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âLong Live Dictatorshipâ: An Arab Columnist on Dictatorships in the Arab World
Excerpted from MEMRI 6000 years of despotism. Zero sum mentality. Shame/Honor. Tribalism. Fanaticism. Itâs all here baby."The entire world is perplexed about us. Do we really seek our freedoms and attempt to rid ourselves of ages of oppression, deprivation, and domination? Do the Arab peoples really want to extricate themselves from the claws of the repressive regimes, or are they addicted to a life of decline, lowliness, and acceptance of humiliation? Have the Arab peoples become addicted to a life that is like being thrown into the darkness of the dungeon? Have they become addicted to floggings with whip and lash, to the dissolving [of victims] in acid, to the blows on the back of the head, to humiliation and insult?" "I do not exaggerate by saying this, because within each one of us there is a little dictator who feels gratification when he is repressed by those stronger and more brutal than he, and who at the same time does not refrain from acting this same way, in his milieu, towards those weaker and inferior in status. And when that milieu expands, he gradually imposes this on more people, so that when this sphere grows and he is the one who decides first and last, and who gives the orders, dictatorship spreads and it is imposed on all the people. Thus yesterdayâs oppressed become todayâs oppressor; yesterdayâs subjugated become todayâs subjugator; he that was wronged now becomes the wrongdoer; the humiliated becomes the arrogant." "Many Arab writers have gone berserk cursing the U.S. night and day for taking its time establishing democracy in Iraq â but they refuse to enter into any talk about the [lack of] desire of the Iraqi people, with all its factions, to experience democracy. So far, no Iraqi side has agreed to sit with the other side to arrive at an understanding regarding Iraq âs future as a united and sovereign country. Everyone wants his piece of the pie, and everyone rejects the other. The inside [i.e. Iraqis from Iraq] rejects the [Iraqis returning from exile] and vice versa â the left rejects the right, the right eradicates the left from being present, and so on and so forth." "Does the Iraqi model of dealing with the problem of implementing democracy mean that the culture of negating the other flows in the blood of the Arab peoples to the point where they are incapable of ridding themselves of the enslavement to dictatorship and of repressive regimes? Does this mean that the Arab peoples have become addicted to [the point that they] accept repression, brutality, and an iron-fist policy, to the point where any talk about democracy may cause them horror and hallucination?" Posted by: 11A5S 2003-07-10 |
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