Today Friday February 4 may well be remembered as the day the Egyptian people have evicted Husni Mubarak. Another million people march is planned and I don't think the obsolete Pharaoh will be allowed to remain on the throne. The Empire has decided to sacrifice him. The US mainstream media has been very open about this. I trust he has been given assurances that he will not be prosecuted and that he will be allowed to seek refuge, probably in Saudi Arabia. But, in exchange for this sacrifice, the Empire is requesting that the regime remains in power, albeit in a slightly reformed form. Omar Sulayman is the man pitted to take over. He is the US and Israel's man. He was selected because he will make sure that two essential tenets of the regime will remain untouched: the peace treaty with the zionist entity, and the neoliberal economic policies. The small cosmetic changes offered by the regime will be the participation of selected figures of the opposition in political life, and a temporary control of some of the most obscene expressions of corruptions. A couple of rich business people/politicians will be prosecuted, and may even end up in jail. Temporarily. But the essence of the regime will not have changed, and it will have bought the empire a small extra lease of life in the region.
This may well happen, and I can hear on the news eyewitnesses and reports that indicate that the demands have become much closer to: "end the Mubarak rule" than "end the Regime that has kept Mubarak as a straw man for the past decade" which was the prevailing mood earlier on. The ousting of Mubarak will be, of course, a victory by the people, but if the regime does not change, then our victory will be incomplete. The key problems of the Arab World are indeed exemplified by the two central tenets of the Egyptian Regime, both of which are imposed by the Empire. These are 1) normalization with Israel and 2) the blind adoption of the neoliberal economic doctrine. These afford the Empire military as well as economic control over the region: Israel scares the regimes and neoliberalism pervades into daily life and makes people dependent on a global market economy over which they have no control. All the rest is less important, as economic globalization, inherent to the neoliberal doctrine, will ensure cultural domination as well. The Empire is unconcerned with anything else.
But even if this scenario happens, and it might not, the Arab Revolution has started and it will not end. The Empire will fail to continue to dominate our World, not least because the central tenets of this domination are inherently flawed and viscerally rejected by the people in Egypt as well as in the rest of the Arab World. The Arab people's rejection of Israel has been amply demonstrated over the past 60 years, since the implantation of the Zionist entity in the region. And the spontaneous revolts our nation is witnessing against dictatorships, corruption, nepotism and poverty cannot but gain in strength as long as neoliberalism is the dominant economic doctrine. Injustice and corruption are intrinsic to neoliberal economy and to its market fundamentalism. No amount of cosmetic change can do anything to that. The winds of the Empire carry with them the seeds of its demise. And these have germinated on the barricades of Tahreer Square.
This may well happen, and I can hear on the news eyewitnesses and reports that indicate that the demands have become much closer to: "end the Mubarak rule" than "end the Regime that has kept Mubarak as a straw man for the past decade" which was the prevailing mood earlier on. The ousting of Mubarak will be, of course, a victory by the people, but if the regime does not change, then our victory will be incomplete. The key problems of the Arab World are indeed exemplified by the two central tenets of the Egyptian Regime, both of which are imposed by the Empire. These are 1) normalization with Israel and 2) the blind adoption of the neoliberal economic doctrine. These afford the Empire military as well as economic control over the region: Israel scares the regimes and neoliberalism pervades into daily life and makes people dependent on a global market economy over which they have no control. All the rest is less important, as economic globalization, inherent to the neoliberal doctrine, will ensure cultural domination as well. The Empire is unconcerned with anything else.
But even if this scenario happens, and it might not, the Arab Revolution has started and it will not end. The Empire will fail to continue to dominate our World, not least because the central tenets of this domination are inherently flawed and viscerally rejected by the people in Egypt as well as in the rest of the Arab World. The Arab people's rejection of Israel has been amply demonstrated over the past 60 years, since the implantation of the Zionist entity in the region. And the spontaneous revolts our nation is witnessing against dictatorships, corruption, nepotism and poverty cannot but gain in strength as long as neoliberalism is the dominant economic doctrine. Injustice and corruption are intrinsic to neoliberal economy and to its market fundamentalism. No amount of cosmetic change can do anything to that. The winds of the Empire carry with them the seeds of its demise. And these have germinated on the barricades of Tahreer Square.
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3 comments:
Why have you curbed your enthusiasm and became less poetic?
Are you loosing hope already? Is there anything hizbala can do to help?
Anon: I have more than hope, I have the conviction that we shall prevail
This article is full of hope and conviction that the desire of arab people shall prevail against US/zionist manipulation of egyptian political/economic scene. Ah ya Rami, I love reading your blog, especially in these days so important for the destiny of many arab peoples. Maya
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