Dr. Khalid Al-Shafi
Dear General, your soldiers are working for free to prove they are capable of tearing their mothers into pieces and feeding them to the wild animals. The sentence was uttered by the slave of dictator, in the global novel The Autumn of the Patriarch by the Colombian author García Márquez. The novel tells the story of a ruler who does not know anything about the circumstances of the world around him and the way of management. He even does not know whether there is a country in the world apart from his. He is just a fool who came to the power by accident. He does not know how to read or write. He is so weak that he does not feel the force only to the extent that his mother is close to him and she was telling him if I knew that my son would become the president of the republic, I would have sent him to school. Therefore, he gave her the title of the saint of motherland by a royal decree. He used to do what he wanted to. If he did not like eleven o’clock he would order to turn it to twelve o’clock.
Whenever he felt that his power is in danger he issued a new amnesty for all prisoners and ordered all exiles to come back except the writers. He was just a small dictator who thought that he was a national hero, but when he faced a rebellion he pointed his fingers at foreign hands and secret agendas who in the end died elderly and lonely. He was abandoned by everyone after he lost the country’s wealth and strength, even the sea, which left only to force him to concede to the North Americans!
Whether it was written in his destiny or he chose his fate by himself, the citizen in the Arab world lived an unenviable life between the systems of kingdom and republic, but there is no clean kingdom and no untainted republic. This system is like the states that contain a deformed mixture of entity of a state of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century in the face of a civilized world that is living in the twenty-first century. Is the life in the center of Arab monarchies better than the life in the republics? Is the monarchy more merciful in suppressing its people than the republican system or is there no real difference? The report of the Foreign Affairs’ magazine referred to some Arab regimes’ treatment with the popular revolts. While the social networking sites succeeded in mobilizing hundreds of thousands of demonstrators quickly in some Arab countries like Egypt and Tunisia, the growing popular agitation in Syria is different. However, some activists didn’t participate for the fear of use of military. The people did not respond to the call for a general strike at the beginning of revolution, but the reaction of the violent regime towards the first modest demands increased the adherence to change with determination and resolve. With the passage of time, the demand to end the law of repression and emergency and condemnation of regime’s corruption, transferred to the call to dismantle the regime. The reaction as the report pointed out was intended to rob the peaceful demonstrations’ legitimacy considering the same as foreign plot and making limited concessions in the hope of appeasing the people by dismissing the government and ending the emergency law which probably would have succeeded in calming the calls for change if the same would have been offered in the beginning. However, since the reactions from the regime came late these promises seemed to be dishonest and lacked the sincerity and seriousness.
The regime responded to the growing voices demanding change in a violent and ruthless way, as it happened in Syria. The report compared the positions of some of the other Arab regimes with each other. Jordan faced similar challenges which were faced by Syria. The demonstrations in Jordan initially focused on the social issues and corruption, but they quickly evolved to call for constitutional reforms. In spite of that, the regime dealt with the urgent issues with more persuasion, compared with its Syrian counterpart. It connected with the tribes and Palestinian refugees and also visited the marginalized areas. The head of the regime personally supervised the royal committees that are concerned with the affairs of the reform and national dialogue, even though the seriousness of reforms that would be started is not clear as yet, but it was found that the approach was more successful than the vague promises of the Syrian President and the oppression adopted by Gaddafi!
The ball on the other side of the Gulf lies today in the court of the former Yemeni president who burnt all the initiatives taken internally or internationally or by the Gulf state to resolve the crisis in his ill-fated country. He witnessed all the scenarios in the Arab States and viewed them on the space stations, which he accuses of treason from the Atlantic Ocean to the Gulf. He chose the solution that he wants to be met in Yemen. In this way he wants to convert Yemen into a miserable state in which violence, murder and bloodshed shall spread among the people of the north and south and finally he will transform the country into another Somalia warring tribes conflicting with iron and fire.
We were hoping even in the final moments before it was too late and under any pretext and any local, Gulf, Arabian, African an International initiative that Saleh would accept the terms that were rejected by him in the beginning and would go out from the back door of the presidency at least retaining a little dignity, most importantly he did not tarnish his hand with the blood of people who sat on streets in millions demanding his departure with his regime! But he insisted that he would adopt the way of suicide by burning Yemen without exception as Nero burnt Rome and sat singing poetry of Homer while having in the hands the musical instrument that could be used by Ali Abdullah Saleh, accompanied by the lute with the Adeni rhythm! Surprisingly, in spite of all the killing, blood, siege, curfews and intimidation, we find no real condemnation from Arab States, their league and the majority of people who watch the news stations and go to sleep happily as if they are watching the serial Bab al-Hara or a long Turkish soap!
We must come to the conclusion that many of the Arab leaders will not leave until after the demolition of the temple on the heads of everyone in an attempt to convert the “Arab spring” to “Autumn of the Patriarch”. They will not give up their illusions that the people cannot live without them only after they are rejected by the world, international sanctions are imposed against them, their assets are frozen, their ambassadors are expelled and they are targeted personally and handed over to the International Tribunal as war criminals who faced the uprisings and popular revolts with bullet, killing thugs and mercenaries. I am sure no matter how long will it take, they will fall like the leaves of autumn!
