Arabs, Burmese, and A Tale of Two Cities

Tale of Two Cities:
Burma (a.k.a Myanmar) News: “The ruling military junta declared that it has won a 92.3% approval of the constitutional referendum in the second statge of the referendum held in areas devastated by the hurricanes. Voter participation was put at 93% from a total of 4.5 million voters.” Florida, eat your heart out.

Cairo, Egypt News: “The Egyptian People’s Assembly has approved a two year extension of the emergency laws that have been in place since 1981.” The emergency laws allow the government to arrest people for long periods without trial, and it allows civilians to be tried in military courts (so that is why they are called military courts). Human rights organizations claim that many people in Egypt are held for ten years or longer without a trial.

The emergency rule was started when Husni Mubarak became president in 1981. Imagine, many, many Egyptians have spent all their lives not knowing any state other than a state of emergency. It is like a life sentence- with hard labor since you have to look at the leader's visage every day of your life, several times.
Soon, most Egyptians will have known only emergency rule.
Meanwhile, the country is fast moving past second rate Mideast country, and fast becoming a third rate Mideast country...third rate in the Middle East! Not an easy accomplishment. It is now the most famous sidkick of Saudi Arabia.
Isn't it great to be a citizen of the moderate New Middle East?

A Royal Jordanian gem:
King Abdul II, de Jourdanie, has stated that continuation of the Arab-Israeli dispute hampers development in the Middle East. His majesty also opined that the region will continue to suffer instability as long as the Palestinian issue is not resolved. (Damn, he should be appointed head of the IBDRD).

Whip it good:
Saudi authorities are trying to force parties to legal disputes to attend court session for their cases. Apparently absences delay rulings and crowd the courts. Now absentees may get whipped, as in flogged, for their absence. Alarabiya reports that judges may get the permission to impose prison and flogging sentences on these people.

Oil Zakat but no Chevron:
A theological committee of al-Azhar University in Cairo has recommended that a tithe tax (zakat) of 20% be imposed on oil revenues of all Islamic oil producers. It notes that Islamic law allows for one fifth tax on all Moslems.
Soon all will be cleared up when a certain phone call is made from Riyadh to Cairo. The call could as well come from Tehran, or even from Caracas for that matter. This is something that would even agitate Hugo Chavez.

Lebanon haggle:
The Lebanese are now haggling over the new cabinet, which will not be headed by either Mr. Saniora or Mr. Hariri. Saniora is certain to be gone: Arab media report that opposition ministers refused to attend a lunch invitation by the PM, which is a good indication that he can’t be the PM.

Bush vs the Potentates: A falling out?
Some Arab regimes of the moderate New Middle East are openly pissed at President Bush because he actually, for once, did the right thing. He urged increased reform and democratization, criticizing some o them. It has probably finally dawned on him that the potentates are not Jeffersonian democrats (small ‘d’), and that was his parting shot before he left the region.
The potentates and their media, will full participation from their house intellectuals, are blasting Mr. Bush. The question of a US-Iran deal to partition the region is being bandied about in the Saudi media again (they do that whenever they are miffed at the administration, and this time they have added Israel and Syria as the two sidekicks).
Maybe he is just realizing, in the waning pre-Crawford days, that some of these guys have been taking him for a ride for several years now.
Cheers
Mohammed