Iraqi thinker applauds King Abdullah's futuristic vision

By ARAB NEWS - RIYADH: Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah renewed the “humanitarian concept” based on a set of rules that preclude the use of force to crisis resolution, according to Iraqi thinker Abdul Hussein Sha’ban who gave a lecture at Naif University for Security Sciences here.
At the college of strategic sciences at the university, Sha’ban affirmed King Abdullah had a futuristic vision to the events where the people’s will is not taken seriously. He said the king always sees the events precisely. He talked about King Abdullah’s important message to the whole world through the festival of Janadriyah that the will of the people is a tool for justice, not to perpetuate injustice.

Talking to Arab News, Sha’ban said: “Security is closely linked to freedom and respect of human dignity. Communities that do not enjoy freedom do not enjoy security. No society can live without security meeting the needs of this society and country. Absolute freedom doesn’t exist because if it exists, it will lead to disorder, so the existence of civil society institutions is important to set up the bases of freedom like freedom of opinion, suggesting projects and mobilizing public opinion to promote nationalist causes.”

Talking about foreign funding and outside intervention, Sha’ban said: “Infiltration and intervention occur in the absence of civil society institutions. Countries obtain foreign loans with conditions attached, making the politico-economic concept ‘Serve me to serve you’ meaningless, because this work doesn’t fit with our ideas, visions and societies. So to protect ourselves, we must stick to the freedom and support with immunity civil society institutions as an assistant to the countries and the civil mechanism works better than any other solutions. The civil departments in the ministries of any country have a great role in this regard.”

Sha’ban pointed to the Gulf society as a different example because it enjoys local support, so it doesn’t need foreign assistance. He explained that there are more than 10,000 civil institutions in the Gulf, with other charitable and civilian institutions of great significance.

He said: “The civil institutions’ work is complementary of foreign politics. We can have a clear example in Israel, especially the erosion of its meddling in Gaza and in Durban before that. There must be an Arab awareness of this.”

Concluding his lecture, Sha’ban stressed that civil society can be a force to recokon with when it comes to proposing rules and regulations. “It can be a significant participant in discussions formulating policy, and a qualified partner for development benefiting the decision makers if their orientations were regulatory and responsible,” he said.