Democracy in the Middle East

As I mentioned here, I'm not even remotely close to an expert on affairs of state in the Middle East. However, I know someone who is. Regular readers of this blog will already know the high esteem I have for Akaash Maharaj. I admire the man in large part because he has made the values of his liberalism the foundation of his vocation through his work as CEO of the Concordis Foundation. I've been reading his blog these past few days where he's been detailing his exploits at a summit in Jordan on building Democracy.

Having been following Akaash's exploits already I was a little suprised to receive the e-mail below from former Ontario Premier David Peterson and thought I'd share it with the world (hopefully I'm not offending):

Dear Colleagues,

I'm delighted to ask you to join me in monitoring a set of United Nations talks, aimed at bolstering democracy and security in the Middle East.

My friend Akaash Maharaj is the Canadian participant at the UN meetings in Jordan, and he has taken the extraordinary step of publishing a daily account of developments through his blog at < http://www.maharaj.org/blog.shtml >. Akaash believes that greater public scrutiny makes for better and more accountable politics, and I hope you'll visit his blog and send him your thoughts.

Held under the authority of the UN's International Leadership Institute, the initiative is bringing together elected MPs from across the Middle East, and exposing them to democratic leaders from Europe and North America. The programme looks to help the MPs broaden their understanding of democracy, to increase their capacity to uphold the rule of law in their countries, and to develop non-violent strategies for conflict resolution in the region.

Akaash's focus at the talks is on freedom of expression, diplomacy and international law, and peaceful co-existence between Israelis and Palestinians. He seems to prefer the easy subjects.

We've never been more aware of the importance of democracy across the world to the well-being of each of us across our country.
Working together, Canadians can make our country a better place by making the world a better place.

Sincere regards,
The Hon David Peterson, PC, QC

So while Akaash is in Jordan hoping democrats to further develop their own democracies, I'd hope that the members of the national executive of the Liberal Party are able to remind themselves what democracy requires. In our case, as Liberals, it requires an open and fair leadership process with a sufficiently long time line. I'm proud to share membership in a party with both these men.

For free, here's my favorite quote from Akaash's bloggery thus far:

Moreover, being a Canadian is the diplomatic equivalent of the vegetarian option: acceptable to virtually everyone, likely safe in an uncertain setting, but something of a mystery until it arrives. As a result, the other guests seemed disarmed when they spoke with me, and were surprisingly candid.