Mr. Al-Baradei Returns Home: A Chance for A Real New Arab Renaissance?

Hassan Al-Haifi
Published: 01-03-2010

The recent return of Dr. Mohammed Al-Baradei after having served the international community faithfully and professionally for over twenty years marks an important moment, not just for the Arab Republic of Egypt, but for the entire Arab World. This return was greeted rather unwarily to say the least by officialdom in Cairo and certainly the Egyptian official media considered the hopeful welcome accorded by the independent press and some partisan circles to Mr. Baradei as near treason. It is not so clear why the Egyptian people should entertain a fear or even caution of the return of a man who has been honored by the international community by a Nobel Peace Prize. Mr. Baradei was a man who stressed that any military action by the international community against any nation of this planet should be based on factual and demonstrated proof of the danger that such a nation poses to world peace. We have seen how the minds of entire citizenries can be coaxed into believing that the actions of political leaderships can be misleadingly outside the context of a sincere application of the Social Contract. In fact there is enough evidence to suggest that such actions can sometimes be based on service to evil and an accommodation to narrow interests.

We have seen in the first decade of this Century that when narrow interests defined policies of nations, the consequences are deadly and costly, leaving a myriad of social and economic ills that are sometimes irreparable. We were told, for example, that the “removal of Saddam Hussein” provides sufficient justification for a war that has yet to see the finale of its ongoing devastation. However that was not the initial declared rationale provided by the promoters of one of the most costly military and legally dubious military coups in human history. This also does not take into consideration that the intended effort meant the elimination of a heretofore non-existent threat of terror, which was not backed by any substantive evidence to speak of from any legal or moral standpoint. Mr. Al-Baradei clearly understood this in his former highly sensitive position as head of the International Atomic Energy Agency of the United Nations and sought to try to diffuse the flames of war, even when the world found difficulty in rejecting the deliberate efforts to mix a seemingly genuine ant-terrorism global effort with latent devious intentions and a more obvious disruption of world peace.

But Mr. Al-Baradei stands for more than just the propagation of world peace throughout the world. This observer could not fail to remember that about a year or so ago, Mohammed Al-Baradei was in front of the official TV cameras of the Egyptian television network (there are still no independent Television radio or television channels to this day in Egypt or in the overwhelming majority of Arab states). Obviously, this interview was only permitted because the man had not then declared himself a candidate for the Presidency of Egypt in the upcoming very long overdue Presidential Elections of Egypt. Yet the significance of the interview could not be easily ignored and the hour or so chat with the internationally renowned public servant of the world told the audience that the man had more insight and more concern for the pathetic plight of not only the Egyptian people, but of the entire Arab World. This sad plight can be seen for obvious reasons, manifested by the failure of the political leaderships in the Arab countries to deliver their part of the bargain of the Social Contract. He mostly talked about the awesome failure of the Arab governments in taking advantage of the vast resources of the Arab World to upgrade the cultural and educational standards of the Nation to keep pace with a rapidly changing world that has no room or even respect for the educational and cultural retardation. Surely, such observation is obviated by the pathetic standing of the Arab World and its helplessness to confront the highly systematic and humiliatingly sophisticated hostility being unleashed by Israel against not only the Arab people of Palestine, but as can be seen now, against the entire Moslem World. Surely, the time has come for the Arab World to instigate tangible changes in its political and social frameworks that are more favorable to producing a more effective synergy of their vast resources and capabilities. What Mr. Al-Baradei conveyed in that enlightening interview was that he had a vision of where the Arab World should be and had a clear perception of what ills need to be overcome to realize such a vision. Mr. Baradei knew well that the Arab people; are sick and tired of exhaustive political and national rhetoric that serves only to inflate the pockets of the penholders and mouths that bellow all that empty rhetoric, which the Arabs have been hearing for the last fifty years. For this alone, I can vouch that Mr. Baradei will launch a highly warranted movement for most enlightened Arabs to start leading their people for a peaceful transformation of their political and social fabric. The Arab World must find a way of relinquishing the existent dead meat that has characterized our political frameworks and the establishment of more vibrant and interactive body politics that understand what the true aspirations of its constituencies are and how to go about realizing them.

Needless to say, the political establishments of the Arab World must recognize that they cannot regard public coffers as a free for all to rob and steal while they are protected by a political cover provided by the failing regimes that continue to hold the reigns of authority in the Arab World. The observer anticipates that the people of Egypt will indeed lead the way to this refreshing Arab renaissance. For this alone then we should welcome Mr. Al-Baradei home if he launches this momentary and called for true revolution in Arab political thinking.


Yemen Times Issue 1342
01-03-2010