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B
y Mahboob A. Khawaja
22 July, 2015
Countercurrents.org
Towards Understanding the Political Problems
And here is the dilemma we face as a civilization. We march
collectively toward self-annihilation. Corporate capitalism, if left
unchecked, will kill us. Yet we refuse, because we cannot think and no
longer listen to those who do think, to see what is about to happen to
us. We have created entertaining mechanisms to obscure and silence
the harsh truths, from climate change to the collapse of globalization to
our enslavement to corporate power that will mean our self-destruction.
If we can do nothing else we must, even as individuals nurture the
private dialogue and the solitude that make thought possible. It is better
to be an outcast, a stranger in ones own country, than an outcast from
ones self. It is better to see what is about to befall us and to resist than
to retreat into the fantasies embraced by a nation of the blind.
(Chris Hedges - Author of Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the
Triumph of Spectacle (How to Think, Common Dreams).
Are there any global leaders to extend moral and intellectual security to the
beleaguered mankind? Global political affairs are fast becoming a theater of absurdity.
In a rational spectrum, leaders are not leading; large segments of the global mankind
are enduring unthinkable moral and intellectual sickness as political problems are
pilling up to crush the human soul and body. All wars affect people. The global
community wonders where to look for change and peacemaking that is nowhere
visible on the political horizon. Man-made conflicts have disoriented and dehumanized
the entire Arab region lacking optimism for sustainable future. More unthinkable
conflicts originating from the Arab world are becoming thinkable menace to peaceful
future-making. Those democratically chosen and self-styled leaders talking of global
peace and harmony but in reality are selling weapons of mass destruction and
continue to terrorize the global humanity. None seem to have any imagination for
human unity and peacemaking. All man-made problems are resolvable by people of
knowledge, proactive vision, integrity and discipline. The Arab leaders are engaged in
tribal warfare enflamed by the US and Europeans to market their obsolete weapons.
None of the Arab conflicts make any sense when Islam sought Unity of Faith.
Those fuelling the sectarian warfare represent nave and embittered sadistic egoism.
The outcomes signal collective disasters for the whole of the Arab region. Daily
sectarian blasts are killing more civilians than the actual warfare. Millions of displaced
Arab refugees ask when would they go back to their ancestral homes. The
perpetuated sectarian political divide appears unstoppable. There is no value to
human life and protection as the madness continues to enlarge the scope of
authoritarian warfare to end their own existence. Arab people are the net victims
everywhere, be it in Syria, Yemen, Iraq, Palestine, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Libya, North
Africa or elsewhere. What is the workable remedy? One view could be that global
politics of the few needs urgent change at the top hierarchical level to harmonize its
aims and implementation at human level rather than governance of the theoretical
states managing the global affairs. This could be seen as problematic as global politics
and working institutions are aligned to the doctrine of states as the ultimate functionary
agent. But often change is hard to grasp at its initial stage unless people are properly
educated and briefed of the meaning of change and its short and long terms positive
outcomes to the public interest. The phenomenon of political change should be
explained and understood as the urgent need of the whole world. Masses in various
democratic nations should elect leaders and representatives who could share new
vision and commitment to pursue global political change. The UNO is the foremost
international agency in desperate need of change in all of its constructs and
operations. At times, its UN Secretary General is no more than a mouthpiece of few
Western- led governance and their policy goals. The Chief global peacemaker must be
a position of leadership enriched with new thoughts, creative initiatives and unending
resolve to explore all possible avenues for conflict-management and peacemaking.
Not so, Ban K. Moon is deficient in public communication and asserting his
professional presence in situation of conflicts warranting powerful and impressive
leadership. In One World, unwanted wars and sectarian bloodbaths are raging
consuming precious time and resources without an end insight. This picture is purely
inhuman as if there were no civilized human beings populating the splendid Earth.
