Progress is more than importing technologies. There is an illusion that the adoption of IT–including the Internet, e-commerce and mobile phones–brings the Arab world closer to development: greater access to IT, apparently, will put people in touch with modernity. But this aggressive pursuit of high tech hardly meshes with the region’s failure to introduce technology to the bedrock of society: libraries and schools.
Information technology is fashionable, but Arab leaders are not prepared to take other steps in social, political or economic development: none wants to disturb the existing social order, to share political power with the population or to give up the economic advantages that come with leadership. Despite the IT fanfare, only 10 percent of the Arab population uses the Internet, and those who do are typically well-established young men with a vested interest in the status quo. The vast majority have no Internet access, and many are illiterate.
Because of their wealth, the Gulf Cooperation Council states lead the Arab world in IT imports. Examine their readiness to promote widespread use of IT, however, and it’s clear that the leaders aren’t ready to make Netizens of their citizens. Recent United Nations data on education, economics and health show the gulf in crisis even though its gross national product and GNP per capita are among the highest in the world. The gulf also scores very low in regard to freedom of the press, corruption, political accountability and investment incentives.
Scholars like Samuel Huntington point out that development is more than just modernization; it includes, among other things, the formation of political institutions and the development of a middle class. If the Arab world is to progress, its leaders must adopt IT as a means to that end, and not as an end in itself. More needs to be done to educate the people to make IT more accessible to them as a tool for social, political and economic development.
