VOL. XLV

No 23

10-June-2002

Arab PressReview

(MEES Translation)

Referenda In The Arab World

The following article by Sahar Bi'asiri (Lebanese journalist) entitled Democracy In Arabic was published in the Lebanese daily al-Nahar on 29 May:

Every Arab whocomplains about the absence of democracy in his state in particular and in theArab world in general has a short memory. If he has forgotten the experience ofpast years when presidents used renewal and extension tactics, along withplebiscites, to...