Qatar backtracks on engagement with critics
By James M. Dorsey
After four years of engagement with its critics in a so far
failed bid to turn its hosting of the World Cup into a successful soft power
tool, Qatar appears to have decided that the region’s tendency to intimidate
those who don’t fall into line may be a more effective strategy.
In doing so, Qatar appears to be backtracking on its record
of being the one Gulf state that instead of barring critics entry or
incarcerating them – standard practice in most countries in the region – worked
with human rights and trade union activists to address concerns about the
working and living conditions of migrant workers who constitute a majority of
the population.
The cooperation resulted in key Qatari institutions adopting
forward looking standards that would improve conditions and modernize but not
abolish Qatar’s controversial kafala or sponsorship system that puts workers at
the mercy of their employers.
Qatar’s engagement sparked understanding among major
segments of the international human rights community, including Amnesty
International and Human Rights Watch, of the existential issues involved in
labour reform in a country in which the citizenry accounts for only 12 percent
of the population. Many Qatar’s fear that tinkering with the labour system
would be opening a Pandora’s Box that could lead to them losing control of
their society and culture.
Labour has emerged as the major distraction from Qatar’s
success in winning the right to host the 2022 World Cup against the backdrop of
a relatively high workers death rate and criticism of the conditions in which
primarily Asian workers live and work. Qatar has conceded that it needs to
reform its labour system in a bid to fend off calls that it be deprived of its
World Cup hosting rights but has been slow in implementing reform.
Theo Zwanziger, the outgoing member of the executive
committee of world soccer governing body FIFA in charge of monitoring Qatari
progress on labour reform and a long standing Qatar critic, has warned that the
Gulf state’s snail pace approach could result in a resolution being tabled at
the group’s congress later this month demanding that the World Cup be moved
away from Qatar.
Mr. Zwanziger’s warning rings hollow against the backdrop of
guarantees given to FIFA by Russia, the host of the 2018 World Cup, that it
would suspend labour laws with regard to World Cup-related projects. FIFA has
said the German television report had taken the agreement with Russia out of
context.
Qatar’s backtracking in the form of the detention of foreign
journalists, including ones invited by the government, who investigate worker’s
living and working conditions, and warnings to those in Qatar who have worked
with Qatari institutions, human rights groups and trade unions comes as Gulf
states adopt more assertive regional and foreign policies. In doing so, Qatar
joins the conservative Gulf mainstream.
The United Arab Emirates has in recent weeks barred entry to
a New York University professor who was scheduled to attend a conference at the
university’s Abu Dhabi campus and two prominent artists, including one
associated with the Guggenheim Museum, that is building a satellite in the
emirate, because of their criticism of the UAE’s labour regime.
Gulf states distrust US policy in the Middle East,
particularly the Obama administration’s handling of nuclear negotiations with
Iran that could return the Islamic republic to the international fold. They
also feel that Iran is projecting its power in the region through proxies that
are encircling the Gulf. In response, Gulf states led by Saudi Arabia have
become militarily and politically more assertive as in Yemen where they have
waged a destructive bombing campaign and in Syria with stepped-up support for
rebels fighting the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.
Gulf assertiveness began with Saudi troops helping in
brutally suppressing a popular revolt in Bahrain in 2011 and the kingdom
together with the UAE and Kuwait backing a military coup in Egypt in 2013. Qatar,
with its close ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, appeared at the time of the coup
to be the one Gulf state charting an independent course.
With Qatar’s falling more in line with the more hard line
mainstream Gulf approach, Oman is replacing Qatar as the odd man out in the
Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), the regional group that brings together Saudi
Arabia, Qatar, Oman, Bahrain, the UAE and Kuwait. Oman has refused to join the
bombing campaign in Yemen, mediated US contacts with Iran that put the nuclear
negotiations into high gear, and has rejected militarization of the GCC.
In the latest evidence of a reversal in Qatar’s approach,
security forces detained a BBC television team that had been invited by the
government to report on the labour issue. “We were invited to Qatar by the
prime minister's office to see new flagship accommodation for low-paid migrant
workers - but while gathering additional material for our report, we ended up
being thrown into prison for doing our jobs,” wrote Mark Lobel on the BBC’s
website.
The 13-hour detention of the BBC journalists followed the
arrest earlier this year of a German television team. Both teams had their
equipment confiscated, which in the case of the Germans was returned only after
all data had been wiped out. In a meek defense, the Qatar Supreme Committee for
Delivery & Legacy that is responsible for the 2022 World Cup said the
German crew had failed to obtain proper permissions to film. It is an argument
that doesn’t hold in the case of the BBC.
FIFA’s rejection of the findings of the German documentary
and particularly the fact that it expressed surprise that one of its media
partners would report independently and critically about the group raises
questions about the sincerity of its pledge to investigate the detention of the
BBC journalists. "Any instance relating to an apparent restriction of
press freedom is of concern to FIFA and will be looked into with the seriousness
it deserves," the group said in a statement on the BBC case. It did not
issue a similar statement when the German team was detained.
It is unclear whether the hardening attitude of Qatar that
is also reflected in sources in Qatar being hesitant to speak out after having
been reportedly advised to lie low is simply security forces taking a tougher
position as they forge closer security and intelligence ties to other Gulf
states or whether it reflects an overall change in Qatar’s approach.
Qatar’s changed approach could well signal a partial shift away
from seeing soft power as the main pillar of its security and defense
architecture in the absence of the manpower or strategic depth to project hard
power to adherence to a Saudi-led projection of military force. Qatar last year
stepped up its arms purchases with an $11 billion deal to acquire US Patriot
missiles.
Yet, Qatar, given that it is sandwiched between Iran across
the Gulf and Saudi Arabia, sees the kingdom as both an ally and a threat, Qatar
is likely to walk a fine line even if it adopts some of its big brother’s more
repressive tactics.
In the end, it doesn’t really matter in an autocratic state
in which decision making is highly centralized. At risk is Qatar’s potential of
become a rare example of a mega-sporting event leaving a legacy of social if
not political change rather than white elephants and financial loss. The World
Cup offers Qatar an opportunity to put its best foot forward and emerge as a
forward-looking 21st century regional model. The question is whether
Qatari backtracking will squander the Gulf state’s unique opportunity.
James M.
Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies
as Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, co-director of the Institute
of Fan Culture of the University of Würzburg and the author of the blog, The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer, and a forthcoming book with the
same title.
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