Ikhwan Web News Digest 02-04-09

G20 Summet Follow-Up

Gordon Brown, Britain”s prime minister, has opened the G20 summit in London, renewing calls for a common global strategy to fight the economic crisis.

Leaders from the world”s 20 richest nations are holding talks in Britain”s capital on Thursday to try and reach a unified stand on how to kickstart the ailing global economy, which is suffering its worst recession in 80 years. 

Although ministers were saying that the G20 would agree to double IMF funding from $250bn to $500bn, it is now expected that the final figure will be closer to $750bn.

The G20 leaders will also agree to spend more than $100bn boosting world trade, through measures like export credit guarantees, and they will also use the IMF”s “special drawing rights” mechanism to enable developing countries to strengthen their currency reserves.

Stephen Browne, in open democracy, gave an important to-do list for the 20 leaders to boast world economy and overcome the world financial crisis. 

Malaysian Prime Minister Resigned

Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi resigned Thursday, April 2, after six years in office, clearing the way for his deputy to take over the post.

Abdullah will be remembered for allowing more public freedoms than his predecessor Mahathir Mohamad.

But he failed to fulfill his promises to eradicate corruption, reform the judiciary, and strengthen institutions such as the police and the civil service.

The move is part of a carefully orchestrated transition that will see Abdullah hand power to his deputy, Najib Abdul Razak.

The king has already given his consent for Najib to be sworn in as prime minister, and he is expected to take the oath of office, loyalty and confidentiality at the palace in Kuala Lumpur on Friday morning.

New PM in Israel and No Peace to be Seen

Analysts predections proved to be true about Israel”s new prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, they said he is unlikely to pursue a comprehensive solution in the peace process with the palestinains and will lead a government more into setlemeent expansion than concessions for peace

Netanyahu has never supported the creation of a Palestinian state, a principle which Israel agreed to under the 2003 international roadmap.

Right after entering office, Netanyahu, dismessed Annapolis deal and said that the government is not bound by the agreement reached at the Annapolis conference in the US in 2007, which provides for a Palestinian state.

The Israeli foreign minister also criticised the negotiations with the Palestinians that followed the agreement, saying that concessions would bring war rather than peace.

MB, Cyber-Space and Democracy

Evgeny Morozov in Bostonreview tried to answer the questions if the cyber–optimists, who supported the internet and cyber-blogging as an effective tool for political change and democracy? And if the Internet does spread the freedom of political practices?

He tried to highlight the benefits that might be resulted of cyber-space as a non-governmental media outlet in the following points:

– The speed and ease of Internet publishing have made many previous modes of media obsolete; the emerging generation of dissidents now chooses Facebook and YouTube as their headquarters and iTunes and Wikipedia as their classrooms.

– Technology has a role in global causes. In addition to the tools of direct communication and collaboration now available, the proliferation of geospatial data and cheap and accessible satellite imagery, along with the arrival of user–friendly browsers like Google Earth, has fundamentally transformed the work of specialized NGOs; helped to start many new ones.

– The Internet is making group and individual action cheaper, faster, and leaner.

– Citizen access to public documents that might reveal corruption and fraud will spur citizen action.

– The Internet exposes the brainwashed citizens of authoritarian governments to competing and dissenting views about their governments. This helps them develop a different worldview and, potentially, aspirations for democratic change.

– The Internet makes it easier for us to find and join groups that we already agree with, which might, in turn, make our views even more extreme.

– The value that readers place in blogs hinges on the perception that their authors are “independent,” free from manipulation by the state or other third–parties.

These points and much more were highlighted and criticized in his article but it does nothing but to prove the new active wave that young Muslim brotherhood bloggers started to ride, either using blogs to express their demands from the older members in the group, their demands of the government or even to connect more and integrate into their community wherever they may be, or the use of interactive tools such as Facebook, Youtube or even Twitter.

They started to make use of the Facebook phenomenon when a group of young Muslims decided to choose the Internet as a way to spread their message and decided to put the Muslim Brotherhood on Facebook.