The Peninsula Newspaper
Wednesday, 14 December 2011
The world travel guide “Lonely Planet” published a list in 2011 for the best cities which are recommended to visit. The surprise was that it gathered Muscat in the Sultanate of Oman with New York and London. The features of this city have changed as it, four decades ago, was surrounded by uncivilized and non-urban and developed mountainous areas. Muscat now with its history, heritage, beauty and vitality of its people, competes with Dubai, Manama, Riyadh, Doha and Kuwait City. It was chosen as the capital of Arab tourism in 2011, and got a place in the heart of international tourism encyclopedias with all the merits.
(1) The Omani scene like the other Arab countries witnessed a popular mobility ranging from demonstrations and protests. But when the official media in the Arab countries: Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen and still in Syria, covered the popular movements by ignoring what is happening, denied what was reported by the protesters, distorted the symbols of protest movements and incited against the protesters, the official media of Oman, as told by Dr. Zakaria Al-Mahrami, learnt the lesson which the official media in other countries could not learn, as it surprisingly initiated to cover the Omani events in the hour they occurred and the radio and television also opened a series of open programs that were engaged with the event with all goodwill and the freedom.
It wanted to cover the scenes by itself as it didn’t want to go to the satellite channels and Internet sites and succeeded in the task significantly according to the testimonies of the observers at home and abroad. But that kind of coverage declined thereafter, but the commercial media took the initiative and continued the march of media openness through the big area of freedom provided by the non-official newspapers and some channels, radio and social forums.
But despite the events that were not clear and settled yet , the Omani experience highlighted the strong human culture which was established over the long decades of Oman’s political and social history. This human culture highlighted the diversity, tolerance, acceptance and coexistence with the other and it distinguishes the Omani experience from the surrounding Gulf countries. It is a culture which overlooked the issue of philosophising and theorising to the stability in the depth of the community which seems to be clear in dealing with the various Muslim sects, Sunni and Shia and the official sect of Ibadi as well as Ismailis, Sufis and others. It is one of the big problems in the Gulf States that have religious and sectarian minorities and entered in the doctrinal differences and see the political and social clashes as well as they develop a solution and demand to topple the regime and change it radically, such as Bahrain.
In the Omani experience there is also a place for other people, including the followers of other religions, such as Buddhists, Hindus and Christians including Catholics, Protestants, Orthodox and Coptic and everyone exercises his religious rituals in his temple, monastery, church without prejudice or rigidity and reluctance or refusal. Dr Walid Khalis points out that the Ibadi behavior «in poetry and prose» focuses on «intellectual freedom». It does not claim that it has the truth as claimed by others. There is a long poem with 75 verses of Sheikh Jaad bin Khamis Al-Kharusi, in which he talks about intellectual transformations which is called by the people who believe in behavior and mysticism as Al-Ahwal, which leads to the shrines and promotion. In this poem he says that he sometimes considers himself a Sunni and sometimes as a Shia or Ibadi or Hanafia or Shafai.
(2) The academic references indicate that the Omani history and culture are based on three basic principles, first: The principle of power i e the system of Imam based on consensus, contract and free elections for the Imam and the Shura Council. This principle is the basic rule of democracy in Oman which should be qualified as Omani Islamic democracy. Second: the concept of watan (nation) among Omanis was formed early, and after Oman turned into “spiritual home” for the Ibadhi and became a haven for fugitives from the persecution of the Abbasid authorities. Third: the principle of independence and sovereignty. This principle has been proven practically with the separation of Oman from the Umayyad first and Abbasid in the second half of the second century of Hijri. These three principles were developed during the twelve centuries of practice, history and culture and they formulated the political culture of the country. The “Omani Islamic democracy” is one of the most important axes of Omani history and it especially characterized the political culture of Oman. The Ibaadi movement found the ideological and intellectual identity at the time of early political history. The principle of the Imamate, which was adopted by Ibaadis and which is based on the principles of consultation and free election of the imams, is a principle of consensus and compact and can be classified in the category of real heir of the traditions of Righteous Caliphs’ regime, but the question of compatibility between theory, practice and change remains. The development of experience of the Ibadi Imamate, which was pioneer with all standards, became outdated and the emerging facts were imposed. In addition, the development of the democratic process and its civil and popular institutions is the biggest challenge faced by the Omani experience in the era of Arab revolutions. The Omani experience came out strongly after the events of the sixties, specifically in 1963, when three small organizations “movement of Arab nationalists”, “Oman charitable association” and “organization of Dhofari soldiers” merged together forming (the Popular Front for the Liberation of Dhofar) and fought a relentless war against the regime, but the change came from within the system at the beginning of the seventies and the march of Omani renaissance began and still progressing despite the obstacles and drawbacks.
(3) The Sultanate of Oman recently celebrated its forty-first National Day in a long life of Oman’s magical ability to focus on the construction of the architecture, development of the human, laying the spirit of citizenship, promoting the rights, duties, security and safety of the country, catching up with civilization and keeping away from engaging in conflicts, wars, border disputes and the promotion of the fake achievements and victories which make the Arab leaders happy and cover their failures.
It is time to engage in the process of picking fruit and making big jumps through the establishment of the internal house in the governance and succession, treatment of high concentration of power, distribution of powers, development of process of the Shura Council in the country, expansion of its legislative and supervisory power to address the key and crucial issues and strengthening the role of civil society and its eligible institutions. All indicators point out the big ability of Omani’s to love change and running to catch up with the train that left the station a while ago and not to wait for the next train because time does not
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