At a time when most of the world prepares to celebrate the advent of a new year, one truly wonders if the Arab world has achieved anything worth celebrating. As the first decade of the new millennia draws to a close, one is absolutely saddened by the state of the Arab world as it stands today.

Iraq is struggling to maintain its unity and territorial integrity after years of occupation and a full-fledged civil war. Yemen is moving towards a new round of sectarian and tribal conflict.

Sudan prepares for partition and Lebanon is on the brink of anarchy as a result of the domestic polarisation over the legality of the special UN tribunal investigating the Rafik Hariri killing.

Palestinians are caught between internal divisions and Israeli occupation. Indeed, one should not ignore the socio-economic problems haunting most the rest of the Arab world.

Six decades ago, immediately after the departure of the colonial powers, the Arab world had big and ambitious dreams: unity, development, equality, prosperity and reasonable economic independence.

Sixty years on, one is tempted to ask if the Arab world has really realised any of these objectives and whether they were realistic and achievable in the first place. This question is highly controversial, as a combination of external and internal factors have played decisive role in shaping recent Arab history.

Yet, most Arab regimes would like us to believe that their failure to do any good for their countries over the past decades is the responsibility of the external powers. They may also blame their "backward and conservative" societies for not being responsive enough to their reforms, plans and programmes. But, is this true? Were Arab regimes so competent as not to be held responsible for anything that went wrong?

The ruling Arab elite, of the revolutionary nature in particular, claimed upon assuming power that they have come to right the wrongs of the colonial powers and that of the post-independence national bourgeoisie.

Mission

To these ends, Arab rulers adopted the ‘Kamalist approach', trying to impose their vision on conservative societies ruled by their own laws and traditions. The mission was declared as to transform these societies into modern nation states and fledging democracies.

In such an environment, the state was transformed from being a defender of order and property into a creator of wealth, power and prestige. As a consequence, the ruling elite resorted to repression to pacify the ruled and press for unplanned and hasty reform.

The result was total failure in every aspect of state activities, whether this be in the realm of fulfilling the welfare functions of the state, or in the most basic task of defending its territories.

Policymaking and administration have been arbitrary, discontinuous, and pursued in a milieu of large-scale official corruption.

The frequent failure of the Arab ruling elite to develop and implement socially beneficial policies has led to the erosion of their tenuous legitimacy and to a consequent increase in the use of force to maintain control.

But, the increasing level of coercion against the very people Arab regimes claimed to represent could not alone keep them in power. Hence, they moved all the social ills they alleged their mission was to suppress; i.e. sectarianism, nepotism and patrimonial relations into the state machinery.

One consequence of these policies was the weakening of national identity and the revival of communal tension. Hence, people came to identify themselves as Sunnis, Shiites, Kurds, and Christians; rather than Iraqis, Lebanese, Yemenis, Sudanese or else.

No wonder that the Arab world looks fragmented, poorer and hopeless. Some Arab countries, such as Iraq, are struggling today not for broader unity with the rest of the Arab world, but to preserve the political borders drawn by the notorious Sykes-Picot agreement. Others are languishing in poverty, deprivation, repression or foreign occupation.

For all these ills, Arab regimes have only themselves to blame. They have indeed left us with very little to celebrate.

 

Dr Marwan Kabalan is Director of the Damascus Centre for Economic and Political Studies.