PERISCOPE

MIDDLE EAST
Getting Out Ahead
The Bush Administration's grand plan to reform the Middle East may be gaining traction--even though most governments in the region remain deeply suspicious of the U.S. president and his proactive agenda. Last week all parties in Iraq signed an interim constitution that is the first major step in that country's transition to self-rule. The Constitution, which contains the region's first "bill of rights," will remain in force until an elected assembly writes a new one, which then must be approved in a nationwide referendum.

Washington has far less power to effect change in the rest of the Middle East. Still, there is a "bubbling movement toward reform everywhere in the Arab world," says a diplomat in the region. Saudi Arabia has approved the creation of its first private human-rights council, and may soon grant women the right to vote in municipal elections.

In Egypt in particular, President Hosni Mubarak is quietly loosening some of the harsh constraints by which he has ruled for 23 years. Mubarak "is under pressure to [liberalize]," says the diplomat--and his mid-April summit with George W. Bush in Crawford, Texas, is providing an additional fillip. Mubarak last month released hundreds of political prisoners, abolished hard labor for those dissenters still incarcerated and ended prison sentences for journalists. Newspapers now regularly ridicule Parliament and the prime minister, although complaints about Mubarak are still off-limits. "Egypt has a conflicted view of reform," says the diplomat, "rejecting it publicly but working with the U.S. in private. They're taking baby steps in the right direction."

Any reform process is sure to be slow. Religious extremists oppose change, and even moderate Arab regimes are deeply frustrated by America's perceived coddling of Israel. After meeting last week with Secretary of State Colin Powell, Jordanian Foreign Minister Marwan Muasher made clear the sentiment: "Reform is needed in the Arab world, we agree on that. But for it to work, we need ownership of the process, not a one-for-all blueprint from Washington." The Bush administration, taking that view to heart, has decided not announce a broad reform agenda for the Middle East at G7 meeting in June, as originally planned.
-Matthew Craft and Richard Ernsberger Jr.

MALAYSIA
A Leader Takes the High Road
Malaysia's leading opposition party, the Parti-Islam se-Malaysia, has been playing the Islamic card heavily in the run-up to parliamentary elections this weekend. One of its senior officials has repeatedly promised voters that they will go to heaven if they vote PAS, which controls two northern states and 26 seats in Parliament. Hadi Awang, the party's leader, demanded last week that the Constitution be revised so only a Muslim can be prime minister. Awang is now questioning why Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi didn't lead prayers at his own mother's funeral. How good a Muslim can he possibly be?

Interestingly, given how leaders in neighboring Indonesia were too timid last week to speak out against the release of alleged terrorist leader Abu Bakar Bashir, for fear of alienating the country's Muslim majority, Abdullah has not risen to the bait. Senior advisers say his strategy is simply to ignore the PAS clerics. "[He's] focused more on what he considers a modern, moderate, progressive Islam," says political analyst Karim Raslan. "He's dismissed PAS out of hand and moved on." Abdullah may be setting an example for how to deal with the region's relatively small Islamist movements. Most poll watchers are predicting that his ruling coalition will win 80 percent of the national vote, and may retake the Muslim majority state of Terengganu.
-Joe Cochrane