IN THE NAME OF ALLAH, THE BENEFICENT, THE MERCIFUL

 

THE END OF A DICTATOR

 

[Shamim A Siddiqi, New York]

 

The era of the dictatorial regime of Saddam Hussain of Iraq is over for good “unwept and unsung” but the struggle of the people to get out of the sugar-coated “iron grip” of the Allied domination is going to persist and prolong. How long?  Currently, its fate is unknown and uncertain. It may last for decades together in one form or the other. Apparently, it is “determined” to stay in Iraq “now” in the name of “democracy”, “deliverance” of justice and freedom, “liberalism”, “liberation” of women, “protection of human rights and that of minorities and facilitate the “survival” of close “neighbors” like Israel and its “super interests” in the region. In its wake, there is every likelihood that people’s struggle for “complete” freedom from foreign “domination” will grow and continue to grow faster and faster till it would engulf all the surrounding states of the region. It is a continuous story and I will get, Insha Allah, enough time to deal its features at some other time. At this juncture, I simply want to share with readers the “sadistic” part of Saddam’s exit from the scene that foretells some lessons and pinpoints some hard facts in the geopolitical perspective of the area, the heart of the Muslim lands.       

 

A dictator is always coward. It comes to power from backdoor with the help of some opportunist people or group and corrupt civil and military bureaucracy with the “claim” to “restore” people’s rights, enforce the rule of the law, end corruption and establish peace in the country that is “taken” as in jeopardy with the existing regime. Around the world, the military dictatorship whether it is of Asia, Muslim countries, African continent or of Latin America that usurped power in the last fifty years has the same plea or the catchwords to “befoul” their people and world opinion. The military dictatorship of Saddam and that of the Bathist Party of Iraq and Syria was no exception to this rule.

 

These dictators “conquer” their own people, create a vested class in the country to survive and prolong their regime or “dynasty”, maximize their worldly gains, deny human rights, brutalize the people who criticize or do not see eye to eye with the ruling coterie, create personality cult of their own and use the national wealth and resources to strengthen and perpetuate their own power and regime as the “only hope” for the people of the land. Saddam committed all these crimes to satisfy his whim to be recognized as the “supreme” leader of the Arab world. He played with the rights and life of his Shiite community ruthlessly and that of the Kurdish in the North. These oppressed people must naturally feel relieved after his “mysteriously” disgraceful surrender to the “occupied” forces, giving a chance to President Bush to “justify” his naked aggression over Iraq and throwing Bush-Blair’s “false” and concocted story of WMD far behind in the background.

 

Saddam was timid and has no self respect. He humiliated his people and the entire Arab world by surrendering so ignominiously. He fought the battle with Iran on the instigation of the USA, attacked Kuwait when “pumped” up by American ambassador in Iraq, boasted for his national guards in the first Gulf war, evaded and avoided the International inspection by the UN team unnecessarily creating doubts and suspicion in the minds of “others” about the “presence” of WMD for nothing, providing a baseless opportunity to Bush-Blair hegemony to destroy the infrastructure of the country and “occupy” the heart of the Muslim world by its diehard adversaries. He was first the enemy of his own people who have suffered immensely during his regime and are now suffering beyond any description many a times more even for the basic necessities of life. He should be put to some exemplary form of death not by Americans or any international court but by people’s court of Iraq at least to revenge some of the shame that he brought to his people and the country that he usurped.

 

The charge sheet against Saddam does not end here. He has put his country at least fifty years behind in terms of material progress, technical know-how, capital outlays, and “handed over” the natural wealth in the hands of greedy-oil-hungry “shylocks” who in no way will ever be prepared to leave the country at ease. He, out of his arrogance and “serving” as “secret” agent of the CIA has paved the way for the USA to stay there for good. This charge may look strange but one must know that it was CIA that brought him from Cairo, put him in power and he has been harping always on the tunes of his “masters” throughout his regime one way or the other as pinpointed above. Arab world news papers are giving different story that he was arrested in June or July 2003, was in the custody of the CIA and was brought to limelight through a “drama” that was staged for world demonstration only last week. He never gave any fight worth its name neither in the first Gulf war nor during the current episode of America. It was all through a story that fulfilled the aspirations of the Whitehouse and Saddam “acted” only as he was “directed”, foolishly and unwittingly. Had their been an “independent” court in Iraq to probe in the affairs of Saddam from beginning to the end; the entire untold story could be unearthed. But I don’t expect any good out the current or would-be “puppet” regime of Iraq. Only history will give its verdict at its appropriate time.      

 

Still, the “end of Saddam” carries a lot of lessons for the despotic rulers of the Muslim world. The way America has disposed off his “bosom friend”, Saddam, the same way these “mighty” rulers can be eliminated form the pages of history by their “masters” sitting in London and Washington and their secret agencies that are actively operating in all these countries in no time. The game is now quite open. It would be either through internal conspiracies or open overthrow by naked aggression that is known as “preemptive” attack, a weapon that is hanging on the head of each Muslim country that does not tow down the lines of the mega-superpower of the world. Only today Col. Gaddafi of Libya has surrendered to pack up his WMD program to be in the good book of the USA & UK. The other despotic rulers of the Muslim world like Hassni Mubarak of Egypt, General Parvez of Pakistan, the dictators of Libya, Tunisia, Morocco and the Five Sheikhdoms of ME all should and must read their “end-result” in the “unceremonious” surrender of Saddam. “Fa-Taberu Ya ulul absar” [So learn a lesson, O ye who have eyes]

 

Shamim Siddiqi

December 20, 2003