A new Arab world is

coming, with or without

U.S.
By Nadia Oweidat and Cynthia P. Schneider, Special to
CNN
February 28, 2011 -- Updated 1652 GMT (0052 HKT)

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
• Writers say young Arabs have shown determination to
create Arab awakening
• They say that in five to 10 years, governments will have
new accountability
• They say youths will embrace civic roles, boost economy;
women's rights will advance
• Writers: Free, democratic Arab world aligns with U.S.
security interests
Editor's note: Nadia Oweidat is a Ph.D. student at
Oxford University and a former research associate at
the RAND Corp. Cynthia P. Schneider, a former U.S.
ambassador to the Netherlands, is a distinguished
professor of diplomacy at Georgetown University, a
senior nonresident fellow at the Brookings Institution,
and co-director of the MOST Resource Center, which
provides information about Muslims to the American
film and television industry.
(CNN) -- The young Arab women and men of Tunisia,
Egypt, Bahrain, Libya and Yemen have proved that they
are willing to die to build a better future. They yearn for
freedom, opportunity and democracy. It is doubtful they
will accept anything less.
It may take time and it may get messy, but in the words
of one of the Tahrir Square organizers, "The new great
awakening is unfolding across the Arab world."
What will this new world look like in five to 10 years if
the vision articulated in protests, blogs, posts and
tweets becomes reality?
First, after decades of brutal repression and lack of
accountability, governments in the Arab world will be
responsible and responsive to their people. They will
foster individual freedoms, religious and ethnic diversity,
enable economic growth and uphold fair judicial
processes.
Elections will bring leaders who can deliver on their
promises or else they will be voted out. The specter of
Tahrir Square will hang over every government.
The new accountability will extend to individual citizens,
too. The youths who planned and organized the peaceful
demonstrations in Egypt have demonstrated a new civic
responsibility.
What was the first action after Egypt's Hosni Mubarak
stepped down? A youth-organized cleanup of Tahrir
Square, which extended to local efforts throughout the
city. Neighborhood by neighborhood, the residents of
Cairo and other cities and towns are taking their country
back.
Where is Obama as Middle East boils? Control wanes
outside Tripoli
Libya: from Libya
Tunisia struggles to move forward
RELATED TOPICS
• Egypt
• Government and Politics
• Middle East Politics
• North African Politics
Second, it will be a world with greater productivity,
economic growth and more equal distribution of wealth.
The Arab countries have tremendous untapped natural
resources, from oil and other natural resources to the
inherent talents and abilities of their people.
With the majority of the population younger than 24 and
80% literacy, the Arab world can turn itself around.
Decades of oppression have resulted in astounding
stagnation that was well-documented in the U.N.'s
Human Arab Development report.
With freedom and such youthful energy, this stagnation
can be replaced with prosperity -- to the benefit of not
just the Arab world but also the rest of the globe.
Productivity among the youth would also mean a new
market of about 300 million individuals who share one
language and culture.
For the first time, countries throughout North Africa may
become meritocracies that reward talent and
achievement. In the past, whether under Tunisia's Zine
El Abidine Ben Ali or Egypt's Hosni Mubarak, there were
two ways to advance: Being a relative or friend of the
leader or bribery. Talent and high achievement more
often were punished than rewarded.
There are exceptions to this rule. The Library of
Alexandria, where industrious, dedicated employees
regularly work 60 hours a week to produce a daunting
program of exhibitions, concerts, conferences and more,
shows what Egyptians are capable of in an environment
that rewards hard work and proven ability.
Third, countries in the new Arab world will safeguard
economic opportunity by being accountable and
transparent. In this new information age, the ill-gotten
wealth of the regimes is being exposed. Demands for
restitution and punishment swiftly have followed,
notably in Arabic Facebook groups and tweets. Calls to
sue Mubarak for embezzling resources started the very
first day after he left office. Switzerland is freezing his
accounts and Ben Ali's.
Egypt faces rough, uncharted road
Fourth, the new Arab world will again be a place of free
thought and expression. It is the place that has given
birth to the three monotheistic religions and a significant
contribution to world's civilization in medicine and
philosophy. (Greek philosophy lived in the Arab world for
a thousand years before it went to Europe).
The silent, moderate majority finally will find expression
through burgeoning independent media outlets.
Expelled writers, filmmakers, thinkers and activists, now
able to return to their homelands, will join to supplant
the regime spokesmen and Islamists whom the dictators
once used to whip up fear and support.
The wave of expression and creativity will capture the
new feeling of Arab unity sparked by the Egyptian and
Tunisian revolutions. Policies isolating Arab countries
from one another through restrictions of visas and travel
will be lifted. Arabs who have long dreamed of a region
like the European Union will travel freely across borders.
Fifth, the rights of women, who are part and parcel of
this revolution, will be advanced. "The Facebook girls"
phenomenon of young women organizing the protests
online has become a signature element of the
revolution. One covered woman named meemzoo
tweeted, "It's time we stopped waiting for our day! The
time is now for a women's revolution in Egypt and all the
Arab world!"
On the streets, covered women mixed with uncovered,
Muslim with Christian, all standing side by side with
men. Newscasts frequently have captured the young
women leading the crowds in chants and songs.
While the possibility remains that the Muslim
Brotherhood ultimately will impose an Islamist state in
Egypt, acts on the ground don't support the dire
predictions peppering the Western media.
First, before deciding that Egypt is Iran, take a close look
at the Muslim Brotherhood. Its popularity stems not from
any promise of an Islamist state, but from its goals of
combating corruption and providing services, such as
education, neglected by the Egyptian government.
Secondly, spokesmen for the Brotherhood, before and
after Mubarak's fall, have supported the people's call for
a secular state. Finally, no charismatic figure
comparable to Iran's Ruhollah Khomeini has emerged
from the Brotherhood.
The Arab world is marching toward democracy, with or
without the United States. To be relevant to the
breakneck changes rocking the Middle East, the U.S.
first needs to re-examine its foreign policy and its
narcissistic definition of its security. A free and
democratic Arab world aligns with America's security
interests.
There is still time to change the perception of the United
States as a place that utters sweet words of democracy
but supports dictators -- as it has throughout the
lifetimes of the young Arab leaders.
The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely
those of Nadia Oweidat and Cynthia P. Schneider.