04 August 2016Mahboob A Khawaja
The contemporary Arab world is fraught with formidable forces of diverse
enemies - the self, the authoritarian rulers and foreign interventionists –
the ex-colonial masters. Common sense stops at various levels to reflect on
the real problems. Greed of power, sectarian hatred and missing sense of moral
and intellectual visionary leadership to deal with the real problems of
political transformation. Once the Arab people were a model of progressive
culture of Islamic unity respecting the human freedom of thoughts and actions,
ethnic diversity, equality, social justice and emancipation of sustainable
future. It was all destroyed by affluent agents of foreign influence-the
tribal leaders and continuous warfare for greed of political hegemony over
people, natural resources and tribalism. Today's bloodstained tyranny of the
Arab authoritarianism overrides the facts of Arab culture, history and a
progressive civilization that lasted for eight hundred years in Al-Andalusia-
Spain. Could any one factor be reason for the Arab world's continuous downfall
and moral and intellectual disintegration?
When you call the authoritarian leaders to planned political transformation
into the 21st century of knowledge-based dialogue, reasoning and systematic
political change, they will reject it and mock at your rationality.
Authoritarianism is not the exclusive outgrowth of the Arab culture and
intellectual norms but an imported by-product of the European colonial legacy.
When the British, French, Italian, Dutch and now Americans moved into the Arab
Middle East, they dismantled the Arab traditional lifelines and replaced it
with their own values of thinking, laws and order, system of governance and
perpetuated animosities to divide and rule the Arab people. Nobody termed it
''terrorism'' against the helpless Arab masses whose planned disconnect with
their own values and aspirations for future was to ensure the grand scheme of
empire-building. Palestinians are not the only victims but the entire Arab
political embodiment speaks for itself.
The Arab Masses in Search of Intelligent Leaders
Of more importance is the spectator role of all the Arab rulers of the Middle
East. How come after more than sixty years of freedom from the European
imperialism, the Arab societies do not have any educated, responsible and
intelligent leaders to offer sense of moral and political security to the
people in crisis? Why should President Obama and President Putin intervene to
resolve the Arab leader's adversity and intransigence against their own
masses? Are the Arab rulers a dead-ended entity flourishing in the midst of
daily civilian bloodsheds? Where is the Arab leader's moral and intellectual
consciousness of the gravity of the crises and accountability to the people?
Where is the so called economic prosperity that the Arabs were supposed to
enjoin in the contemporary world? How could Obama or Putin bring change, sigh
of relief and halt in daily massacres carried out by the Arab armies against
their own people? Does the Arab authoritarianism or the cruelty of systematic
killings make any sense to a rational thinker? The voices of reason and human
conscience must speak loud and clearly. There are no Arab leaders having
legitimacy in political governance or having chosen by the Islamic principles
of ''Shura'' (consultation) of the people. President Morsy represented the
will of the people in Egypt but he was abruptly ousted by the military
dictatorship. All the Arab states are in a state of political chaos, shattered
dreams and extreme uncertainty lacking any proactive plan how to come out of
the prevalent political ruthlessness and viciousness ordained by the rulers.
The Arab people need no new enemies; the rulers are doing the job. The
contemporary Arab rulers are the new age political monsters – facilitating a
favorite perversion from the facts of life - the real issue of Palestine and
peace with Israel is sidelined and being marginalized. There are no
responsible Arab leaders to stand for facts of the Arabian political landscape
and be productive. The focus should have been on Palestine and to pursue
progressive negotiated resolution for the establishment of an independent
State of Palestine and co-existing in peace with Israel. Throughout the oil
exporting Arab world, the contemporary rulers have turned out to be complacent
in the US –Israeli strategic plans for the future of the Middle East.
Ironically, it is hard to imagine if the prosperous Arab rules occupying
dusted palaces have any consciousness of the interest of the masses or the
real world affairs in their own backyards.
Would the Arab People Undermine Their own Future?
With unstoppable cycle of political killings and daily bloodbaths in so many
Arab states - Syria, Iraq, Palestine, Libya, Yemen, and spill-over impacts to
other oil producing Arab nations - and reactionary militancy against the
authoritarian rule and dismantling of the socio-economic infrastructures - is
the Arab world coming to its own end because of the sadistic authoritarian
rulers? The Arab leaders and the masses live and breathe in conflicting time
zones being unable to see the rationality of people-oriented Islamic
governance, the worst is yet to come, surrender to foreign forces as there are
no leaders to think of the future or the Arab armies to defend the people.
