Amman - Jordan
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Mailing Address: POBox: 815454 Amman- Jordan
Email: aainstitute@gmail.com 
Website: www.alarcheef.com
November 2007

Contents

Abbreviations

Quotes and Reflections on Corruption

Introduction

Mashreq Countries

The case of Jordan

The Gulf

The Case of Bahrain

Maghreb Countries

 The Case of Morocco

Cartoons on Corruption

Annex: Selected laws that regulate

civil society in Arab countries

Endnotes

From the Introduction

Arab civil society organizations are blossoming, anti-corruption activities are dramatically increasing and Arab governments are open more than ever to the possibilities of change. However, there is no escape from the saying: old habits die hard.

As Arab officials compete in international meetings and conferences to improve their image and show proof of their commitment to fight corruption, they are as quick to pull the carpet from underneath independent activists and civil society organizations. Activities related to enhancing transparency and fighting corruption are automatically reassigned to governmental organs to carry out and followed up on. Hoarding the power from information to investigation, Arab governments are simply not used to involving a second party to share power with or allow an outsider to monitor its performance. Independent activists working for the same goals are repressed and their reputation is smeared.

And though most humanitarian NGOs are recent and very few are specialized in the fight against corruption, a great number of these associations have contributed to enhancing transparency and fighting corruption. It could be said that these NGOs have succeeded in a short span of time to advance the issue of fighting corruption and placing it on the national, Arab and international agendas. Were it not for the NGOs, the number of corrupt people might have been double the number that is already there.

NGOs and independent groups in general have been subject to state attacks and backward movements in the society since they emerged. Emergency laws are still in place in Algeria, Egypt and Syria. Civil society groups in these countries have an especially difficult task because of the high levels of repression, violence and intimidation. Business associations in the region are also weak and unable to promote a transparency agenda.

Except for Lebanon, all Arab countries control, with the blessings of the law, who can and who can’t establish an association, who is eligible and who is not eligible to join. And except for Lebanon and Palestine, all Arab governments can dissolve an association, some without justification.

Until 2006, activists in Tunisia, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Qatar or the United Arab Emirates were not allowed to and could not establish anti-corruption societies.

Not any Arab country figured above average in the Transparency International Corruption Perception Index (CPI) since it was established a decade ago. The rates are either in the middle or down the ladder. For the 2006 CPI, only UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, Jordan and Kuwait figured below the 50 score. Except for Jordan, all the other countries that passed the line are surprisingly from the Gulf States…

The Arab region’s leaders have become experts in the talk about fighting corruption and introducing reforms. They don’t hesitate to give promises and pledge changes. The nice talk however did not go hand in hand with change of laws and legislation. There are no provisions that encourage the development of civil society organizations (such as the case in Jordan and Egypt’s laws which went steps backward in contrast with Palestine and Yemen that promulgated reasonably encouraging laws for civil society). Until 2007, five Arab countries  still banned political parties.(21)

Arab governments monopolize information and conceal it from the media and civil society. Activists, as academics, journalists or lawyers or human rights activists, who are active more than they should in the field of fighting corruption are systematically under attack.

According to almost all local and international human rights reports about Arab countries, the situation is bleak to say the least. There is a total ban on freedom of association in Libya, Syria, Tunisia and Gulf countries (except for Bahrain and Kuwait). Exceptional Courts constitute a widespread phenomenon in a number of Arab countries, either by referring civilians to military courts as in Egypt, Tunisia and Lebanon, or by strengthening the role of exceptional or emergency courts as in Syria, Iraq, Sudan, Jordan and Libya. Political parties are denied registration in Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia, and their activities were frozen in Egypt and Sudan, according to the Arab Organization Human Rights reports. In several Arab countries, press freedom is specifically targeted and censorship is still imposed on newspapers. Dozens of newspapers were either closed, suspended or some of their issues were seized.

The situation has also witnessed change in the closed environment of the Gulf, where governments introduced important legislation that may have consequences for the strengthening of national integrity systems.

Change is happening. The ambitious plans of some of the region’s new leaders, and the anti-corruption mantle they have assumed on coming to power indicated that the language of transparency had become part of the trappings of legitimacy. From Syria to Morocco, the pledge to fight corruption was a key part of a wider reformist shift in political rhetoric. But though leaders have in some cases taken steps to back their rhetoric with action, their commitment proved to be faltering barely a few years later.

As the coming chapters will show, independent civil society organizations, though relatively new and continuously under attack, have played a major role in divulging corruption cases and in enhancing transparency. Resistance to change and to empowerment of activists might be on the rise but demands for change are also increasing.

While doubts are cast on the intentions and the timing of the executive authority when it exposes a high profile corruption case to the public, the government exposed an estimated two-billion-US dollar corruption cases (since the democratic process was reintroduced in Jordan in 1989 until 2007) while civil society had magnificently succeeded in pushing for an anti-corruption legislation that saw the light less than a decade after initiating campaigning efforts.

Bahrain, despite its recurrent reversals on democratic transformation, stands out in the Gulf region as the country with serious drive towards institutionalized democracy. From the closed societies of Saudi Arabia and Oman, to Kuwait where democracy seems to exclude half of the society – women, and where Qatar’s only achievement is Al Jazeera channel that targets everybody else’s democracy but its own, and UAE where changes seem to focus on investment and economy without any political transformation, Bahrain stands out in the sense that its promises were translated into legal and practical actions. It however needs encouragement.

Morocco prides itself as being the home for the first society in the Arab world specialized in fighting corruption.

Morocco was also the home for the only Arab activist to receive the award of Transparency International (TI) for Integrity. On September 30, 2000, Mustapha Adib (32 at the time), Moroccan Air Force captain, received the award for his courage in denouncing corruption in the military and bringing his corrupt superiors to the attention of the media. The act cost him a five-year prison sentence by the Military Court of Rabat for ‘breaching discipline’ and ‘slandering the army.(98)

There are around 1,515 charities in Morocco and around 5000 active NGOs for 2003 statistics. The more substantial figure concerning civil society is the number 45,000 which encompasses all civil society organizations in Morocco for the year 2003. This is an average of one society to every 667 inhabitants.

Civil society in Morocco is certainly more active than many of its Arab counterparts. It is also more vivacious.

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