Democracy In The Middle East
The Byzantine intrigues of the Arab world display themselves nightly on our television sets, and are read daily in our newspaper reports. Of course, there are now far swifter methods by which such news can be circulated electronically and picked up via smart phones and computers where social media pick up the latest flashes and electronic newspapers trumpet the latest news updates.
There are now few secrets in most places of the world, outside closed societies that manage an electronic wall beyond which the world cannot intrude.
Out of Syria comes news of ongoing slaughter, as Syrians who defy the regime continue their silent protests and the military continues its brutal assault on the civilians who dare express their desire to have Bashar al-Assad and leave Syria to the Syrians. A country whose rulers are able to countenance the apprehension, torture, mutilation and death of schoolchildren, returning their flayed bodies to their grieving families, reflects a primitive, tribal brutality that is in need of repair.
From Egypt, the ruling Generals, desperate to retain their authority, anxious to place at the helm of government some semblance of civilian rule that will still be accepting of their overall ability to protect the military establishment and maintain it ruling integrity has found itself yet again facing the wrath of the young and the liberal-minded. Women now outnumber Egyptian men in Tahrir Square, enraged at the violent humiliation of women at the hands of the Egyptian military.
Egyptian women in their naivete were anticipating that with the removal of President Hosni Mubarak and the writing of a new constitution there would result liberties hitherto unknown in their vast country, and that women would finally be seen and treated under the law as equals. Instead, the contempt they had always been viewed with as lesser creatures has simply been repeated.
Where previously it was foreign women news reporters who were sexually attacked in full view, by Egyptian thugs, now it is Egyptian women, in broad daylight, in Tahrir Square, by the Egyptian military. But they have no intention of allowing the ruling military council to plead innocence of the attacks, prepared to uphold and assert their right to protest.
And in Iraq, the timing of Premier Nouri al-Maliki in engineering a rift between the delicately balanced democratic union of Sunni, Shia and Kurd has descended into a flurry of accusations and counter-accusations. The majority Shia who had been dominated by Saddam Hussein's minority Sunnis have now, with the absence of the American influence in the departure of the last U.S. military contingent, decided to turn the sectarian ruling tide.
Vice-president Tareq al-Hashemi denies the accusations of al-Maliki that he ordered Sunni death squads to descend upon Shia neighbourhoods to slaughter their neighbours. Unleashing a level of sectarian bloodshed, Shia upon Sunni and Sunni upon Shia in a horrible paroxysm of pent-up pure hatred and long-simmering vengeance that only Saddam Hussein's presence had kept firmly under control.
Demands by Vice-President Tareq al-Hashemi that the Arab League or Arab Lawyers Union become involved, to ensure the integrity of an investigation unleashed by al-Maliki against him be fair and open; impressing upon the Arab League mostly represented by Sunnis like himself that his accuser has close links with neighbouring Shia Iran has opened the gate again to a prospect of sectarian war.
The U.S. occupiers who had so passionately advocated for democracy in Iraq, with the belief that it would inevitably spread to other parts of the Middle East, did their utmost to forestall the potential for sectarian violence. They carefully orchestrated an alliance between Sunni and Shia and Kurd, where the president is an ethnic Kurd, and of two vice-presidents one would be represented by the Shia majority and one by the Sunni minority.
All working in tandem on behalf of a united Iraq that would be egalitarian and prosperous and forward-looking, marking a new era of co-operation in a Middle East state. A successful transition in civility and national responsibility, honouring the human rights of all citizens equally, under the banner of Arab democracy.
There are now few secrets in most places of the world, outside closed societies that manage an electronic wall beyond which the world cannot intrude.
Out of Syria comes news of ongoing slaughter, as Syrians who defy the regime continue their silent protests and the military continues its brutal assault on the civilians who dare express their desire to have Bashar al-Assad and leave Syria to the Syrians. A country whose rulers are able to countenance the apprehension, torture, mutilation and death of schoolchildren, returning their flayed bodies to their grieving families, reflects a primitive, tribal brutality that is in need of repair.
From Egypt, the ruling Generals, desperate to retain their authority, anxious to place at the helm of government some semblance of civilian rule that will still be accepting of their overall ability to protect the military establishment and maintain it ruling integrity has found itself yet again facing the wrath of the young and the liberal-minded. Women now outnumber Egyptian men in Tahrir Square, enraged at the violent humiliation of women at the hands of the Egyptian military.
Egyptian women in their naivete were anticipating that with the removal of President Hosni Mubarak and the writing of a new constitution there would result liberties hitherto unknown in their vast country, and that women would finally be seen and treated under the law as equals. Instead, the contempt they had always been viewed with as lesser creatures has simply been repeated.
Where previously it was foreign women news reporters who were sexually attacked in full view, by Egyptian thugs, now it is Egyptian women, in broad daylight, in Tahrir Square, by the Egyptian military. But they have no intention of allowing the ruling military council to plead innocence of the attacks, prepared to uphold and assert their right to protest.
And in Iraq, the timing of Premier Nouri al-Maliki in engineering a rift between the delicately balanced democratic union of Sunni, Shia and Kurd has descended into a flurry of accusations and counter-accusations. The majority Shia who had been dominated by Saddam Hussein's minority Sunnis have now, with the absence of the American influence in the departure of the last U.S. military contingent, decided to turn the sectarian ruling tide.
Vice-president Tareq al-Hashemi denies the accusations of al-Maliki that he ordered Sunni death squads to descend upon Shia neighbourhoods to slaughter their neighbours. Unleashing a level of sectarian bloodshed, Shia upon Sunni and Sunni upon Shia in a horrible paroxysm of pent-up pure hatred and long-simmering vengeance that only Saddam Hussein's presence had kept firmly under control.
Demands by Vice-President Tareq al-Hashemi that the Arab League or Arab Lawyers Union become involved, to ensure the integrity of an investigation unleashed by al-Maliki against him be fair and open; impressing upon the Arab League mostly represented by Sunnis like himself that his accuser has close links with neighbouring Shia Iran has opened the gate again to a prospect of sectarian war.
The U.S. occupiers who had so passionately advocated for democracy in Iraq, with the belief that it would inevitably spread to other parts of the Middle East, did their utmost to forestall the potential for sectarian violence. They carefully orchestrated an alliance between Sunni and Shia and Kurd, where the president is an ethnic Kurd, and of two vice-presidents one would be represented by the Shia majority and one by the Sunni minority.
All working in tandem on behalf of a united Iraq that would be egalitarian and prosperous and forward-looking, marking a new era of co-operation in a Middle East state. A successful transition in civility and national responsibility, honouring the human rights of all citizens equally, under the banner of Arab democracy.
Labels: Egypt, Iraq, Middle East, Syria, United States, Upheaval
posted by Pieface | 7:35 PM
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