestions. I would ask the chairman to prepare such recommendations through what was discussed here
and to present to them to the conference and this could form a good starting point to benefit from what was brought
up from the problems that were brought up.
What is most important is how do we create a space to deal together with our major problems, our economic problems
for if we succeeded achieving economic growth in any countries then we would be able to satisfy the voter, we would
be able to maintain democracy regardless of which party is in power and which party is in opposition. For even
though the opposition will not be in prison, they will be at home as was the case before when the opposite was
the case. So, we should really keep this blessing which is a blessing of democracy but if this can be accompanied
by economic prosperity then that is the aspiration of all peoples and leaders. Thank you.
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