From Maxwell Perspective...

On the Front Lines of the Arab Spring

Since 2007, the U.S. State Department has funded Maxwell to host up-and-coming Middle Eastern leaders and academics interested in bringing democratic traditions back to their homelands. Little did anyone guess how quickly and dramatically democracy would assert itself throughout that region — where these special Maxwell alumni have sometimes played direct roles.

By Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers

atar Ebrahim Matar was a young IT professional in Bahrain, working as an Oracle developer, when he was recruited by leaders of the Al-Wefaq party to run for an open seat in parliament. Unaccustomed to political speech making and the media spotlight, the soft-spoken programmer nevertheless decided to take on the challenge — and in October 2010 was elected as the country’s youngest member of its parliament.

Matar had barely begun to settle into his new position when the Arab Spring swept into the tiny country on the Persian Gulf, and long-standing tensions between the ruling Sunni regime and the predominantly Shiite opposition erupted into open conflict. In February, emboldened by the revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt, thousands of protesters hit the streets in Bahrain’s capital, Manama, and security forces cracked down hard, killing seven and wounding hundreds more. Matar was among those who spoke out for reform and peaceful negotiation, and he then resigned alongside 17 other parliament members.

Matar never imagined the price he’d pay for taking this stand. In May he was abducted by masked men in civilian clothes, locked in solitary confinement for 45 days, beaten while blindfolded, then finally released in August. Charged with spreading false information and contributing to an illegal demonstration for undefined “criminal reasons,” Matar is (at this writing) in the midst of a civilian trial.

“After the crackdown started, I was threatened many times that I would be arrested, but I was ignoring all these threats because I did not believe that they would do it,” Matar says in a conversation over Skype from his home in Bahrain.

Reflecting on a tumultuous year, he says, “I was surprised with the dramatic changes and dramatic events that I faced. But I am proud about what I did, and I don’t feel that I made the wrong decision when I decided to enter the election.”

I was threatened many times that I would be arrested, but I was ignoring all these threats because I did not believe that they would do it.
— Former Bahrainian parliament member Matar Ebrahim Matar

One factor in Matar’s shift into politics came back in 2008, when he traveled to the U.S. with the State Department–sponsored Leaders for Democracy Fellowship (LDF) program. Created through the State Department’s Middle East Partnership Initiative, the LDF program brings young professionals from all over the Middle East and North Africa for a month of academic work at Maxwell and a two-month professional assignment in Washington, aiming to promote civic engagement and democratic change through a new generation of leaders. Another State Department initiative, the Civic Education and Leadership Fellows (CELF) program, has similar goals and geographic scope but targets academics in the social sciences. The programs are hosted by Maxwell’s Executive Education unit — LDF since 2007 and CELF more recently.

When these programs were created in the wake of 9/11 and the Iraq War, the rationale behind supporting democratic reform in the Arab world was clear. But few could have foreseen the speed and depth of the changes that were right around the corner, and the significant role that young reformers and activists like Matar would play. The alumni of the LDF and CELF programs — now a network of about 150 men and women in the Middle East from Yemen to Syria, and across North Africa from Egypt to Morocco — provide a view from the front lines of the Arab Spring, both its stunning successes and the challenges that lie ahead.

n considering the experiences of these alumni, what is striking is their diversity — a reflection, too, of the diversity of the region itself. Applicants for the LDF and CELF programs are screened by the Middle East Partnership Initiative offices in Tunis and Abu Dhabi, and by State Department personnel in embassies throughout the region. The 20 to 25 fellows selected each year for the LDF fellowships work in wide-ranging fields — alumni include lawyers like human-rights advocate Abdulhafid Sidoun (’10 LDF) from Libya; academicians, such as linguist and educational reformer Ezzeddine Saidi (’09 LDF) from Tunisia; IT experts like Matar in Bahrain; and journalists like Mohammed Al-Asaadi (’07 LDF), who, while working at the Yemen Observer, was jailed for reprinting the notorious Danish cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammed. Most are between 25 and 40 years old, with at least a bachelor’s degree and English language fluency. And though their levels of direct political involvement vary widely, all share a common commitment to advancing citizen participation and democratic reform in their respective fields.

While at Maxwell, LDF and CELF fellows study political systems of the Middle East and the prospects for democratic change; and participate in skill-building workshops in areas such as writing, speech making, facilitation, and negotiation; and immerse themselves in American systems of governance and civic responsibility. They work with Maxwell faculty members, including Iranian-born political scientist Mehrzad Boroujerdi; Robert McClure, Chapple Family Professor of Citizenship and Democracy Emeritus and an expert on American political process; political scientist Miriam Elman, who studies national security and the Middle East; Catherine Gerard, a public administration adjunct who directs Maxwell’s Program for the Advancement of Research on Conflict and Collaboration; and Tina Nabatchi in public administration, whose specialties include conflict resolution and citizen engagement. Given the range of experiences among the LDF and CELF fellows, these sessions with faculty members are very much two-way exchanges, says Boroujerdi, director of Syracuse University’s Middle Eastern Studies Program (based in Maxwell’s Daniel Patrick Moynihan Institute of Global Affairs).

