Arab awakening hijacked

ARAB AWAKENING. HAS IT BEEN HIJACKED?

Note: Being the regular reader of Mr. Umair Haque blogs I found a lot that is of interest to me. He normally writes on economic issues and I am a political worker but some times he gives words to my thoughts, "The great collision" was one of many blogs.The para from his blog are given at the bottom.

Arab awakening was the second great phenomenon in Arab history. The revolution by Jamal Abdul Nasir against king Farooq was a mile stone and has its own place in history. Nasir was an indigenous Arab and legendary person. He gave Arabs their stolen identity and status. His legacy will continue. It is not necessary that a legend should be a good politician. Charles de Gaulle was the other example in that period of time.

Nasir nationalisation of Suez and his anti US stance were his great achievements. It was followed by the collapse of monarchical era in middle east. To check his popular appeal of Arab nationalism Americans were quick to prop up king Faisal of Saudi Arabia but he was hardly a match to Nasir . Nasir ruled over hearts of the masses.

The present Arab awakening is a grass roots phenomenon. The rise of the tide was not unexpected but the ferocity was. The lull in Arab world was manifesting itself time to time in a sporadic fashion against the despots, who were vicious and cruel.

The most deadly factor in any circumstances is the fear from fear. The second problem attached with dictatorship is that it creates vacuum. In the vacuum the masses have paralysis of thinking process and the rulers take care that expression of ideas find no way to seep down to the roots of the society. The flow of information is curtailed and the right to assemble are denied. The denial of freedom to assemble and expression manifest itself in individual act.

Collectivity is replaced by individuality. The individual resolve is weakened by fear. This is against the basic human instinct. The human evolution is a natural intrinsic phenomenon that can be stalled but not stopped. As said that one can crush a flower but cannot stop spring to come in full boom.

The human society cannot be gagged. Evolution is basically a process of conscious thinking that result in a chain of events. When the process is ripe it results in change. If the change is suppressed by force, the law of nature comes in to action and there is equal and opposite reaction, that is most commonly accompanied by violence.

The vacuum created by dictators always invite an influx of anarchists. The saner elements are some times sidelined if not organised as happened in Iran. Emotion rides over logic because emotions are more appealing to masses compare to logic.

The present Arab awakening and mass uprising against shah of Iran are the two most recent examples. The shah of Iran was replaced by theocratic dictatorship. The history repeats itself, now international and regional thugs are going to hijack the Arab awakening.

The local repercussion are in the form of most heinous crimes against humanity.

The two important local players Iran and Saudi Arabia, have tightened the grip of terror on their subjects by executions of people on flimsy pretext and to fragmentise the mass uprising on sectarian basis. Iran is playing the Shia card while the Saudi is championing the Wahhabism. The capital punishment in the two countries have been multiplied many times to creat fear. The justice system is tailored to suit the rulers. The trial of late prime minister of Iran lasted for two minutes, a shining example of fair trial?

When Arab awakening started there was a mixture of hopes and despairs, joy and fear. The hopes and joy were inevitable but the fear of hijacking the movement had logical reasons. As mentioned above there was a huge vacuum created by a centuries old despotism. The lack of organisation, the absence of well thought strategy and the non existence of popular leadership were all pointing towards the realisation of fear and despair. We hope not, but it looks that the evil forces have succeeded in their nefarious designs. Our fear had some ground.

In Egypt the army is well dug in politics and is the biggest stake holder in the financial sector. It is holding roughly 25 to 40 percent share in national economy. They are bidding on all possible winning horses in presidential race. And have the advantage to have the final say.

It is least likely to surrender so easily to the history written in Tahreer Square. The Egyptians have to be ready for a second round. It seems the demand of history is more than expected, probably as a punishment for their long silence.

In Yemen the Saudi and US jointly thwarted the direction of mass uprising. The tribalism is the most organised tool to sabotage a national uprising. The late president made himself indispensable like any other dictator. In thirty years of his rule he planted his relatives in the most important and sensitive positions. If it is not impossible, but is certainly most difficult task for the present government to take the cleansing of the official apparatus to its logical end.

Bahrain sheikhdom is another example of US Saudi joint venture. The sting has been taken out of the movement. If there is some change it will be no more than a white wash in the white house. If the majority of Shia sect does succeed in its second attempt with the help of Iran, it will be another sectarian mole in Arab national body.

Libya is a basket of intra tribal rivalry. It is a lot easy to get freedom from a tyrant but it is extremely difficult to avoid another treachery. All factions are armed. To them the logic is the one which comes out with a big bang from the barrel.

The Syrian uprising was in fragments before it erupted. The breaches were fully exploited by the Saudi and Iran. Now it is a sectarian war and has been totally misdirected. The poor Syrian are the victim of the local evils, supported by international devils.

Is it some thing without precedence? No if I am forgiven for my bluntness. Any uprising or liberation struggle that has no properly groomed organisation on the back, with well thought out strategy and disciplined cadre is an easy prey to hijacker. They are bound to back fire. As the uprise is spontaneous and sudden so is its fizzling out. Individualism take the priority over collectivism. Revolution become an anarchy, an unlimited freedom of individuals not of the society.

The international power first try to retain the status quo as it is easier for them to deal with one person but if they fail to save the saviour then they thrive in instability and anarchy. Anarchy and instability provides market for the sale of arsenal, the biggest thriving industry unaffected by recession and gain on destruction and human misery. The humanity becomes the gun powder and is consumed by the evil process. Humanity instead of reaping the harvest of its sacrifices is being reaped by the devilish process.

"We want contracts that don't steal our future — but we're often unwilling to walk away from those that already have. Perhaps we feel a sense of moral responsibility to pay our debts — but I'd suggest the greater, perhaps greatest moral responsibility is choosing to live."

"The great collision isn't (just) tides of protestors crashing into barricades manned by helmeted riot police: nor is it billions of tiny choices to defect from yesterday's broken institutions; to no longer play by a viciously exploitative set of rules that, if obeyed to the letter, will probably leave one broke, miserable, and broken. It's not a global Arab Spring, nor simply the millions of human awakenings that must precede it — but a collision against the self that's the result of an inability to rebel; the collision of the conformist with the need to create the future."

Extracts from the great collision by Umair Haque

Dr. Khurshid Alam

14/04/2012