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A Country with No Politics
Qatar's liberalization has been greatly exaggerated.
by Steven A. Cook
11/13/2004 12:06:00 AM, Volume 010, Issue 10
THE DAY AFTER the small Gulf state of Qatar promulgated a new constitution in late September, its ruler addressed the United Nations General Assembly. The emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, made a forceful case for political liberalization in the Middle East, even challenging fellow Arab leaders to refrain from using the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a pretext for postponing reform. No wonder Sheikh al-Thani is the darling of the Bush administration.
Unfortunately, rather than a bastion of liberal reform, Qatar is actually a bundle of contradictions. While in practice its citizens enjoy greater personal and political freedom than ever before, the regime is nowhere near a democratic breakthrough. Rather, it remains the personal fiefdom of the al-Thani family, and their rule is absolute.
The present emir, who seized power from his father in 1995, has transformed his desert backwater into a gleaming city-state. Unlike Cairo with its 7,000 years of dust and charm, the Qatari capital, Doha, is antiseptic--clean, orderly, over air-conditioned, and altogether reminiscent of a well-to-do enclave in South Florida. "Well-to-do," however, hardly does it justice. Qatar is a gold-plated plastic country sitting on the world's third-largest deposit of natural gas.
With the help of some great press, Qatar has become the "little Gulf state that could," outpacing its Arab brethren in political, economic, and technological development. The emir likes to be seen as a man of the people. For a 60 Minutes piece in August 2003, he drove himself along Doha's corniche waving to the locals with Ed Bradley riding ...
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