The Peace on The Horizon - 75 Years after The World War 2 in the Middle East (94)

(Japanese Version)

(Arabic Version)

 

(contents)

 

Chapter 4: War and Peace in The Middle East (8)

 

094 Populism brings up dictatorship (2/4)

 Before World War II Arab countries had been ruled by Western imperialism. After the war, they were fascinated by the socialism of USSR which was linked with the nationalism. And in 1950s, Zhou Enlai of China, Jawaharlal Nehru of India and Josip Broz Tito of Czechoslovakia had deployed non-alliance movement. But in the midst of the cold war between the East and West, the leaders in the Middle East forced to decide whether they belong to the Western ally or the Eastern ally. They had no choice of neutrality in which they didn’t belong to either side.

 

 For Arabs who deeply devoted to Islam, atheistic communism was entirely opposite way of thinking. Christianity of Western countries was much more understandable than atheistic communism because both Islam and Christianity were monotheism. They felt for Muslim minorities in Central Asia being suppressed by the central government of Moscow. Middle Eastern dictators gradually inclined to Western countries despite the difference of ethnicity.

 

Dictators were unwilling to give political freedom to the people. While many of dictators in the Middle Eastern countries put ‘the Republic’ in their country name to cheat the people and the international community. In fact, however, he established harsh dictatorial authoritarian state. Let’s check Libya. Muammar Gaddafi named his country as "Great Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya (direct democracy)". The country’s name was too much decorative; “Great”, "Socialist”, “People’s”, "Arab (ethnicity)” and “Jamahiriya (direct democracy)”. Libya in Gaddafi’s era was surely an absolutely dictatorial authoritarian state far different from its name. Not only in Middle East but also in Far East Asia, there is another sample. North Korea's official name is "Democratic People’s Republic of Korea” (in short DPRK). The dictators always love exaggerated words.

 

(To be continued ----)

 

 

Areha Kazuya

(From an ordinary citizen in the cloud)