War is too serious a business to be left to generals'. I wish Arab peoples and leaders reread the above memorable saying. They might find solutions for their numerous social, cultural, economic and political ills. History has taught us that military officers cannot be trusted even with war, which is their main specialisation, let alone with leading and managing states.
But sadly enough, many Arab countries have been run until now by bloody generals or security officers who manipulate almost everything, to the extent that they have become the sole point of reference to politicians and leaders alike. Nothing can be done without it being sanctioned by the security apparatus, no matter how minor or unimportant it is.
There is no doubt that all countries have powerful security agencies, including of course the democratic states. The US, for instance, allocates unbelievably huge budgets for its famous CIA and NSA. Some even go further by arguing that all countries are police states. but the difference between democratic states and Arab dictatorships is that the security services in the western world have well-defined missions.
The legendary CIA, for instance, can never ever interfere in the affairs of American citizens at home. It operates solely outside the US. And as regards the internal security apparatuses they are always at the beck and call of the governments. They never go beyond their stated roles. Nor do they create a halo around themselves to become more important and powerful than the ruling regimes themselves, as Arab security services do.
Whereas western police departments are merely tools in the hands of the politicians, the security agencies in Arab dictatorships are the real rulers who manipulate the state and the people at the same time. They, in actual fact, have confiscated all four estates to become the manipulator of the executive, the legislative, the judiciary, and the media all at once.
And so they are not answerable to anybody, as they are above the law. Some Arab constitutions, in actual fact, stipulate that the security services are only answerable to the head of state, which means they can kill people and go unpunished. That is why the so-called Arab parliaments fear the security apparatus more than anything else, as the MPs themselves have been appointed by the apparatus itself.
The judiciary, in its turn, is totally manipulated by the security agencies which, sarcastically enough, can imprison and even torture lawyers and judges very easily. I wonder how Arab dictators can achieve justice in their downtrodden countries when a fourth rate security goon can emasculate the highest judges.
Furthermore, one can never ever distinguish between the various security apparatuses in Arab dictatorships, as they usually compete for the same prey. The military security agency, for instance, can imprison a citizen for cheating in the exam, and the political security apparatus can kidnap a man from the street for driving a car without a licence.
What is even funnier is that the air security service can torture a person who built a house without a proper permit. And when somebody wants to get a licence to build a shoe factory he or she should get the permission from all security agencies, and if one of them says no, it means the factory cannot be built.
Even the media cannot publish anything without being sanctioned by the security service. And no editor-in-chief can be appointed without the consent of the Big Brother, as George Orwell once dubbed the security apparatus. When an Arab newspaper editor was sacked recently in a certain country, she, funnily enough, received the sacking order from a security officer and not from the minister of information. It is no wonder that the head of the cinema corporation in the same Arab country bragged recently that nobody can sack him, as he has been appointed by a powerful security general.
Even the traditional police force has been kept aside for the security apparatus to launch a savage crackdown on sit-ins and demonstrations. What is even worse is that certain security agencies have recruited thugs and goons to help them put down the uprisings.
In other words, even the conventional police is emasculated by the security apparatus, which is supposed to belong to the minister of the interior. The police force is relegated to second place when it comes to maintaining law and order. In fact, a tenth rate security officer can sometimes make mincemeat of an ordinary police officer. In other words, the traditional police force is powerless in Arab dictatorships.
It is no wonder at all that all the revolutions started in Arab dictatorships, as life there has become extremely unbearable and totally stagnant.
The security services in Arab autocracies always brag that they are the guardians of the homeland. But in actual fact they are nothing but a bunch of goons and thugs who have brought everything to a miserable standstill. And it is high time to say: "Down with the Arab police states once and for all".
Dr Faisal Al Qasim is a Syrian journalist based in Doha.
