The London-based Arabic-language daily al-Hayat published excerpts of a rare, seeringly self-critical article on the tendency of Arab nations to ?to ignore our shortcomings and present them as virtues,? in the language of the column. Written by former Libyan prime minister Abd al-Hamid al-Bakkoush, the piece is titled, ?Why Do Arabs Ignore Their Flaws?? The publication of the article itself, along with a more objective, but equally revealing piece in the Saudi Arabian Arab News (see our own Arab Press Review), is a sign that, perhaps, the Arabic-speaking world is beginning to face up to its own endemic problems.
The article opens with an old adage and its modern application to the Arab world: ?They say that the camel cannot see his hump. Perhaps this is somewhat descriptive of our behavior. Yet while the camel cannot see, we? do not want to see?? The Arabs, according to al-Bakkoush, ?obliterate our cultural, political, and economic defects. Any observer will discern our supreme efforts to ignore our shortcomings and present them as virtues?. We do not consent to harbor any flaw, in neither our past nor our present. With regard to our future - well, it is a campaign of achievements and triumphs that cannot be described or enumerated.? Yet, there are defects, the author points out: ?The absence of the virtue of modesty and the loss of the trait of open-mindedness are two examples of the many flaws that are too numerous to count in this article.?
The writer explains that when a defect is revealed, ?Panic grips us at every criticism. We are furious at anyone who mentions shortcomings to us?? Arab society relates to any perceived shortcomings as ?mud slung at us by our adversaries who hate our national identity and lie in wait for our religions,? al-Bakkoush writes. All inter-Arab conflicts are explained away by Arab society as examples of ?how the West and its leader America conspire against us with the aim of spoiling the wonderful relations among the various [Arab] countries. See how every time one Arab grabs another by the throat we attribute it to a foreign scheme. Wasn't Iraq's invasion of Kuwait an American plot carried out by the U.S. ambassador to Baghdad...?? the columnist sarcastically asks. But, in truth, al-Bakkoush writes, ?we have such a quantity of harmful caprices and ambitions that no one could have sown them in our breasts. We keep making mistakes and then act as one to? obliterate what is clear to all.?
As for the Arab-Israeli conflict, al-Bakkoush sees it as one of the more egregious examples of Arabic fantasy: ?For some time we have been dealing with the Palestine issue. Although our defeats at the hands of the Jews came successively, one after the other, no observer could hear us utter a single admission of defeat - as if we have been racking up victories over the Zionists since 1948.? Al-Bakkoush cynically declares, ?We have eliminated agents and foreigners and never ceased giving speeches, singing songs, and organizing demonstrations. Are these not all achievements and victories?!? Instead of a serious approach to war or peace with ?the state of the Jews?, the columnist explains, Arabs ?can be seen beating the drums of war and clearing our throats in order to threaten while not thinking of war and not preparing to wage it. Furthermore, even after we declared that peace was our final option, the signs of our lack of seriousness are still evident in us; thus, we do nothing to achieve peace.? There are those in the Arab world, the article says, ?who talk about [the conflict] being one of survival, not one of borders, grabbing each other by the throats and talking excitedly.?
The author has criticisms for pan-Arabists, who ?talk of the establishment of a united Arab state, while disregarding [the fact that] disintegration is a mental condition, not a condition contingent upon borders.? Were it ever established, al-Bakkoush declares, ?the great Arab state will, in our present situation, be nothing more than the establishment of an empire, in the face of whose violence the cruelty of the Jews will pale.? As for others who ?dream of the Muslim state that was,? al-Bakkoush writes, ?They do not go forwards, but backwards? Allah will arrange victory for us in all our battles with our enemies...?
In the meantime, according to al-Bakkoush, Arabs expend energy ?boasting of our ability to consume the [West's] achievements, or by attributing these achievements to our 'spiritual' civilization? [which] is no greater than memories we compete amongst ourselves in talking about. We imagine ourselves to be superior to the culture of the West; in moments of modesty, we state that we refuse to learn from Western culture.? Arabs ?continue to call [the West] by the names we most loathe, and are glad that this allows us to conceal the backwardness from which we suffer.?
The article opens with an old adage and its modern application to the Arab world: ?They say that the camel cannot see his hump. Perhaps this is somewhat descriptive of our behavior. Yet while the camel cannot see, we? do not want to see?? The Arabs, according to al-Bakkoush, ?obliterate our cultural, political, and economic defects. Any observer will discern our supreme efforts to ignore our shortcomings and present them as virtues?. We do not consent to harbor any flaw, in neither our past nor our present. With regard to our future - well, it is a campaign of achievements and triumphs that cannot be described or enumerated.? Yet, there are defects, the author points out: ?The absence of the virtue of modesty and the loss of the trait of open-mindedness are two examples of the many flaws that are too numerous to count in this article.?
The writer explains that when a defect is revealed, ?Panic grips us at every criticism. We are furious at anyone who mentions shortcomings to us?? Arab society relates to any perceived shortcomings as ?mud slung at us by our adversaries who hate our national identity and lie in wait for our religions,? al-Bakkoush writes. All inter-Arab conflicts are explained away by Arab society as examples of ?how the West and its leader America conspire against us with the aim of spoiling the wonderful relations among the various [Arab] countries. See how every time one Arab grabs another by the throat we attribute it to a foreign scheme. Wasn't Iraq's invasion of Kuwait an American plot carried out by the U.S. ambassador to Baghdad...?? the columnist sarcastically asks. But, in truth, al-Bakkoush writes, ?we have such a quantity of harmful caprices and ambitions that no one could have sown them in our breasts. We keep making mistakes and then act as one to? obliterate what is clear to all.?
As for the Arab-Israeli conflict, al-Bakkoush sees it as one of the more egregious examples of Arabic fantasy: ?For some time we have been dealing with the Palestine issue. Although our defeats at the hands of the Jews came successively, one after the other, no observer could hear us utter a single admission of defeat - as if we have been racking up victories over the Zionists since 1948.? Al-Bakkoush cynically declares, ?We have eliminated agents and foreigners and never ceased giving speeches, singing songs, and organizing demonstrations. Are these not all achievements and victories?!? Instead of a serious approach to war or peace with ?the state of the Jews?, the columnist explains, Arabs ?can be seen beating the drums of war and clearing our throats in order to threaten while not thinking of war and not preparing to wage it. Furthermore, even after we declared that peace was our final option, the signs of our lack of seriousness are still evident in us; thus, we do nothing to achieve peace.? There are those in the Arab world, the article says, ?who talk about [the conflict] being one of survival, not one of borders, grabbing each other by the throats and talking excitedly.?
The author has criticisms for pan-Arabists, who ?talk of the establishment of a united Arab state, while disregarding [the fact that] disintegration is a mental condition, not a condition contingent upon borders.? Were it ever established, al-Bakkoush declares, ?the great Arab state will, in our present situation, be nothing more than the establishment of an empire, in the face of whose violence the cruelty of the Jews will pale.? As for others who ?dream of the Muslim state that was,? al-Bakkoush writes, ?They do not go forwards, but backwards? Allah will arrange victory for us in all our battles with our enemies...?
In the meantime, according to al-Bakkoush, Arabs expend energy ?boasting of our ability to consume the [West's] achievements, or by attributing these achievements to our 'spiritual' civilization? [which] is no greater than memories we compete amongst ourselves in talking about. We imagine ourselves to be superior to the culture of the West; in moments of modesty, we state that we refuse to learn from Western culture.? Arabs ?continue to call [the West] by the names we most loathe, and are glad that this allows us to conceal the backwardness from which we suffer.?