The Straw of Disasters that Breaks the Back of the Arab System
By: Dr. Bouthaina Shaaban
One would stand astonished in front of the intensity of events storming the Arab countries one after the other since September 11th, which have hardly left them any weight in international realm. In order not to go too far with the conspiracy theory, look at imbalances of powers as a reason and not a result, or talk about targeting Arabs and Muslims by some Western alliance formulated centuries ago for many reasons, we should take an examining look at the Arab reality, crises and complications that no one tried to resolve or surpass. Since the second half of the twentieth century, wars, defeats, catastrophes, invasions, occupations, settlements, have piled up in the Arab world. Some have justified them in their aftermath, instead of acting at the right time to prevent their happening, or at least prevent their recurrence, by identifying the defects and weaknesses that brought them about, beginning with wrong policies and ideas, and ending with dereliction of institutions or officials, and holding each one accountable to their responsibilities. The Arab political system, established at the dawn of independence to accomplish the minimum Arab unity through unifying goals, hopes and destinies, has become stagnant at the very moment of its inception. It has become a some entity and mechanisms that belong to the forties of the last century. Everyone, leaders and thinkers alike, have been unable to shed off the circumstances of that period.
Real resurrection for any nation needs work mechanisms, disclosure, calling things by their real names, and avoiding the recreation of some hypothetical reality that exaggerates responsibility and suffering, while the real efforts are focused on position, personal interests and personal grandeur.
The Arab system as a whole has thus remained at its 1940’s stage, and the concept of citizenship and belonging remained fragile and unidentified even in school curriculums. The books of history and geography and culture still teach vague and abbreviated concepts that do not contribute in any way to forming a unifying national, psychological, cultural and ethical identity for the children of a nation living in the twenty-first century. Relations between Arab countries have also remained, in spite of the sisterly prefix, far less than those between neighboring countries that are not bound together by language, culture or history. In fact those relations are much weaker and probably less friendly than relations with some state enemy to Arabs. An Arab citizen could easily feel that the geographically closest Arab capital is some universal secret, unreachable sometimes except through a Mediterranean European tour.
Is it plausible that the Arab League today, after six decades of its establishment, postpones to its next summit meeting some procedural issues that have been surpassed by similar organizations all over the world long time ago, such as whether it should work by vote or majority over the issues? And whether coordination between Arab countries is healthy or whether there were detrimental infiltrations that have caused disasters and will cause disasters in the future? The list goes on, but the reason that underlies all this failure is wasting time, resources, capacities and values, as well as the lack of transparency with the people, and seeking domestic consent through old formulas restricted to traits, corruption and oppression to convince people that achievements have been big. This is instead of disclosure and public participation to achieve real development, and catch up with the international community in all fields.
This is why, and with the first test, when two Arab leaders or governments fall at odds, the Arab system stands helpless in dealing with the repercussions of one event or another. Foreign interference then begins, for its own reasons, interests, and agenda that serves the prosperity and welfare of its own people and only makes our people poorer, more loathing of their reality, and more worried about their future. And this is why we see today events that look ordinary within the context of Arab reality, but that make great changes in that very reality, while Arabs are unable to take any measures towards them, for the straw of delaying resolving internal Arab crises has broken everybody’s back.
Arab governments continue drowning in the predicament either by ignoring what should be done on the ground, or by blaming it all on some inimical schemes put to undermine their rights and identity. During the interplay that preceded the changes of recent years, Arab people have demonstrated advanced awareness of both the nature of the conflict and the political orientations to find solutions for coral issues. The alternative choices put forward by the intellectual elite, however, have been silenced with oppression, which in turn deepened the internal crisis and instigated change movements that increasingly became more extremist and more oriented to seeking help from abroad to affect the change.
Today, we should admit that the repercussions of accumulating Arab failures, official and civil, to find self- made solutions to their crises have reached a catastrophic level. Now, any straw, be it a statement, Arabic or foreign, causes terrible collapses in the Arab System. Today, we should see that at a time when some Arabs, out of weakness, smooth-talk to approach those who have declared war on one Arab nation or another, the Mayor of London, Ken Livingston, stands to say a word of truth: “Sharon is a war criminal who belongs to prison and not office.” At a time when some Arabs don’t even dare mention the Israeli occupation of Arab lands, refugee rights, Jerusalem or the war-crimes committed daily against Arabs. Jewish Rabies hold a conference in Beirut to call for the rights of the Palestinian people. At the time when the most important European newspaper chooses headlines about Syria’s active role in the peace process to support Syria at a difficult moment, some Arab satellite channels select headlines like “expecting an American strike against Syria.” And at a time when demonstrations come out to demand the implementation of UN Resolution 1559, these same demonstrations fail to demand the implementation of resolutions (194) or (242) or (425).
Arab issues today have gone way out beyond their Arab context to become hostage to the catastrophe. This is not necessarily an act of fate, it is a result of what Arabs did when they abandoned the initiative to change their reality to a better and stronger one. It is no longer possible to waste time, conceal truths from people, or resort to accusing the other of being responsible for what’s happening to our countries and peoples. This stage carries as many dangers as it carries possibilities for a new Arabic renaissance that really starts to build a modern efficient and transparent Arabic system able to put Arab nationalism where it belongs under the sun. In spite of all the inimical and defeatist and opportunistic media mobilization, I still see in the interactions among Arab people, who are honest to their identity, the blood of their martyrs and rights of their nation, hope in recreating a modern Arab identity proud of Arab culture and civilization, and one that holds on to Arab rights and takes the modernization measures at the right time and in the right form. Such an identity will lead our people to a future they deserve, away from foreign enemies and waste of dignity and resources alike.