False
Decolonization: the Root Cause of Arab Disunity!
by Mammo Muchie
The Arab rulers are hopelessly
divided. The rulers of Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain openly provide bases
to the U.S. and British regimes to attack Iraq. In the middle are states
like Jordan, Saudi Arabia and others that seem to provide support to the
invasive forces. The Arab public is united more than at any time in history
against the U.S.-British violation of the Arab nation and dignity.
Consequently the Arab street
is exploding with anger and resistance. There is a new dialectic: Arab
ruling circle disunity and growing Arab public unity. This may create
an Arab national renaissance. I propose that the current war against Iraq
could never have taken place had there been a strong Arab nation in the
first place, as envisaged by the first generation independent Arab leader,
Gamal Abdel Nasser.
If the departure for the renewed
unity of the Arab public and disunity among rulers is the Iraq war, the
destination must be the real birth of the Arab nation.
The Arabs and Africans suffer
from the failure of the National Project
Gamal Abdel Nasser wanted to create a strong Arab nation. Kwame Nkrumah
wanted to create a strong African nation. The idea behind their visions
was to avoid the kind of humiliation that the Arab nation is subjected
to right now by an all-out invasion by forces from other hemispheres and
internal elites, such as the rulers of Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait, aligned
to foreign interests.
Instead we have now either
an Arab nation badly divided or a nation whose birth is so protracted
that it may not even be born as a unified entity in the foreseeable future.
The birth of a united Arab nation seems like one of the longest pregnancies
in the world.
Often when we speak of decolonization
gone wrong vivid images of African fragmentation and impotence spring
to mind. Now to this ugly image one is reminded cruelly how impotent the
Arab nation is in the face of danger to its security and survival.
To the false decolonization
of the African, I have added the false decolonization of the Arab. The
Arab may feel different from the African for having enslaved the latter
in yester years. In actual fact, Arabs are in the same boat as the Africans
— they have at the moment only the power of the weak: the kind of
power that is displayed in the TV images served as a daily diet to an
anxiety-stricken world by Iraqis since the start of this unjust, immoral
and illegal war.
We must wonder about the false
start in Arabia — its false decolonization that has invited its present
humiliation. Like Africa, it is fragmented with official Arabia serving
imperialist interests and the grassroots marching and dying to give birth
to independent and free Arabia. Like our wish to create free Africa, the
ordinary people of Arabia, by their actions, are trying to create free
Arabia.
Free or emancipated Arabia
can be a potential ally to free an emancipated Africa. Fragmented and
falsely decolonized Arabia is no ally to free Africa as unfree Africa
is no friend to Iraq at present.
The imperialist powers know
this and they leave no stone unturned to weaken states by breaking them.
The most dramatic break up in recent years is the former Soviet Union.
Smaller break ups in Africa occurred in my own country: Eritrea and Ethiopia.
Both the Arabs and Africans have to confront head on the false decolonization
that has made them prey to the misfortune of war, insecurity and unending
conflict.
Humiliation is a function
of false decolonization of the Arab and African
I have been thinking about the false decolonization of the Arab and the
African.What is it about them that they are perceived so weak by the imperialist
powers that massive force is made to rain over them with disdain and contempt?
The Indian nation is born; the Chinese nation is born. I cannot imagine
the imperial powers waging punitive wars to disarm these two nations to
remove their weapons of mass destruction.
They would not dream of regime
change in China. India, of course, is a democracy and it may be envied
for possessing weapons of mass destruction, but the regime follows democratic
principles for making lawful transitions of power. Both India and China
have not only been born as nations, but they have stood up and grown.
They risk no pre-emptive strike!
We cannot speak so confidently
even about the birth of the Arab nation. Like the African nation, the
Arab nation is not yet born as a unified nation. The innocent blood of
the Iraqi people may accelerate the birth of an independent Arab nation.
Africa has the African Union.
The Arab states have the Arab League. One would have thought that these
two unions, theAfrican Union and the Arab League, would come together
and oppose the doctrine of pre-emptive strike and regime change in principle.
Regimes must be changed by the Arabs in Arabia and Africans in Africa
and not by far away powers by flaunting international law and displaying
arrogant power with stunt and irrational exuberance.
Ethiopia, Eritrea and the
African Union?
In Africa, some states are playing games with principles. Eritrea and
Ethiopia are part of the "coalition of the willing." One wonders
what brought about this situation? There must have been a prisoners dilemma
situation. If Eritrea makes a move to join the "coalition,"
Ethiopia will be left out in the cold. If Eritrea supports or joins the
so called "coalition," Ethiopia has to, in order not to be outdone
for the possible future or present crumbs from London and Washington DC.
This provides proof that the
separation of Eritrea from its motherland will always destabilize Ethiopia
from following wise courses in African, Arab and international relations.
