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AUB Celebrates its 140th Founders Day
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| President John Waterbury giving sara Mourad her award |
The American University of Beirut held its 140th Founders Day celebration
at noon on December 4, in the presence of a host of political, academic,
social and diplomatic figures.
Inaugurated by a procession of professors in their academic robes, the
ceremony, which was held in Assembly Hall, brought together MP Ghassan
Tueni, former Ministers Karam Karam, Samir Makdisi and Adnan Mroue, Press
Federation President Mohammed Baalbaki, former ambassadors Nadim Dimashkiyyeh
and Khalil Makkawi as well as several members of AUB's Board of Trustees.
President John Waterbury had words of hope for the future of AUB, saying
that despite the challenges the University has faced, it keeps developing
and growing stronger. "Every generation has faced its crises, every
generation has had its doubts. Yet, it seems to me, the university has
always grown in strength and grown in respect," he said. "Doubts
may pour down upon us like rain, but AUB like the earth itself absorbs
them and produces new fruit."
Waterbury then introduced the winner of this year's student essay contest
which was under the theme: "AUB in National and Regional Crises:
What is Its Role?"
Sara Mourad, a junior in political studies, won the $500 contest prize,
and read her essay to the audience of students, faculty, and dignitaries.
Mourad's essay centered on AUB's role as a bridge between the outside
world and the sheltered campus life by promoting openness and tolerance
and by being interactive not isolationist. Mourad said that the world
right now is dominated by two concepts: war and democracy. She added that
AUB plays a role in strengthening the latter in order to prevent the former.
She noted that AUB jumped right into the relief effort during the July
war and promotes democratic principles by running transparent and clean
student elections.
Following the student essay, keynote speaker Dr Marwan Muasher, a long-time
Jordanian diplomat and government official who had filled several senior-ranking
positions including deputy-prime minister and minister of foreign affairs,
gave a thought-provoking speech on the role the Arab world needs to play
in order to ensure that democracy, development, and diversity would reign
over policies and practices.
Muasher, who studied at AUB from 1972 to 1975, took this university as
a role model for Arab nations to follow.
Muasher argued that AUB students do not just get an education, but learn
to think critically, accept truths as relative and appreciate the power
of diversity. They are also instilled "with a sense of purpose…
and an urge to open up to the rest of the world," he added. "That
is why AUB represents the best of what America can offer in our region.
Contrary to the hostility most Arabs feel towards American policies in
the region regarding the Arab-Israeli conflict, AUB is a highly regarded
institution in the Arab world by people belonging to the full political,
economic, and social spectra in our region," he said.
But Dr Muasher criticized the Arab world for not following AUB's example
in making moderation, inclusion, and respect for diversity their guiding
principles. Instead, Arab regimes build educational systems that do not
form individual thinkers, teaching children, instead, to "think monolithically,
one-dimensionally."
Moreover, Arab governments do not encourage political reform, nor do they
allow for the creation of sustainable, democratic political systems. As
a result, when the US war on Iraq was launched in 2003, "the destruction
of the ancient regime revealed a shocking vacuum of power," attracting
religious parties with a strong sectarian following instead, and allowing
extremist groups, such as Al-Qaeda to find a foothold in Iraq.
Muasher harshly criticized Arab governments for resorting to a series
of excuses for postponing political development. In particular, Muasher
said that governments have often claimed that democracy should wait till
after the Arab-Israeli conflict would be resolved. "This was, essentially,
an argument of not being able to walk and chew gum at the same time,"
said Muasher.
Arab governments would also fight the development of democracy, under
the pretext that Islamists would never relinquish power once they reached
it through a democratic process, said Muasher, adding: "They ignored
the uncomfortable fact, that they, themselves, whether revolutionary or
traditional, never allowed the alternation of power once they grabbed
it."
Moreover, governments would prioritize economic reform over political
reform, he said. "That argument ignored the fact that economic reform
was unlikely to successfully take hold
in the absence of transparency, accountability, and a functioning system of checks and balances," he warned.
Absence of political reform and development has resulted in a failure of governments to meet the people's social and political needs, noted Muasher. "Religious parties stepped in to fill the void created by the suppression of national, democratic, non-religious parties, dominating the public sphere alongside Arab governments and complementing the state's role in public services provision," he said, thus constructing a broad and deep support base through their philanthropy and social services. "By the time some Arab regimes began to contemplate reforms in the early 1990s, religious groups had enjoyed a long head start."
As a result, continued Muasher, "the imposed political inertia that was meant to preserve the status quo for the elites at first, and, later, to 'shield' society against radical ideologies produced the opposite: a ruling elite increasingly viewed by the Arab public not as moderate, but as non-accountable, and the ascendancy of religious groups that use Islam for political purposes. Thus, the public grew wary of an elite that ruled without accountability, but was also skeptical of religious groups, some of which promised good governance but also seemed to threaten political and cultural diversity."
Muasher blamed Arab regimes, not Islam, as is often argued, for the lag in democracy, noting that non-Arab Muslim countries such as Indonesia and Malaysia managed to implement democracy. Moreover, the absence of a sound educational system, the residues of anti-democratic colonial policies as well as an economic prosperity that diluted the need for political reform were also to blame, said Muasher. "Because of oil," he said, "even" the West has regarded stability, not reform, in the Middle East as its number one priority."
Faced with this status quo, Muasher proposed that the Arab world needs "to gradually but seriously open up its political system while continuing to hold elections," while adhering to two principles:
First, Arab political parties should all commit to political and cultural diversity no matter what their political agenda. "Majority rule, but also, minority rights," he said.
Second, all political parties or individuals should also commit to pursuing their objectives through peaceful means, he added. "That means that parties participating in the system cannot also bear arms," he said.
"If these two principles are adhered to in good faith and become part of the national culture, Arabs would take a long stride towards true political development, [that is] the peaceful rotation of power."
Muasher concluded his address by asking whether an Arab political center truly exists and whether it is considered effective by the Arab public, given the failed policies by Arab governments.