Palestine - what next?

Most accounts I have read of the recent Palestinian elections seem to indicate that this a good chance up to clean up the Paltestinian Authority of long standing corruption, mis-governance and justice.

The death of Yassir Arafat and the election of a new president have created an opportunity for badly needed reform of the Palestinian Authority. The World Bank in its governance indicators ranks the Authority in the bottom 16 per cent of governments around the world in its ability to control corruption and halfway down the scale in terms of effective rule of law. There are roughly nine Palestinian security services in the West Bank and Gaza each. They range from civil police to the General Intelligence service, or Mukhabarat Salamah. Arafat retained power and control over these services with few checks and balances. They were organised under the rule of political leaders rather than the rule of law. The restructuring should include decreasing the number of services, eliminating direct executive control over them and separating law-enforcement functions from intelligence and other security aspects by placing them in different ministries.

The second needed step is to ensure that the Palestinian Authority has a viable, independent administration of justice. The elements that underpin the rule of law — such as prisons, courts, the legal sector and security services — should be regarded as linked and interdependent.

Read on here for the complete article, it is a good read. It will indeed be interesting to see what follows the elections, and if restructuring will really happen. From the little reading I have done of Edward Said, seems like the Palestinian Authority/Organization really needs transparency in its working, and a more practical agenda than was attempted by Yassir Arafat.