Colonizing Their Own Country
By Mowahid Hussain Shah
The people-led uprising against corruption and cruelty, sweeping much of the Middle East, is fundamentally a fight for dignity. It is a rejection by the youth of the old decaying order. What is happening there is unlikely to stay there.
In a sense, a Russian Revolution moment is occurring in the Middle East. Like Czar Nicholas in 1917, the ruling cabal today seems oblivious to the changing landscape. The cruelty and indifference of the czar – the striking contrast between his extravagant lifestyle with the crushing misery of his subjects, along with the malignant influence of Rasputin, particularly on Czarina Alexandra – set the stage for the destruction of the 300-year-old Romanov Dynasty. Then, too, military blunders during World War I kept the revolutionary rage seething.
Causing the downfall of despots are some common factors that widen the vast gap between their perception of reality and what the people believe it to be. The disconnect from the public they rule and indifference to public grievance is one factor. Denial of the reality that things are going wrong is another. The delusion that they are very popular and much-loved when, in fact, they are hated, adds to the pile. On top of it all is the usual servile encirclement by sycophants who insulate and isolate the despot.
When tyrants feel most invincible, that is when they are most vulnerable.
The regional security fabric that the West had designed in the Middle East is now in tatters. Egypt, under Mubarak, protected Israeli interests and, in effect, served as the jailer of Palestinians in Gaza. Atrocities occurring in the prisons of Mubarak are amply documented by international human rights organizations. Prisoners were sexually abused; they were attacked by dogs, and were hung from ceilings. Mubarak’s Egypt was also one of several countries used by the US for the despicable practice of “rendition”, meaning that torture and brutal interrogations were outsourced to Egyptian authorities by the US, when US-held detainees were transferred to Egypt. Such acts would have been illegal on US soil and open to challenges before US courts.
Instead of deterring militancy, Egyptian prisons had the opposite effect, of becoming a hatchery for militancy. For example, Dr Ayman al-Zawahiri is a product of torture in Egyptian prisons.
In Libya, the great patriot Omar Mukhtar fought for nearly 20 years against Italy’s military colonization of Libya, which focused on crushing Libyan resistance without regard to international law or public opinion. Omar Mukhtar was ultimately captured in 1931 and hung by Mussolini’s fascist forces. Now Libya’s own Gaddafi is bent on emulating the brutal methods of Italian colonial occupiers. After he made his deal with the Bush Administration, the US, according to the New York Times of February 27, called Gaddafi “a strong partner in the war against terrorism.”
There may be signs that a few lessons slowly are being registered in Western circles. Just recently, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates, addressing US military cadets at West Point, remarked: “Any future Defense Secretary who advises the President to again send a big American land army into Asia or into the Middle East should ‘have his head examined.’ “ Meanwhile, some lessons are being forcibly taught in the Middle East to ruling autocrats by their own people.
Domestic despots often indulge in massive exploitation and repression by, in effect, colonizing their own country. They embrace the same colonial mentality, and pillage and slaughter their own people – sometimes in the name of democracy, stability, or “supreme national interest”.
These are rulers who are not fit to rule.
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