Recent Events in the Middle East

27 February 2011

The Middle East is in turmoil, Arab tyrants are falling one after the other, the whole political map of the region is changing. The people are no longer prepared to be ignored and treated like a bunch of imbeciles by their corrupt and arrogant rulers.

The corrupt rulers who do not enjoy popular support at home, and in order to stay in power they need help and support from their masters abroad. Naturally these rulers are easily manipulated and leaned on by western powers compared to democratically elected governments.

There is no doubt that for the western countries, it is not going to be as easy as before to impose their will and dictate their terms if the tyrants give their places to democratically elected governments.

On the other hand when the government is democratically elected and taken to account by people’s representatives in the national assembly and scrutinized by country’s free media, the likelihood of adoption of extreme policies by a mad and unstable tyrant who can endanger the region and world peace by his ambitions to achieve regional hegemony would be reduced.

Having said that, now the question is whether the real nature of the relationship between western powers and Islamic world in general and Arab countries in particular is going to change drastically and if so which direction is it going to take?

The fact of the matter is that the Middle Eastern countries are not going to achieve a drastic change in their relationships with the developed world so long as they are in need of foreign technology and know how in order to use their natural resources and develop their countries.

The key to achieving true independence is technological advancements. Only under these conditions the nature of the relationship between the Middle Eastern countries and the developed world is going to change.

It is true that in the modern world complete self sufficiency is neither possible nor desirable. All nations have to cooperate, and in doing so they are all interdependent. However, there is a difference between a two way traffic of cooperation between equal partners leading to mutual dependency of them and the existing one way traffic of dependence of the Middle Eastern countries to western technology and know how. So long as this problem is not seriously addressed the true independence of these countries is nothing but a mirage.

There is no doubt that, it is not possible to acquire technological advancement over the night. This is a process which takes decades if not generations. But, it is imperative to take the first steps towards it.

Meanwhile, what is required is a realistic review of the world order, the mechanism of international trade and market economy. The more investment made in education and the more technical know how acquired, the sooner these goals would be achieved. What countries in the South East Asia have done and achieved is a good example for the Middle Eastern countries.