There is no doubt about the fact that many Arab countries are now facing the threat of disintegration and possibly fragmentation into various mini states. Separatism is very much on the rise in countries such as the Sudan, Yemen, Iraq, and Somalia.
In Yemen, for instance, the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen (PDRY) unified with its northern neighbour, the Yemeni Arab Republic (YAR) in 1990. Since 1994's civil war, southerners say the former PDRY was treated as the spoils of war and essentially looted and occupied by the forces of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who became president of the YAR in 1978.
Southern Yemenis are now striving hard to regain independence. Hardly a week goes by without the southerners staging a demonstration to clamour for a free state.
Southern Yemen has been embroiled in civil unrest since 2007 when a protest movement began, led by retired military officers, claiming economic discrimination and political marginalisation.
The Yemeni Centre for Civil Rights announced recently that a public opinion poll found that an overwhelming majority of southern Yemenis favour independence. Over 70 per cent of Yemenis living in the territory of the former People's Democratic Republic of Yemen (PDRY) favour secession from the unified Yemen state.
Add to that of course the Al Houthi uprising which, although stopped recently after a shaky truce with the Sana'a government, can always erupt again. One shouldn't also forget the tumultuous events of the Sa'ada region which shook the country for a while.
The situation is even much worse in Sudan as the country is about to be divided into two states. Southern Sudanese are going to the polls soon to decide if they remain part of the Republic of Sudan, or get a state of their own. All indications, however, point to secession. And pessimists think that other Sudanese regions may follow suit, especially in the troubled area of Darfur.
It is true that the Iraqis managed at long last to form a new government, but the country remains in a state of turmoil, which might lead sooner or later to fragmentation. It is not a secret at all that the Iraqi constitution has already identified the country as a federal state, which definitely makes it easier for the separatists to carve Iraq into cantons.
Somalia, on its part, is already fragmented, and it remains to be seen into how many parts it is going to be carved into when the civil war ends there.
It is true that other Arab countries are not suffering from civil wars or having secessionist movements but, although unreported, social dissent is always on the rise for similar reasons.
Poor governance
Who is to blame for the disintegration of these Arab countries? The ruling regimes of course. The separatist movements are not rising just because they love to form mini states. They know well that being part of a big strong state is much better than being a midget state. But since many Arab governments are not even-handed with their peoples, some badly wronged regions could not but seek separation in protest against injustice, marginalisation and discrimination.
The new separatists movements rising here and there tend to prove that the so-called Arab entities which emerged after independence have failed miserably in building up a real modern state.
Sadly, many Arab countries are still living in the pre-state era. Most of them are ruled on a tribal, sectarian, or a clannish basis. In other words, many Arab countries have failed to be states for all their citizens. Funnily enough, Arabs tend to accuse Israel of being a racist or an unfair state treating the Jews as first class citizens and Arabs as second or third rate citizens, while in fact most Arab states treat their citizens very unevenly.
Many Arab regions are discriminated against on religious, tribal, ethnic, regional and social grounds. It is no wonder at all that certain minority groups are opting for independence or self autonomy.
It is true some Arab countries boast of elected parliaments claiming to represent all the regions in a single country. But in reality those parliaments are anything but democratically elected. Most of their members are appointed by the security services to be at the beck and call of the ruling regimes.
Have you ever seen an Arab member of parliament clamouring for the rights of his constituency or for that matter the people who elected him or her to parliament? Hardly. Most Arab MPs are no more than service clerks.
Had we Arabs got democracy and good governance, we would have hardly had separatist movements or secessionists. And so, instead of heaping abuse and criticism on separatists, let us, for God's sake, pinpoint the cause of our disintegration and expose the real criminals!
Dr Faisal Al Qasim is a Syrian journalist based in Doha.