This negative competition will no doubt repeat itself to the detriment
of Ethiopia's wider and long-term interests.
For Ethiopia, its main interest
lies in playing a leading role in the making of the African nation/union
and a friendly role in assisting and forging enduring relationships with
the Arab nation. At present both the African nation and the Arab nation
are not real. That provides no excuse not to strive to make them real
by focusing, amongst other things, Ethiopia's international posture in
a way to accelerate the creation of these two nations including their
strategic alliance reflecting the reality of geographical proximity and
cultural transaction between them. Any role Ethiopia assumes that undermines
its constructive role in Africa and the Arab world will create long-term
obstacles to Ethiopia's enduring stability and security.
With Ethiopia and Eritrea breaking
ranks from Guinea, South Africa and others, they made the African Union
look silly by their own silly positions. Lost is the opportunity to manifest
an independent national will through the African Union. Lost also is the
opportunity to speak with one voice and get the African Union on the map.
Instead the country that hosts
the seat of the African Union shows no backbone to build the African Union
to speak for an independent and free Africa. This is proof that we are
still a long way off from the birth of a free African nation. Africa'
s pregnancy with an unborn nation is even longer than that of the protraction
of birth of the Arab nation!!
As an Ethiopian-African citizen
of the world I am deeply ashamed that Eritrea and Ethiopia have joined
the "coalition of the willing" to bombard the Iraqi people with
inhumane horror. I believe this action is anti-African, anti-Arab, anti-
international law, anti-civilization, anti- human, immoral and unjust!
I appeal to the regimes of
Eritrea and Ethiopia to withdraw from the coalition and learn to work
consistently to create the African nation and the Arab nation.
It appears that Fanon's warning
of a false decolonization rings more true than ever now. It is not the
African interest that you are protecting by being fellow travelers to
a classic imperialist war — where might is equated with right. It
is somebody else's interest that you are serving. In fact you are serving
the interest of those who protect the international financial institutions,
banks and corporations that have together over-burdened Africa with debt.
Twelve African States have
debt over 100 percent of their Gross Domestic Product (GDP). This makes
these countries exist only to pay debt! What business do Eritrea and Ethiopia
have in supporting powers that lead such an unjust system?
Truth is the first casuality
of war
Blair and Bush believe their own lies that the Arab Socialist Party of
Iraq is Saddam and that he is isolated. The Iraqi people have been ready
for 12 years to welcome them with undulation!
It seemed that did not happen,
though there are reports alleging manifestations of rebellion. There is
no doubt that there are people who have resorted to native tactics to
undermine the superior power of the invading U.S. and British air, sea
and land forces. The command and control of the resistance seemed to be
distributed and dispersed amongst the civilian population.
First and foremost, all liars
deceive themselves first before they deceive others. The graver the lie,
the graver the self-deception, and the more dangerous the actions to others
from the lie. Iraq has been turned into hell on Earth by a successive
series of lies that led the U.S.-British military to burn that country
with hell-fire.
They lied to get in. They continue
to spin and lie to stay in there longer. To cover up what journalists
understood as a 'pause' they have to increase the bombardment many times
more.
Their crime is limitless and
there seems to be no earthly or divine law or authority to restrain them
from their misguided policies. They must be forced by the pressure of
world public opinion and continuous pressure to enter quickly a voluntary
ceasefire for the sake of humanity and spare all of us from universal
torment and torture from the daily diet of horrific deaths.
The invaders continue to believe
that only those who benefit by the regime's survival and who have much
to lose are fighting. The longer they continue to believe in this lie,
the more the killing will mount and the harder the return to political
means of stopping this post-modernistic theatrical festival of violence.
What we seem to see are a people
who have identified the invaders as aggressors who came to help themselves
to their oil, their land and who wish to install a regime that is as foreign
interest-serving as the others of their Gulf neighbors.
What we appear to see is the
resourceful effort of what seemed a determined people unwilling to be
subdued by the terrifying might of superior military technology. Most
of the people of Iraq — not only Saddam and his supporters —
see the war directed at them.
Contrary to the Iraqi exile
opinion, it looks that even if Saddam falls, the resistance might outlive
him. The native tactics might test the power of the microwave bombs, the
bunker-busters, oxygen-depleting bombs and other B-52 bearing cruise missiles.
It is looking more and more that way.
I read a report that when Iraqi
people see dollars, they will side with the invading force. Such lies
and contempt directed at a basically nationalist-patriotic people can
be very self-deceiving. The people may take the dollars and sweets and
continue to fight the invaders. Has that occurred to the invaders who
think dollar power will neutralize what seems a self-motivated, spirited
and determined resistance?
Most of the leadership of the
Arab Socialist Party of Iraq has been weaned in Cairo University under
the Arab nationalist leadership of Gamal Abdel Nasser. Saddam graduated
from Cairo University in the ‘60s. His main political content has
been Arab nationalism even when he fought the Kurds and the Mullahs of
Iran — the latter not being Arab!
