RAJESH MISHRA

DOHA HISTORY will not forgive oppressive regimes. Governments must cope with the political changes taking place in the Arab world without resorting to violence, Assistant Foreign Minister for International Cooperation and Chairman of the Permanent Committee for Organising Conferences HE Sheikh Ahmed bin Mohammed bin Jabor al Thani has said.

In his welcoming remarks at the 2012 US-Islamic World Forum on Tuesday, he said, “The Arab Spring calls for a more tolerant and rational approach on the part of the governments.

The governments must pave way for smooth transition to democracies avoiding points of differences and conflicts with the opposition. The Arab Spring is also set to redefine US relationship with the Islamic world.” Speaking on the occasion, Vice- President and Director of Foreign Policy at Brookings Martin Indyk said that the theme of this year’s forum was aptly titled ‘New Voices, New Directions’ in the wake of the dramatic political changes sweeping across the region with young leaders emerging.

Speaking at the first plenary session on ‘Political Change: The Dynamics of Domestic Transformations’, Founder and Director of Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights Hossam Bahgat expressed deep concern over the state of affairs in Egypt after the revolution.

“The transition to democracy did not start at all in Egypt in the aftermath of the Arab Spring. There is a great deal of disappointment among people with the result of the revolution.

People never thought that with the victory of Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt secularists and Islamists would get polarised. In fact, the victory of Muslim Brotherhood has defeated the revolution in Egypt.” Tunisian expert and co-founder of Ennahdha Rached Ghannouchi stressed the importance of aligning Islamic values with modern values and called for media freedom and role of civil societies for a healthy, vibrant democracy. He said that Tunisia has been attracting huge foreign investments after its transition to democracy.

Ghannouchi, however, added that Tunisia also faced a major challenge of combating unemployment among educated workers.

“Unemployment among educated workers is the biggest challenges we are faced with. We need to link education with workplace needs to overcome the problem,” he said.

Ghannouchi described corruption as another major challenge in Tunisia. He further argued that the Arab Spring, ‘which had not been manufactured from outside’ had sent a clear message that people wanted to change regimes.