Will the Arabs continue playing in the timeout? [Archives:2006/918/Opinion]
Prof. Abdulaziz Al-Tarb
The Arabs are preordained to live in an inflammable region. Thus it is predestined that they have to get used to the lava gushing out of that volcano, then to surrender to that situation and convince themselves that they are powerless victims unable to face the dangers or at least fortify themselves and protect their interests.
This false conviction has brought with it all forms of meekness, indifference and weakness. It has generated a stance that ascribes all their problems and crises to fate and consequently to foreign schemes and imperialistic conspiracies as well as external factors. No one admits of neglectfulness in performing responsibility and duties. None wants to stand up in defense of the land and honor at this critical stage the nation is experiencing and suffering from injustice, from both foreign and the kith and kin. This is how the Arab scene looks as troubled, instable and burdened with concerns and problems. And thus seems the Arab entity, submissive and receiving successive blows without showing any defensive response. Those who have the decision-making in their hands have come out with a decision of playing in the time-out, going to extremes in the game of hopeless waiting and wrongly using them. Any observer of those practices can see clearly those indicators. Among those disgraceful practices are:
-exaggeration in unleashing resounding slogans and phrases that have intoxicated the Arabs for more than sixty years. There are always words without being followed by acts, not even a kind of formalism, to give them some kind of credibility and objectivity. Even those words are stripped of their objectivity and meanings. What an official says is not as important as how and when he says it. What he says is valueless without being followed by decisions, stances and radical curing. How and when the leader practices his acts is more valuable than the act itself.
-with absence of accuracy and timing, deception and enlargement of lies have changed to addiction of another plague, i.e. the entertainment of submissiveness in every walk of life, our decisions and acts. The role of being active has become something of a marvel for the Arabs, if not among the impossible.
-paralysis has affected the Arab joint action and has influenced most of internal activities related to it and the big issues as well. All effective and serious initiatives have frozen, except some beautifying operations and token movements for keeping situations as they are and calming down crises.
-those practices changed into a habit exhausting Arab potentials and disappointing them. They work under effect of intoxication is leading to taming the Arab masses and makes them used to surrender to the bitter reality under the absence of the spirit of responsibility and sacredness of duty.
-absence of the sense of responsibility has led to avoid treatments and refusal of recognizing the present and future dangers. This situation has led to stabilization of the state of disunity and fragmentation and to be a reality we have to endure.
Not one reasonable will deny the existence of hostile foreign schemes planned beforehand, stemming from enmity or certain purposes machinated by several world and Zionist forces. The question is where our duties, responsibilities, and plans are, and where are our resolution, decisions and efforts to unite the ranks for confrontation and defeating the enemies in defense of our rights, lands and interests. It seems there is no ray of hope or light at the end of the long dark tunnel. There are only words without acts and illusions without efforts and surrender to the “general” time as a weapon; some claim it had achieved what was hoped for many times in the past.
In occupied Palestine the alleged farce of democracy is repeated. One government falls, early elections are held and a new government comes to resume implementing the same Zionist scheme. The Israelis make fool of us and of the world after they exchange roles and alternatively put on the masks of hawks and doves. Directing this farce contains demonic details and bribes of alliance with remnants of the Likud, and remains of the Labor. Between them lie the small rightist parties performing the role of blocker to any decision or step to be taken. As for the Palestinians and the Arabs they have only to play in the timeout.
In Iraq there are elections succeeding elections and constitutions follow a constitution. Meanwhile, the country is drowned in labyrinths of massacres, sectarian seditions, and plots of partition. Terrorism influence is aggravating and the occupation is enhancing its bases and realizing its goals despite the losses it sustains and difficulties it is facing. Frequent postponements and frequent promises, conferences, mediations and initiatives are active whereas the innocent blood is shed and the Iraqi wealth is being exhausted and the nation's destiny faces more dangers. Nevertheless, we have to wait and hope for soon solutions to salvage what is possible of Iraq.
In Syria and Lebanon, there are successive postponements to decide the situation and disclose the fact about the assassination of Lebanese former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri. We have to wait for many months. Months should be dedicated for work of the international investigation committee, the state of watching, anxiety and stagnation in the two countries, crises, exhaustion of energies and freezing of projects, more rifts in Lebanese-Syrian relations, instigation of sectarian seditions, threats to national unity and spread of despair and disappointment. Even the resistance in Lebanon began to lose some of its capabilities and state of unanimity, by virtue of which it had scored victory over Israel and forced it to withdraw from Lebanon.
Intrigues in Egypt began after the parliamentary elections, defeat of opposition parties such as the Nasserites and al-Wafd, non-nomination of Copts and women by the ruling National Party and success of the Muslim Brotherhood by more than 20% of parliament seats. Also in Egypt there are the sentence of five years imprisonment against Aymen Nour, the United States demand for his release and granting the opposition and civil society organisations more freedoms in work, in line with the principle of democracy.
In Yemen there are the return of bloody battles in Saada, the ruling GPC party comes out of its 7th conference by accusing the opposition parties- the JMP- of bidding in their initiative about the program of comprehensive reform needed at this stage. Also there is the president's back down from not nominating for the upcoming presidential elections. The year 2006 in Yemen is witnessing local elections in April and presidential elections in September. The economic situation pushes the public to demand for food security, security, medicine and curbing unemployment and inflation. We have to wait for what happens after interference of the Central Bank and taking control of one of the national banks that was distinguished in areas of credit and development and granting small tradesmen and contractors facilities to carry out projects and employment of labor.
Those samples of issues give a clear-cut image of the Arabs' condition nowadays and their loss in oceans of crises and secondary details and western illusions. Against all that, the right is lost, the land usurped, the fact hidden, interests confiscated and the citizen's needs neglected and his hopes disappointed.
The process of retreat continues and the Arabs are prevented from catching up with developments of the age and benefiting from its scientific wealth and exploiting their available riches.
What I dread most is that after the end of playing in the timeout we will discover we have to return to it and enter into its whirlwinds. The days of decision are coming tomorrow, or in months or a year. Are we going to look for another timeout and gamble with our interests and destinies of the people; in their present and future?
These sad words are not meant for taking part in a process of self-torture while we are receiving the year 2006. They are meant for pinpointing the points of disease and describing our present situation and agonies that are torturing every Arab human. They are meant to be a call for reawakening and preparation for the great imperative tasks and surprises expected from the current course of events. Is there an Arab strategy being planned for this stage? This is a call for the Khartoum Arab Summit. Are there initiatives for joining forces and fortification of fronts while waiting for what consequences there are going to be in Palestine, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon, Sudan and Yemen and in various parts of the Arab land, which possesses riches and all resources of development?
Prof. Abdulaziz Al-Tarb is an economist and a professor in Political Science and an expert in administrative development. He is the head of a number of professional associations, such as the Arab Group for Investment and Development.
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[archive-e:918-v:14-y:2006-d:2006-02-06-p:opinion]