“It forces you to rethink many of your positions once you know the complexity of some of the problems these people are encountering,” says Boroujerdi. “So imagine you live in a conservative monarchy. To what extent can you introduce change in a place like Bahrain, with the Shiite/Sunni cleavage? How can you create a system that is not as sectarian in its orientation?” The dialogue with these young leaders is a reminder, he says, “that one size does not fit all.”

During the Washington portion of the LDF program, the fellows are placed with nongovernmental organizations, political organizations, and think tanks according to their interests; past affiliations have included Human Rights Watch, the Woodrow Wilson Center, and the United States Institute of Peace. Many fellows have high-level meetings on Capitol Hill and at the State Department as well. Matar, for example, even had the opportunity to critique U.S. support of Bahrain’s ruling regime in a meeting with then–Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice.

What’s so refreshing is you just see so much more hope in terms of what these people think is possible.
— Steve Lux, director, Executive EducationBeyond their academic work and Washington experiences, the LDF and CELF fellows learn much from each other. Steve Lux, director of Maxwell’s Executive Education unit, notes that new arrivals in these programs tend to have very limited knowledge of each other’s countries. “That was one of the shocking things for us: how little Bahrainis would know about Jordan, or how little people from Jordan would know about Tunisia,” says Lux. “Yet it makes sense, because their media are so controlled and they are not getting this information from the education system.” Over the intensive months of the program, the perspectives of the fellows begins to broaden as they compare notes and build new professional networks across international lines.

When the first group of LDF fellows arrived in 2007, Lux recalls, there was a pervasive cynicism about effecting democratic change in their own countries — and even about the U.S. government’s motives for creating such a program in the first place. In this regard, the Arab Spring has fundamentally changed the attitudes of both the most recent fellows and alumni from earlier years. “What’s so refreshing,” says Lux, “is you just see so much more hope in terms of what these people think is possible.”

hen returning to their home countries after the LDF and CELF programs, many alumni resume work in their chosen fields, whether law, journalism, education, or nonprofit management, quietly supporting reform without necessarily hitting the barricades. But the volatile events of the Arab Spring inspired some alumni to make major shifts in their careers or to step fully into the political realm. In Oman, for instance, Deena Ali Al Balushi (’10 LDF) and Mohammed Abdullah Al-Maqbali (’09 LDF) are currently running for parliament.

In the region’s countries still under autocratic rule, though, taking a public stand for democratic reform remains risky. Like Matar, the Bahrainian member of parliament who resigned and was then arrested, some emerging leaders from the LDF program have faced extremely dangerous situations. Ibrahim Al-Klami (’10 LDF), a lawyer and human rights activist in Libya, was arrested last April by Gaddafi’s forces, jailed in Tripoli, and tortured, until rebels finally stormed the prison four months later and released him and the other detainees. Some alumni contacted for this article, from countries such as Syria, where violent crackdowns continue, declined to speak publicly about their political activities because they fear reprisals or the disruption of their networks.

During the Arab Spring, LDF and CELF alumni have played a significant role in spreading news both within and beyond their borders. Fluent in English, experienced internationally, and often computer savvy, these alumni have taken full advantage of social-media technology to share their stories despite media censorship.

As the revolution unfolded in Tunisia, IT expert Khaled Koubaa (’07 LDF) blogged about joining the throngs of young people in the streets demanding “social change without being politically coached.” Internet tools from blogs and video feeds to Facebook and Twitter, according to Koubaa, helped to provide a clear view of these events “due to a lack of official local media coverage.”

During Egypt’s revolution the journalist Nora Younis (’07 LDF), winner of a 2008 Human Rights First Award and another LDF fellow, used her socio-political blog to organize and publicize fast-moving developments, and she became a go-to source for international media reports. In Yemen during the uprising against President Ali Abdullah Saleh, political scientist and activist Ahmed Al-Yemeni (’07 LDF) has engaged in daily press and human rights reporting — a “personal humble attempt,” he says, “to tell the world and international friends what is going on in Yemen.”

Email, Skype, and social networks have also helped many LDF and CELF alumni to stay connected since completing the programs, and in fact the listserv maintained by Maxwell for alumni has become a medium for sharing and discussing news across the region. “What is really fascinating to me is that as these events were unfolding,” says Maxwell political scientist Mehrzad Boroujerdi, “they were sending congratulatory notes every time there was a revolution succeeding in one of these countries and saying, ‘Go, brothers.’”

The connections between Arab Spring events and the State Department programs, with their goal of promoting democratic change, have been particularly vivid for the group of LDF fellows who arrived at SU in March 2011 — a volatile time when Libyan rebels battled Gaddafi forces and protests spread across the region. One of these fellows, Ahlam (’11 LDF), traveled from Bahrain to the U.S. at the beginning of the violent crackdown, just weeks after a mass pro-democracy demonstration.

