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On Monday, February 13, 2012 HDFF team attended a symposium arranged by the German –Southeast Asian Center of Excellence for Public Policy and Good Governance (CPG) on the topic of “Arab Spring – Prospects and Challenges for Good Governance in the Near and Middle East”. The event was held at the Faculty of Law, Thammasat University (Phrachan Campus) in Bangkok.

The topic refers to a series of revolutionary movements across the Near and Middle East, known as Arab Spring, in which mass demonstrations against longstanding authoritarian regimes have provoked vital discussions on prospects for different forms of governance in the region.

The first panel began with an introductory lecture by Mr. Henning Glaser from the Faculty of Law, Thammasat University, on “Patterns and Cleavages of Governance in the Middle East”.  Mr. Glaser stressed that the driving force of uprisings in the Arab countries was not Islam, but arose out of demand for legitimacy and long-term change in the authoritarian regimes. Mainly, patterns of those revolutionary events combined initial sparks, existing reform demands and fundamental conflict lines. Although Mr. Glaser gave an overview of historic events in respect to the Arab countries from World War I onwards, he focused his presentation on Tunisia, Egypt and Jordan to point out differences in their respective dealings with the Arab Spring movement.

The following lecture given by Dr. Christoph Marcinkowski from the International Institute of Advanced Islamic Studies, Kuala Lumpur, was about “The ‘Arab Spring’: Struggle for Civil Liberties or Drive Toward Islamist Theocracy?”.  Dr. Marcinkowsi pointed out the importance of social media in recent revolutionary movements and, due to his academic specialization, compared recent developments with the Iranian Revolution of 1978/79. He identified the outcome of the Iranian revolution as the most likely way forward for the countries affected by the Arab Spring movements.

The second panel analyzed the issue further on its impact and comparison to Islamism and potential movements in the Southeast Asian regions. Dr. Imtiyaz Yusuf from the Graduate School of Philosophy and Religion, Assumption University, presented his lecture on “Arab Spring and the Muslim Southeast Asia”. Dr. Yusuf defined Arab Spring as a broad democratic alliance aiming for good governance and welfare state, instead of an Islamic state. He identified Southeast Asian Islam as historically more peaceful and democratic as civic Islam is stressed more than political Islam. To establish stable democracies in the Middle East, problems such as the Sunni-Shia conflict as well as youth unemployment and the state of women in Muslim societies have to be tackled first.

The last lecture was on “Democratic Recovery Process in the Middle-East” presented by Dr. Sukree Langputeh from Department of Islamic Law, Faculty of Islamic Studies, Yala Islamic University. Dr. Langputeh divided Islam into three different categories including Islamic state, Islam in Muslim countries, and Islam as a minority in non-Muslim countries. The effort of some revolutionary groups is to consolidate Islam and democracy into one thing, while another, more sustainable, concept is to view Islam and democracy as two different things that can work harmoniously with each other. Dr. Langputeh promoted the idea of harmonization between Islam and democracy in which the country can be democratic and integrate Islamism into the lives of its people. Moreover, he discussed Islam and Muslims in Southern Thailand and concluded that incidents similar to the Arab Spring are not likely to happen in Thailand due to the different mindsets of Muslim people in the country.

All panelists agreed that different models of government will emerge out of the Arab Spring, but were divided on their expectations of stable democracies arising out of the revolutions. The HDFF team present gained additional insight and will put this knowledge into use in future programs and research.