By Muhammad Allam,
Not more than three years have been passed since the death of Saddam Hussein, the powerful leader of Iraq, and now the entire Arab world is engulfed in revolution. The intelligence heads of many countries, including the Mossad, have been watching the calm Arab world for many years. The economic and social progress was up to expectation under the modernization project of America. But why do these people, who according to the report of western media are very happy under the rule of dynasties, suddenly appear in the streets of Tunisia, Egypt, Jordan and Yemen demanding the removal of their democratic dictators?
America-led western forces entered the Arab world under the pretext of checking the nuclear programme and the growth of fundamentalism in the Arab countries. But in reality their intention was to capture the economic resources of the Arab world, and to provide security to Israel and the defunct Arab rulers.
The western presence in the Arab world brought wars, which in turn led to the economic destruction of the Arab countries. The growing numbers of unemployment, rising social tension, the unchecked process of modernization in the traditional society etc brought no changes at economic and social levels of the Arab countries. A glimpse at the GDP of the countries makes it clear that either they are constant or if raised that was only from the oil sectors. For example the GDP of Saudi Arabia in 2008 was $ 481,631 (Million USD) and in 2009 it was $373,995 (Million USD).The GDP of Algeria in 2008 was $ 159,669(Million USD) and in 2009 $ 128,588 (Million USD). A look on the GDP of most of the Arab countries shows that these declined in 2009 in comparison with the previous year and if they rose then it was not by economic development like the western countries or Israel, but only by a rise in the oil revenue.
Most of the economic resources are either in the hands of the members of the ruling families or the western companies. These people who are in the streets have no control on their resources but are just a working force to facilitate the exploitation of their nations. How long could they be witness to such plunder?
The removal of Saddam Hussein in the pretext to bring democracy in Iraq by the Western powers brought new opportunity to the people of Arab countries. They started to think that if Saddam can be removed then why not other rulers of the Arab countries?
The treatment of the Arab youth at the hands of the western forces and their ill-treatment in the western countries affected the Arab youth much. The surrender of the Arab rulers to the onslaught of America in every field widened the gulf between the rulers and the ruled. The American expectation to control the Arab countries through rulers shattered when modernization could not produce the expected result of changes which were lauded by George Bush after the invasion of Iraq.
The entire project of the western led powers failed when the humiliation of Arab youth in Abu-Gharib, Guantanamo and secret prisons of numerous places was exposed. The final episode was the attack on Gaza and the economic blockade of West Bank by Israel supported by the Western powers. The inability of the Arab rulers to coup this situation led the people to think of a change of regime, not with the power of gun but by the power of people. The rulers and the western policies brought the people to a no-return state. The only thing lacking was the right time. And it came when an unemployed youth of a small town of Sidi put himself on fire due to lack of opportunity to the educated youth. This incident led to the ouster of Tunisia’s President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali and paved way for the ongoing revolt in the Arab world.
This is simply not a revolt but a cry of the people against a system of governance and design of the foreign powers to enslave the people of the Arab world in the pretext of fundamentalism, terrorism and democracy.
(Muhammad Allam is a postgraduate student of history at the Aligarh Muslim University.)