Though heartened by a recent surge of international unity for the US-engineered transition in Iraq, US President George W. Bush had to confront a major test on Wednesday when he took up a contentious initiative to promote Western democracy in the Middle East.

At the annual summit of the Group of Eight (G8) industrial powers on Sea Island in the United States, leaders of the G8 -- the United States, Britain, Canada, France, Italy, Germany, Japan and Russia, have issued the so-called "Greater Middle East Initiative" to expand a campaign for democracy to the Arab world.

The plan foresees the establishment of several new forums and initiatives to provide a framework for coordinating development and reform efforts.

On the face of it, the US plan would appear to be positive, since it seems that Washington is willing to favor an approach including the tools of "soft power" to promote an agenda from which Arab countries might benefit.

But in practice, the plan is in trouble precisely because it has been born under US intentions.

Criticism came quickly from influential Arab countries, fearing attempts from Washington to impose its own model on them with a heavy hand.

The Bush administration is seen as having ridden roughshod over Arab sensibilities concerning Iraq, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, and the pursuit of the war on terror that many Arabs think has broadened into a general hostility toward Islam.

Moreover, there will be no successful Greater Middle East Initiative without decisive progress toward a resolution of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

The US position in the Arab world has not been helped by Bush's backing of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's handling of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict or the scandal over the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by US guards, which triggered outrage in the Arab world.

Arab countries have their own unique value systems, local traditions and social history that demand respect.

Reform must be an initiative taken up by Arabs on their own to find their own path and follow that path at their own speed.

(China Daily June 11, 2004)