The defining content of nationalism
is to try to use the resources of a country first and foremost to develop
that people. Saddam and his followers may have shown cruel and deceitful
conduct, but they are above all Arab nationalists. Saddam would probably
be seen and hailed as an Arab (even Muslim) leader at the grassroots level
in the Arab world. If this war becomes drawn out and long — dead
or alive — he will be immortalized in the Arab world and perhaps
even in the Muslim world.
The World is too silent!
An old civilization is being razed to the ground and no one is rushing
to put a stop to this madness. The UN is mute. China, Russia, France and
Germany make meek statements. The Arab League makes banal remarks while
Qatar's foreign minister walks out.
The African Union has uttered
hardly a murmer or blib.
The world must not see Iraq
burn like hell. The images we see are deeply disturbing and the scar they
leave will not be healed for generations. We must try to be resourceful
and try to save lives — on all sides. As the soldiers displayed as
P.O.W.s from the USA show that they are from ordinary families why should
they die too?
The African-American father
who waved the picture of his killed son-soldier in the war to the world
media demanded to Bush that he be held responsible for taking his only
son's life. That was a display as heart-rending as it is symbolic of all
those soldiers who may die for the simple reason of being in Iraq —
not because they know anything or care about the Iraqis, but because they
are doing a 'job.' Moreover, as one of the captured POWs said, "They
are there because they have to follow orders."
Anarchy above international
law
What can be done to prevent the BUSH-BLAIR mad rush to destroy Iraq under
the guise of changing its government?
What kind of world are they
wishing to create?
Tomorrow, a small country can
go charge its neighbor to bring about regime change and can point to the
Blair-Bush doctrine of pre-emptive strike to bring change. And if this
country appears to be endowed with some rich minerals that the big powers
desire, they will use that as a pretext to get involved and bombard hapless
populations. This is a neat formula for spreading world anarchy.
Ironically, this comes from
the power that wants — or says it wishes — to police the world
and create stability and security for the 21st century.
How can this power create security
and order if it is seen as an outlaw and contemptuous of the international
institutions and international law? This is a formula for a security disorder
for the 21st century, not a new world order.
Charity after the festival
of violence and willful destruction
Organized hypocrisy characterizes imperial politics and human rights.
Imperial power self-arrogates the power to dictate the terms of any engagement.
If opposed, it collects a number
of disparate countries and goes to enforce its own actions against the
will of the world and international law. It camouflages its own action
under the euphemism of a constructed "coalition."
There is not only violence
against people, but truth is dead and language itself is casualized —
having been used and turned into fraud and deception.
Ethics is thrown out of the
window. The overriding animal instinct to win war dictates how the war
is reported, played out, even thought about. It is not a command and control
of the physical battle. It is a command and control of everything. It
is a nightmare when truth is turned into falsehood, information becomes
disinformation, P.O.W.s are pawns in the war game and war dictates life.
The idea of destroying a country
and summoning U.S. private companies, governments and Non-governmental
organizations (NGO) as angels of mercy is the most hypocritical turn of
this whole sordid episode.
It reminds me of a story about
a 19th century Russian noblewoman who went to an opera and kept weeping
while watching the opera, and even after she came out of the opera, at
the death of a Russian poor peasant. She kept weeping and when she came
out of the opera her footman was frozen to death staying where he had
been ordered to stay — outside suffering from the freezing severe
Russian cold winter weather. She became angry at the inconvenience she
faced by his death. Her compassion for the Russian peasant, borne by her
weeping, was betrayed by her conduct! Not wishing to have any inconvenience.
As long as her privileges are not touched she can afford to show compassion.
As soon as the privilege is affected, her conduct submerges her compassion.
The military destroyers of
Iraq are like this Russian noblewoman. They say they want to save the
people, then bomb them and their country to save them. After their conduct
of destruction, they want to show them compassion by inviting ruthless
U.S. corporations, government development agencies and NGOs to reconstruct
their society and provide them food and medicine.
Why is it necessary to be emboldened
in the first place with the conduct of destruction and wish to sanitize
the effect of the willful and deliberate destruction with a false compassion?
Destruction first, construction after. Why not construction ever so that
ones conduct and compassion flow together!
Blood and tears in Iraq are
flowing like rivers and there is not enough protest to stop this orgy
of violence. The protest must be total and world-wide. It must be made
to bite for the sake of the Iraqi people and the U.S. and British soldiers
that are in harm’s way.
The protest must continue
The protest must continue to stop this war that will no doubt generate
deep hatred and is spreading mis-communication across religions, nations
and population groups.
It is time to overcome barbarism
and promote civilization, control anarchy and stand for legality, uphold
morality and reject moral blindness, be counted for justice by fighting
injustice, and oppose force-determination and support self-determination.