“Frankly, I never formally participated in any political movement before applying to the program, which was in late 2010,” she writes by email. “I had been involved informally, and because we did not have a proper platform in Bahrain to exhibit such interests I was a bit hesitant. . . . The program could not have come at a more appropriate time.”

For Ahlam, the months since returning to Bahrain have brought many indelible memories, such as the day when 20 doctors and medics were arrested for treating protesters injured during the crackdown. As part of a campaign to track down anyone expressing public support for the protests, she says, printouts of postings on Facebook or Twitter have been used as evidence in the expulsion of hundreds of students and the firing of thousands from their jobs. Ahlam’s sister was expelled from her university based on a Facebook status update.

Ahlam describes a day when two major demonstrations were scheduled — one by the opposition and one by supporters of the government. On the Web, she’d come across disturbing images of pro-government demonstrators wielding weapons. “I have never seen such things in Bahrain,” she says. “I had to see it with my own eyes. I didn’t want to be one of those who believe everything posted online. I drove my car to that area and I was absolutely shocked with what I saw: masked and armed young and old men (only men) holding swords and baseball bats filled with nails and sticks! I drove between them and I was able to take a few photos. That was the day when ‘government-sponsored thugs’ were created.”

Driving from there over to the pro-democracy protest, Ahlam found a starkly contrasting scene, of “men, women, children, young and old, holding the flags of Bahrain and flowers in their hands, chanting for the country and for freedom.” Thinking back on this day, she says, “I had to witness the dark to appreciate the light.”

s the network of LDF and CELF alumni in the Middle East and North Africa grows, the programs are expanding their presence in the region itself. In 2011, at the State Department’s request, Maxwell expanded LDF to include a three-month program in Arabic, based at the School’s partner institution, the American University of Beirut (see page 19). The first group of fellows, representing 10 countries, completed the program in Lebanon last summer.

Maxwell has also organized face-to-face gatherings of LDF and CELF alumni, with annual conferences occurring, to date, in Egypt, Jordan, and Morocco. Julia Ganson, Middle East program manager for Executive Education, expects 60 LDF and CELF alumni at this year’s event, planned for Tunisia in December. The focus of speeches and discussion — not surprisingly — will be the Arab Spring, an apt topic for a meeting in the country where it all began.

The closing months of 2011 — marked by elections in Tunisia, the death of Muammar Gaddafi in Libya, and ongoing unrest in Syria, Yemen, Egypt, and elsewhere — have brought new hopes and uncertainties to the region. And though the pride and excitement is palpable among politically engaged alumni of the LDF and CELF programs, so too is the sense of the distance still to go.

I believe that the whole region is politically flawed. . . . People are very aware of the rights they ought to have.
— Political scientist and activist Ahmed Al-Yemeni, who has reported on unrest in Yemen“The Arab Spring is here for the long run,” says Ahlam, the Bahraini whose political identity was reshaped by pro-democracy protests and the government’s iron-fisted response. ?“I believe that the whole region is politically flawed. ?. . . People are very aware of the rights they ought to have.” Ahmed Al-Yemeni, the activist who continues to send human-rights reports about Yemen to his international network, echoes the sentiment. “It is for sure the beginning of a struggle, and no one knows where and how it is going to end,” says Al-Yemeni. “We are still witnessing its epics and chapters.”

Even in countries such as Egypt that overthrew regimes in power for decades, the work of reformers is just beginning — and the need for new leaders committed to democracy is more urgent than ever. “One thing about victory is that it has this multiplying effect, and everyone wants to claim credit for it or join the bandwagon,” reflects Maxwell’s Mehrzad Boroujerdi. “And so the events of this past year are bound to create more momentum for change.” But the younger generation in particular, he adds, recognizes that democratic reform is a work in progress. “We still don’t know, for instance, exactly where Egypt is going to end up. So the fellows from Egypt of course need to be vigilant about what direction that country is going to take in the coming years.”

The tiny country of Bahrain is one place where the conflicts of the Arab Spring are far from resolved. At this writing, martial law remains in force, and as the trial of Matar Ebrahim Matar proceeds, he is doing what he can to speak out about his situation and to advocate for reform. The toll has been tremendous, not just on Matar — who is still banned from traveling outside the country — but on his young family. “From time to time, whenever I leave the house, they feel I may not return to them,” says Matar of his children, ages three and five, “and they are not able to express this emotion. They are worried but they cannot say it.”

Even so, Matar sees no alternative to taking a public stand — especially since he’s noted that those who’ve stayed silent have received penalties just as harsh as those who’ve been outspoken.

“Despite all these threats, I find myself obligated to fulfill my responsibilities towards the people that voted for me,” Matar says. Since his release from prison, he’s heard the stories of many people who have been blocked from promotions, fired from their jobs, detained, or worse, just for expressing their opinions. In the face of all this, he concludes, “I have no choice but to continue my political work in defending the legitimate demands of the people in Bahrain for real political reform.”.”

Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers is a contributor to National Public Radio’s All Things Considered and the author, most recently, of The Complete Singer-Songwriter.

This article appeared in the fall 2011 print edition of Maxwell Perspective; © 2011 Maxwell School of Syracuse University.