- A piching delusion
By: Urwa Khurshid
Every region has an air of its own, a feel which sets the pace of society. Volatility is a practice deep rooted in the Middle-Eastern part of the world. The Uprisings of 2011 were not one of their own kind but were a reaction to myriad factors all added up to exacerbate the geopolitical situation of the Arab World. Because of the similarity of upheaval-like-circumstances a new term is coined by the geo-political scientists which is ‘The Greater Middle East’ encompassing areas of Levant, Persian Gulf and North Africa making it a concern of newspapers rather than of an atlas.
The Middle East region has been in a state of turmoil ever since the discovery of oil (65 percent of the world’s) earlier in 20th century. Whether it’s the fall of the Ottoman Empire or the establishment of Israel, everything served purposefully to the ultimate result. A land prone to instability was further engaged in the question of governance which has left it in a blind alley after the famous Arab Spring– seemingly a natural outrage but practically a planned one. This will be proved further.
There were states which were not bothered or were recovered quickly from this shocking eruption and they were none other than Israel and Saudi Arabia
The Arab Spring was inspired by the Jasmine revolution in Tunisia started by the self-immolation of street-vendor Mohammed Bouazizi to protest the subjective seizing of his vegetable stand by police over failure to obtain a permit. This rage hit a massive number of people and so resulted in the abdication of autocratic president Zain el Abideen, who then had to flee to Saudi Arabia. This instigated a large population all around the Greater Middle East to rise against the authoritarian regimes in their own territories. The Governments were overthrown in the same style in Egypt and Yemen, bringing the long reigning Hosni Mubarak and Ali Abdullah Saleh to an end, marking the start of a new crisis. The demise of Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi brought nothing but a civil war. The anti-government protests (major or minor) did bring subtle reforms and changes in governmental spheres but worse effects appeared in Iraq, Syria and Libya where non-ending civil wars commenced which are going on till the date. The total death toll exceeding 61,000 presents one big question, was it good enough to bring self-rule? The western scholars would assume the region was ‘not fit for democracy’ or the struggle was all about the ‘ancient hatreds’ and not against tyrannical rulers, but for that history needs to be revisited. Was the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire able to bring peace and democracy? Or did it actually produce a new era of dictators and monarchs? Was US President George Bush’s claim to be remembered by the invasion of Iraq as one bringing freedom and hope to Middle East be justified? The answer is ‘clear ambivalence’.
The ongoing havoc in Sudan– an important African-majority Arabic-speaking country with one-tenth of oil exports– is not a new episode, in fact it is a replica of incessant past events of the region. Insurgencies and toppling down of long-reigning rulers is a trend that had been set right from the start of the current decade. A crowd of protestors chanting ‘Victory or Egypt’ explains the link. Not that they want to join Egypt but actually seek motivation from the protesters of Tahrir Square. With Omar-al Bashir gone, all that they rebelled against is re-asserted leaving them in an illusion and in brutality.
Unlike the past, the economies of the region have plummeted swiftly as a whole, totalitarian governments, with deep-state actors involved, are in difficulty, so the situation for security is ,uncertain giving rise to extremist organizations like ISIS and Al-Qaeda, Houthi rebels stimulating internal clashes, state-conducted carnages and migration in abundance is the grim face of the Greater Middle East now.
A region with a budding population of youth and rich in “black gold” is nothing short of a heaven for world powers. More, the region is instable, more is this benefiting for their business interest. Apparently, the movement was entirely indigenous with no foreign actors involved but this is doubtful. Stay of the US Army for eight years in Iraq not just ruined it completely but also exposed the whole region to vulnerability. As for Sudan, the inside reports say that European powers back the forces and pay them to carry on killing so that migration could be thwarted. The principles of neo-imperialism have been practiced here with the then Obama administration ‘leading from the back’. NATO airstrikes during the mutiny in Libya, withdrawal of foreign investment from the banks leading to a major deficit and drop in the GDP, proxy wars in Syria turning the historic city of Aleppo into a wreckage. The interests of western powers are at stake in this territory of potential, and so to have their gains they instigate multiple different theories. The internal disputes like the one going on the borders of Saudi Arabia and Yemen, the clash of Hamas and Al-Fatah in Palestine, the actual and intellectual discords of pro-government and pro-democracy forces like that of SCAF (Supreme Council of Armed Forces) and Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. The other dispute of that type is of Sunni-Shia conflict which is rooted back in the contrast of Arab and Ajam now separating and actually isolating Iran and Iraq from the rest of the region. One thing here is to be noted that there were states which were not bothered or were recovered quickly from this shocking eruption and they were none other than Israel and Saudi Arabia, partners hand in hand. They opted the policy of acting as doves with the USA. For all intents and purposes, the USA has always shown commitment to the strengthening and prosperity of Israel and has been the biggest and a stalwart partner ever since its creation because of the input of Jews in a larger portion of the US economy. President Obama played smart, but President Trump and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman have swept aside any diplomatic obstacle in this regard and so the agenda is crystal clear as presented by the Zionist theoretician Theodor Herzi in his book New Society and by one of the Israeli foreign ministers Shimon Peres in The New Middle East. Both of these ideas have been the obsession for the Jewish Government policy which has altogether reshaped the greater Middle East.
Change has proved to be a delusion. It is a reminder of the magnum opus by George Orwell, Animal Farm, which implied the desire of change as simply the change of faces while the masses are easily manipulated. It would be right to say that the region certainly has to go a long way before adjusting to the imported western idea of democracy but should also does not approve of the despotic tendencies of their governments because power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