I weep for my divided country
whose very division has forced it to side with arrogant imperial power.
I do this as I continue to march and oppose the Blair-Bush projection
of destructive(!) and retributive violence against Iraq as a country and
people.
For that matter, I do not wish
any country to be humiliated, in the way Iraq has been, for the "sins"
of its leaders. Let that people cleanse the sins of their leaders or remove
them. Others cannot bomb democracy into being.
The world deserves better than
gunboat diplomacy or democracy. It is the people and the people alone
of that particular place (Iraq in this case!) who must be in charge of
their own destiny. This is an important matter of principle that brooks
no trespassing.
As Thomas Jefferson said, "In
matters of principle stand like a rock. In matters of taste swim with
the current." War and peace are issues of principle and not taste.
Africa must stand united against the arrogant concept of forced regime
change. Africa must say no to gun boat democracy. The African Union must
express an African will of opposition to the invasion of Iraq. The African
Union has to oppose arrogant power coming any where and directed at any
people.
Africa should demand national
liberation and support the Arab people
Africa must stand on the side
of the national aspiration of the Iraqi people. If Africans allow this
vast injustice and criminal bombardment to go unopposed, tomorrow their
turn will come.
It is thus vital that they
stand for principle and reject temptations to side with invasion, aggression,
occupation and externally-forced regime change. These are matters of principle.
Africa's own history and experience demands that Africa takes a stand.
- On matters of peace and
war, we demand that Africa learn to speak with one voice.
- African countries that overtly
and covertly joined the so-called coalition of the willing should withdraw
from it.
- Africans must demand an
immediate ceasefire now. The U.S.-British forces should withdraw unconditionally
and immediately from Iraq!
- The idea of regime change
by military means is wrong in principle and cannot produce a regime
that the population can respect.
- Africa must oppose the concept
of regime change and the military strikes to bring it about. Gunboat
democracy is neither democracy nor liberation. It is colonialism and
a modern form of conquest that exposes a population to needless humanitarian
catastrophe.
- Africa must join forces
with all the forces that support international law.
- Africa must actively seek
to support actions to bring to international justice the war criminals.
- Africa's eminent lawyers
must volunteer to prepare to prosecute war crimes committed by the invading
powers.
- Africans must support Iraqi
civilians in any way they can.
- The citizens of Africa must
demonstrate, petition and do everything possible to make all the governments
of Africa and the African Union condemn this war against Iraq as illegal,
illegitimate and immoral.
Africa must stand for national
liberation, not national humiliation.
It must stand for national
independence not re-colonization in this day and age.
Africa must stand for justice
and oppose an imperialist war for the resources and control of the Arab
world.
If Africa does not stand on
the side of the Arab nation, it will have shown a moral and political
blindness that will haunt it for generations.
It is time for Africans to
show strength by fighting the last frontier of their damnation, confronting
head on their false decolonization to manifest a true decolonization.
Iraq is now a litmus test to
show progress in attenuating the false decolonization of the African and
Arab mind. The innocent blood of Iraq may yet lead to the sprouting of
the Arab nation.
At this historical moment,
Africa should stand side by side with the Iraqi people and country.
Where there is no love,
there is hate, enmity, enemy and war
An American friend sent me this thought and it is a good way to end my
remarks:
Where there is love, there is no hate. Where there is no hate, there is
no enmity. Where there is no enmity, there is no enemy. Where there is
no enemy, there is no war!
I write this as one who is
deeply affected by this war. It is difficult to carry out normal life
when the images of disorientated children, wounded and dead people hit
one everyday.
I must confess I find the provision
of this unwanted image an indictment to civilization. The 21st century
should have been different. It has become a throwback to the carnages
of the previous world wars. Therefore, those who see it as their birthright
to lead this world are dramatic failures.
They should have guided the
planet not to war, massive waste and colonization, but to peace, justice
and prosperity. The current war is proof they have failed, as they are
morally feeble and greedy.
Our planet should be governed with the expression of many voices —
not only U.S. and British, but also Arab, African, Indian, Chinese, Latin
American and European voices. We need a multi-polar not a uni-polar, a
multilateral and not unilateral, a negotiating or dialogue- seeking and
not war-spreading world.
We need U.S.-British humility
and not arrogance to create order in this world. Let us hope the current
blood and tears of Iraq end up watering the birth of a just, equitable
and tolerant world. From this great tragedy, let there be hope and victory
for the wretched of the earth.
About the author: Mammo Muchie
is an activist and university lecturer who has been marching against imperialist
wars against Indochina, Africa and now Arabia. He says of himself, "As
a scholar activist engaged in contributing knowledge to the creation of
the African nation, I shall be working on African integration and ways
to institutionally participate in grass roots organizing for African national
liberation."
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