We're more or less in agreement but to get anywhere you have to look at what is possible rather than what is ideal. I'm not sure that changing the way the country is ruled is either necessary for press freedom or (if you mean democracy) would be beneficial to it. There's a strong possibility that a democratic Qatar would be a fundamentalist one. What you get out of a democracy depends on who you put into it. An electorate educated in liberal free-thinking will give one sort of parliament, an electorate steeped in religious traditions will give another. I've long suspected that the educational reforms are intended to indoctrinate the population with more Westernised, liberal ideas before the democracy genie finally escapes from the bottle.
The Emir's Georgetown University speech about Gulf rulers needing to give some power to the people, otherwise the people would take it all, may well reflect a sincere view, in which case he is engaged in a race against time to prepare the people in a way that protects the ruling family's interests and avoids a complete political dislocation. Washington's/Bush's attempts to steamroller reforms through the Gulf were really very dangerous, as they belatedly realised after the Palestinian elections.
We're more or less in agreement but to get anywhere you have to look at what is possible rather than what is ideal. I'm not sure that changing the way the country is ruled is either necessary for press freedom or (if you mean democracy) would be beneficial to it. There's a strong possibility that a democratic Qatar would be a fundamentalist one. What you get out of a democracy depends on who you put into it. An electorate educated in liberal free-thinking will give one sort of parliament, an electorate steeped in religious traditions will give another. I've long suspected that the educational reforms are intended to indoctrinate the population with more Westernised, liberal ideas before the democracy genie finally escapes from the bottle.
The Emir's Georgetown University speech about Gulf rulers needing to give some power to the people, otherwise the people would take it all, may well reflect a sincere view, in which case he is engaged in a race against time to prepare the people in a way that protects the ruling family's interests and avoids a complete political dislocation. Washington's/Bush's attempts to steamroller reforms through the Gulf were really very dangerous, as they belatedly realised after the Palestinian elections.