Educated Arab national: A journey in search of missing identity [Archives:2008/1175/Opinion]

By: Abdulghani Al-Magrami
The educated Arab national is pausing today at a point of divergent roads preventing him/her from playing an effective role on stopping blind subordination and dependence on and entire submission to his/her master.

The educated Arab national is found to be experiencing a state of repeated setbacks and consecutive failures, thereby cloning himself and reproducing the same copy of himself without any effective influence on things surrounding him.

He sometimes plays an amazing role in his society, however, this role gets lose due to the surrounding voices having a very strong echo in the worlds of culturalism and intellectualism.

What makes the educated Arab national's picture even worse and gloomier while defending himself in the contemporary time is that he doesn't have a good project to help him get rid of the current state of individual fragility? He also lacks a role in the collective performance where efforts should incorporate and performances improve within an effective frame that must be governed by institutional action's regulations and strategies.

Throughout the Arab world, one can find tens of institutions with various cultural and intellectual slogans, but none of them couldn't have made remarkable influence or suggested tangible development project. All these institutions are merely static matrixes cloning fragile experiences and loose performances, as well as appearing in the form of nothing more than museums for intellectualism and culture.

Other institutions in the different parts of the Arab world tried to rebel against this deadly motionlessness with the intention of providing an effective pattern in the daily life, however, the Arab world that welcomes hundreds of western and occidental organizations left no space for the native institutions. As a result, the native institutions sought an optional exile in misty cities, thus suffering constant destitution and need for funding to survive, however, the Arab capitals are being stored in the treasuries of friends.

One of the most notable obstacles that hinder movement of the educated Arab national through the various parts of the Arab world is the increased requirements of the everyday life. At the be-all and end-all, an educated national is collapsing under the limitless requirements of everyday life, and these requirements consume his body, leave negative impacts on his behavior, and make him controlled by benefits and attracted by interests.

The central problem in this regard is that most of the educated Arabs, according to relevant studies, are government employees. They have faced various forms of arbitration because of some of their unacceptable positions. They also faced threats that they will be dismissed from their jobs and their salaries will be suspended.

This phenomenon (threats directed to public sector servants) is rampant in the various parts of the Arab world until the extent that a salary deserved by an educated citizen has become a bridle of inflaming fire, which forces the educated national to remain silent without reacting to what happens to him, as well as draw his attention away from several issues affecting his lifestyle. The situation made the educated Arab nationals most of the time submissive to the wills and desires of their masters.

Difference between an educated individual and politician:

There has been growing controversy over the relation between educated individuals and politicians in the Arab region, particularly as this relation produced new forms that resulted in making educated individuals the weakest party in the equation, as well as exposing them to liquidation and marginalization.

What makes this relation worse is that educated individuals failed to achieve certain tasks delegated to them by politicians and decision makers. This helped create a negative impression about the educated individuals, on the one hand, and enhancing the political position, on the other.

The worst thing in this regard is that when an educated man becomes an obedient servant submitting to wills and desires of a politician under oppressive and totalitarian regimes. To sum up, educated people are recommended to understand well their vital role in their communities and assert their role in order to get rid of politicians' dominance.

Source: Al-Sahwa.net
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