Emerging Global Consciousness of World Affairs
There are the times that try mens soul, noted Thomas Paine in his famous
how best we could come out of the prevalent man-made foolishness and drudgery and
deception?
Ukraine can be discussed peacefully if America and West European leaders were to
realize that Russia is located in Europe too and so are its strategic interests and that
President Putin should be treated equally and that sitting face to face on one table can
help to resolve the unthinkable issues. The Arab leaders should realize that sectarian
warfare will annihilate their culture and existence and they must rethink their strategies
and peace can be worked out without the involvement of America and West Europe.
ISIL can be defeated by Arab leaderships unity of purpose, intellectual and moral
integrity which is missing all along. More Arab refugees will undermine the image and
human decency of the Arab culture and its continuity in global human affairs. Every
beginning has its end. It is just that most transgressors do not know about it when they
cross over the limits of the Laws of God. The USSR was defeated, the day it raided
the destitute people of Afghanistan. The American and British surrendered the day
international community learned about the Guantanomo Bay prisoners and photos of
the Abu Ghraib Prison in Iraq. Since March 2003, what to speak of raging sectarian
hatred and bloodbath between the Shias-Sunnis planned by the aggressors, an
estimated three million civilians have been killed by the American-British war in Iraq.
The US media reports indicate that approximately 19 - 25 American war veterans
commit suicide every day at home and on the war fronts. Why?
How Could the Arab Leaders Learn from Global Developments?
Unusual emergencies and crises provide opportunities for rethinking and learning to all
those having sense of responsibility and public accountability. It is unclear how much
of it is currently available across the highly antagonistic Arab political environment.
Most Arab leaders are not well educated, often lacking rational qualities of
contemporary leadership traits and missing public accountability. Most European
imperial powers had arranged tribal agents who were faithful to their agendas for
continued domination of the Arab-Muslim people. The Arab authoritarianism is the crux
of Arab political sickness. Western leaders and nations prefer dictators and former
neo-colonial loyal tribal agents now princes and kings to run the governance. The
discovery of oil was another factor in moral and intellectual decadence and leaving all
essential works to foreigners. The Western industrialized cultures are outcome of
centuries of struggles by the people across many continents. How strange that Arab
cultures offer shadowy glimpse of hardly any people-oriented struggle for the symbolic
economic prosperity derived from the oil revenues. The picture is fuzzy and irrelevant
when facts of life are confronted in the making of the modern Arab development. To
the Arab leaders, the moral and intellectual capacity-building should assume top
priority for change. Peace cannot be bought or ordered from any Western national
warehouses or the leaders. The major issues of the Arab world consume precious time
and resources for political problems. Yet, there are no public institutions for education
and development of human resources in problem solving, conflict analysis and
peacemaking. If the Arab leaders had the moral, intellectual and spiritual capacity to
make navigational change and set the public stage for dialogue (listening and learning
without agreeing or disagreeing), they could have articulated peaceful change, and
consequently the evolving crises in Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Libya, Egypt and Saudi Arabia
could have been managed intelligently and effectively. The whole of the Arab world
appears to be on a path of self-engineered disintegration and ultimate destruction by
pursuing the war strategy. A century earlier C.E.M. Joad (Guide to Modern
Wickedness), captioned the human intransigence and sadistic egoism in these words:
.Human nature is at least in part wicked and in part foolish, how can human beings
be prevented from suffering from the results of their wickedness and folly? .Men
simply do not see that war is foolish and useless and wicked. They think on occasion
that it is necessary and wise and honourable, for war is not the work of bad men
knowing themselves to be wrong, but of good men passionately convinced that they
are right.
Dr. Mahboob A. Khawaja specializes in global security, peace and conflict resolution
with keen interests in Islamic-Western comparative cultures and civilizations, and
author of several publications including the latest: Global Peace and Conflict
Management: Man and Humanity in Search of New Thinking. Lambert Academic
Publishing Germany, May 2012
Posted by Thavam