14 February 2011

Al Jaz - infantile maunderings

Have been regretting adding Al Jaz "In Depth Features" to my RSS. Today's offering from Marwan Bishara, their "senior political analyst", overflows the cup. If I felt a need for lousy syntax and sophomoric content I'd read the New Statesman. 
The military's insistence to keep the Mubarak appointed Ahmad Shafiq government for the transitional period has raised concern. Likewise, freezing the constitution is a double edge sword. While it allows for writing a new more democratic constitution, it could also enable the military leaders to act according to its own interest, rather than the interest of the revolution [d'you think?].
It also begs the question [he means raises the question - begging the question is when the proof of a proposition is implicit in the premise], why hasn't the military command cancelled the emergency laws nor freed those arrested during the last three weeks, not to mention the political prisoners?
In the short term, the foremost loser are the region's autocrats who most likely will face serious pressure as the spirit of peoples’ power spread around the Arab and even Muslim world. So will al-Qaeda and its ilk that preferred violence to peoples' power. [I'm getting all misty-eyed]
In the long run, the three theocracies, or theocracy-based regimes - Israel, Saudi Arabia and Iran - could see their religious-based legitimacies falter in favour of civic and democratic legitimacy as more people rise and claim their governments as citizens and people not subjects and sects.[then again, they could not - wanna bet on it?]
A united, democratic and strong Egypt can regain its long lost regional influence as an Arab leader. It will eclipse Saudi Arabia, put the belligerent Israeli occupation on notice [Of what? Peoples' Power? Because the armed forces sure as hell don't want another round with the IDF], and curtail the Iranian Ayatollahs’ ambition for regional influence.
Mubarak left because the military told him it was time to go. The only way Bishara's dream can come true is if the second largest and most privileged armed forces in the Arab world (after Pakistan) hand over power and thereafter refrain from intervening when their interests are threatened. And the three bears.

2 comments:

  1. 'United' along with 'democratic' sound more like a prescription for Algerian Islamiat rather than an instant flowering of unselfish citizenship. As we have seen in Iraq, many years of dictatorship do not collapse into an easily attained democratic state. Al Jazeera has shown a propensity for posturing recently. Also they are making a big bid for more English language readers. Go figure.

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  2. Well, Bishara just lost them one English reader! I said sophomoric, but he's a lot more immature than that.

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