Dear General, your soldiers are working for free to prove they are capable of tearing their mothers into pieces and feeding them to the wild animals. The sentence was uttered by the slave of dictator, in the global novel The Autumn of the Patriarch by the Colombian author García Márquez. The novel tells the story of a ruler who does not know anything about the circumstances of the world around him and the way of management. He even does not know whether there is a country in the world apart from his. He is just a fool who came to the power by accident. He does not know how to read or write. He is so weak that he does not feel the force only to the extent that his mother is close to him and she was telling him if I knew that my son would become the president of the republic, I would have sent him to school. Therefore, he gave her the title of the saint of motherland by a royal decree. He used to do what he wanted to. If he did not like eleven o’clock he would order to turn it to twelve o’clock.
Whenever he felt that his power is in danger he issued a new amnesty for all prisoners and ordered all exiles to come back except the writers. He was just a small dictator who thought that he was a national hero, but when he faced a rebellion he pointed his fingers at foreign hands and secret agendas who in the end died elderly and lonely. He was abandoned by everyone after he lost the country’s wealth and strength, even the sea, which left only to force him to concede to the North Americans!
Whether it was written in his destiny or he chose his fate by himself, the citizen in the Arab world lived an unenviable life between the systems of kingdom and republic, but there is no clean kingdom and no untainted republic. This system is like the states that contain a deformed mixture of entity of a state of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century in the face of a civilized world that is living in the twenty-first century. Is the life in the center of Arab monarchies better than the life in the republics? Is the monarchy more merciful in suppressing its people than the republican system or is there no real difference? The report of the Foreign Affairs’ magazine referred to some Arab regimes’ treatment with the popular revolts. While the social networking sites succeeded in mobilizing hundreds of thousands of demonstrators quickly in some Arab countries like Egypt and Tunisia, the growing popular agitation in Syria is different. However, some activists didn’t participate for the fear of use of military. The people did not respond to the call for a general strike at the beginning of revolution, but the reaction of the violent regime towards the first modest demands increased the adherence to change with determination and resolve. With the passage of time, the demand to end the law of repression and emergency and condemnation of regime’s corruption, transferred to the call to dismantle the regime. The reaction as the report pointed out was intended to rob the peaceful demonstrations’ legitimacy considering the same as foreign plot and making limited concessions in the hope of appeasing the people by dismissing the government and ending the emergency law which probably would have succeeded in calming the calls for change if the same would have been offered in the beginning. However, since the reactions from the regime came late these promises seemed to be dishonest and lacked the sincerity and seriousness.
The regime responded to the growing voices demanding change in a violent and ruthless way, as it happened in Syria. The report compared the positions of some of the other Arab regimes with each other. Jordan faced similar challenges which were faced by Syria. The demonstrations in Jordan initially focused on the social issues and corruption, but they quickly evolved to call for constitutional reforms. In spite of that, the regime dealt with the urgent issues with more persuasion, compared with its Syrian counterpart. It connected with the tribes and Palestinian refugees and also visited the marginalized areas. The head of the regime personally supervised the royal committees that are concerned with the affairs of the reform and national dialogue, even though the seriousness of reforms that would be started is not clear as yet, but it was found that the approach was more successful than the vague promises of the Syrian President and the oppression adopted by Gaddafi!
The ball on the other side of the Gulf lies today in the court of the former Yemeni president who burnt all the initiatives taken internally or internationally or by the Gulf state to resolve the crisis in his ill-fated country. He witnessed all the scenarios in the Arab States and viewed them on the space stations, which he accuses of treason from the Atlantic Ocean to the Gulf. He chose the solution that he wants to be met in Yemen. In this way he wants to convert Yemen into a miserable state in which violence, murder and bloodshed shall spread among the people of the north and south and finally he will transform the country into another Somalia warring tribes conflicting with iron and fire.
We were hoping even in the final moments before it was too late and under any pretext and any local, Gulf, Arabian, African an International initiative that Saleh would accept the terms that were rejected by him in the beginning and would go out from the back door of the presidency at least retaining a little dignity, most importantly he did not tarnish his hand with the blood of people who sat on streets in millions demanding his departure with his regime! But he insisted that he would adopt the way of suicide by burning Yemen without exception as Nero burnt Rome and sat singing poetry of Homer while having in the hands the musical instrument that could be used by Ali Abdullah Saleh, accompanied by the lute with the Adeni rhythm! Surprisingly, in spite of all the killing, blood, siege, curfews and intimidation, we find no real condemnation from Arab States, their league and the majority of people who watch the news stations and go to sleep happily as if they are watching the serial Bab al-Hara or a long Turkish soap!
We must come to the conclusion that many of the Arab leaders will not leave until after the demolition of the temple on the heads of everyone in an attempt to convert the “Arab spring” to “Autumn of the Patriarch”. They will not give up their illusions that the people cannot live without them only after they are rejected by the world, international sanctions are imposed against them, their assets are frozen, their ambassadors are expelled and they are targeted personally and handed over to the International Tribunal as war criminals who faced the uprisings and popular revolts with bullet, killing thugs and mercenaries. I am sure no matter how long will it take, they will fall like the leaves of autumn!
