The third way

For some time now, many people have been looking for ways to influence issues in our society. Recently, many found a suitable venue in some NGOs, societal campaigns of sorts and other informal, voluntary groupings.

Some of these NGOs, campaigns and groups — comprising, essentially, citizens who are passionate about specific issues and eager to do something about them — are full fledged; many are embryonic still.

Given time, though, they are likely to become quite formidable in their stature and impact.

For decades, apathy and passivity reigned supreme in our society.

Most of the time, people were disappointed with governmental policies and practices. As a result, they have almost lost faith in government and given up on change coming from governmental action.

To be sure, a number of governmental institutions are quite successful, even impressive. Overall, however, government is inefficient.

Governments — people have come to the sad realisation — are incapable of helping them achieve their aspirations, even at an acceptable bare-minimum level.

But the same, alas, applies to political parties.

Aside from their short-lived Indian summer of the 1950s and 1960s, political parties in the country have always been shrouded in mystery and looked upon with suspicion — some of them seen as no more than cults and subversive underground movements.

The image has not changed much, though parties have come into the public domain.

In fact, the negative image regarding political parties has grown in recent years due to two main factors: the violence that erupted during the Arab Spring era in a number of Arab countries, blamed on the opposition and not just the regimes; the poor performance of our parliament.

To be sure, again, some political parties are doing some good work and some parliamentarians have distinguished themselves.

Overall, however, both parties and parliamentarians have failed to live up to people’s expectations and be viewed as viable means of change.

In this vacuum caused by governmental inefficiency and political parties’ irrelevance, the aforementioned NGOs and societal campaign have been born.

Feeling that both government and parties have failed them, people decided to take matters into their hands — positively speaking — and launch campaigns and form grouping of sorts to adopt specific issues, crystalise specific ideas and push for change.

The issues, as well as the campaigns, are varied. They include, essentially, issues that people care about: education, women’s rights, the environment, etc.

This third way — built on the idea of civic engagement — is an auspicious development in our society that should be nourished and supported.