There are no educated, conscientious or publicly elected legitimate leaders in
the Arab- Muslim world. There are no independent public institutions in the
Arab world to provide critical and impartial analyses on the global political
affairs or reflect on possible remedies in war and peace. Throughout the
Arab-Muslim world, there is not a single established university teaching
global peace, security and conflict management - the institutions dealing with
the present and envisioning the future that the Western nations are built upon
for change and development. Leaderless Muslim masses appear desperate to look
for a visionary and intelligent leader to offer some sense of moral and
intellectual security. Across the Arab - Muslim countries, leaders live in
palaces, not with people. If there were educated and intelligent leaders in
the Arab world, one could reason the unreason. But the oil exporting Arab
leaders operate from a position of political weakness, not of strength to play
any useful role at the global political theatre. The vision if there is one,
is clearly a blind vision of the present and future, always expecting from
others to do things for the oil enriched and useless figure heads. Professor
John Esposito, (Unholy War and What Everyone Needs to Know about Islam, 2nd
ed. 2011), a reputable scholar of Western-Islamic culture and history at the
Georgetown University, offers a lesson in contemporary political affairs:
''An important lesson of history is that rulers and nations do rise and fall.
Unforeseen circumstances can bring up unanticipated change. Few expected the
breakup of the Soviet Union and the liberation of Eastern Europe to occur when
they did ……now is the time for those in all walks of life (political,
economic, military, media and academic) who wish to see a new order not to be
silenced but to speak out, organize, vote and be willing when necessary to
make sacrifices in promoting a new global order.''
Islam professed reason, unity and tolerance as vital components of the public
governance. Many ego-centric Arab rulers have a smug sense of
self-righteousness as they continue to enforce wrong thinking, wrong ideas and
wrong priorities to extend much hated political dictatorships. None of them
took counseling what happened to Saddam Hussain, Qadafi, Abdullah Saleh and
Hosni Mubarak and now fast coming to Bashar al-Assad. The Arab police states
flourish because of the false motives, political deception, taunting malice,
lack of understanding of the phenomenon of political change and disorientation
to the real problems of social - political life. The masses and the rulers
need to look at themselves in the mirror. How should the global community view
the contemporary Arab societies living under obsessed conspiracies of power
and corruption of tribal authoritarianism for over half a century? They are a
failure on all the major frontlines of global affairs. If Palestine is not
resolved because the Arab states are weak and indifferent to the focal issue
of the Middle East political lifelines. What happened to their Islamic
culture, values and glorious civilization? Was the petrodollar a conspiracy
(''fitna'') to disconnect the Arab people from the Islamic civilization?
Ironically, how the few tribal leaders could have managed the time and history
on their own unless large segments of the masses were complacent in making the
tragedy of deaths and destruction?
Time and History Demand New Thinking for Political Change
The compelling realities across the beleaguered Arab world
demand new thinking, new proactive visionary leadership, men of new ideas and
plans to deal with unwarranted bombing of the civilian population, wholesale
deaths and deliberate destruction of the Arab people and culture and millions
of displaced refugees-nowhere to go. These are highly urgent and sensitive
issues of the 21st century politics, individual absolutism, human freedom and
justice involved in cross-cultural conflicts. There are countless issues to be
addressed across the socially, economically and political broken,
dysfunctional and sometimes badly ruptured Arab societal landscape. Failure to
tackle these volatile issues will collapse the Arab's freedom, culture and
futuristic sustainability. Proactive visionary leadership and political
accountability are critical to imagine a transformational future.
Time and history are not on the side of the besieged rulers
doomed to be replaced by those friendly to the Western powers and new
political imagination of the people seeking societal change. As it stands now,
Arab leaders have no other thought and priority except to check the depleted
oil prices, and count the dead bodies - soon they could be part of abstract
statistic debated and defined by the American and Europeans warriors as to how
the Arabs lost their national freedom, human dignity and oil pumping economic
hollowness. To reverse the naďve blunders for accidental change, taunting
malice and missing understanding of transformational leadership and to strike
a rational outlook for the future, this author (''Arab Leaders Count Dead
Bodies but Peacemaking is not the Aim.'' Uncommon Thought Journal, 2/19/2015),
offered the following insight and reminder to all concerned across the Arab
world:
Once the Arabs were leaders in knowledge,
creativity, science and human manifestation, progress and future-making - the
Islamic civilization lasting for eight hundred years in Al-Andulsia- Spain.
But when they replaced Islam - the power and core value of their advancements
with petro-dollars transitory economic prosperity, they failed to think
intelligently and fell in disgrace and lost what was gained over the
centuries. They relied on Western mythologies of change and materialistic
development which resulted in their self- geared anarchy, corruption, military
defeats and disconnected authoritarianism. The Western strategists ran planned
scams of economic prosperity to destroy the Arab culture with their own oil
and their own money turning them redundant for the 21st century world. Today,
the Arab leaders are so irrational and cruel that they reject all voices of
reason for change and human development only to bring more deaths and
destruction to their societies.
(Dr. Mahboob A. Khawaja specializes in global security, peace and conflict
resolution with keen interests in Islamic-Western comparative cultures and
civilizations, and author of several publications including the latest: Global
Peace and Conflict Management: Man and Humanity in Search of New Thinking.
Lambert Academic Publishing, Germany, May 2012)
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