What Egypt crackdown tells us
Updated: 2013-08-22 06:45
By Ma Kin-po(HK Edition)
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The mass protest rally organized by the Muslim Brotherhood in the center of Cairo that occupied the symbolic square for more than a month was finally ended by the military with a bloody crackdown earlier this month, leaving more than 2,000 civilians dead or injured. The incident sent shockwaves across the globe and had the US wondering what went wrong.
The reason is not hard to see: it was the result of the obsession of a US-led Western power asserting their so-called universal values such as "freedom" and "democracy" on the Arab world by inciting the "jasmine revolutions", in total disregard of the latter's age-old Islamic culture and unique values. The Western powers are bound to have blood on their hands when they set out to conquer the Arab world with different versions of "color revolution", which they invented and applied in some former Soviet republics a few years back. Political upheavals like these have been called variously the "Orange Revolution", "Jasmine Revolution" or "Arab Spring" by label-obsessed Western media, but they shared a common traumatic experience: bloody crackdowns by the existing governments. What else can they expect when they try to overthrow a foreign government that way?
Now, what does the latest example of Western ideological arrogance backfiring, in a foreign land not yet ready to adopt the European-American brand of liberalism and democracy, tell us? Does it mean the logic of Western democracy does not work in the Muslim world, or the seeds of Western democracy underwent some genetic mutation on Arab soil and became a deadly poison ivy?
The US always sees itself as the most powerful country in the world and destined to rule the globe. It has also taken upon itself the role of the supreme guardian of Western democratic values. So much so it has been leading the modern day campaign to conquer the Arab world with political Westernization in the form of "color revolutions" designed to transplant its democratic values into Muslim minds, like the Crusades of yesteryear, with which the Western powers attempted to convert the Muslim world into Christianity by force, but failed to accomplish.
The "color revolutions" have all led to bloodshed and political turmoil, while the Western-brand democracy has yet to produce one relatively stable government. One cannot but ask at this point: is it really possible to replace, practically overnight, the traditional values of the Muslim world that have existed for more than a millennium with the modern version of Western democracy that took hold in the post-Industrial Revolution era some two centuries ago?
Whenever Western religion and culture clash with their Eastern counterparts, fierce confrontation and struggle ensue. The result of "color revolution" is always feverish political zeal replacing rational thinking and leading to violent confrontation between two rivaling sides too biased to find common ground and shared ethnic values. Foreign interests will make sure such clashes between uncompromising factions will escalate until the nation is torn apart and reduced to absolute anarchy, handing Western powers the perfect excuse to step in and put someone they can control in the top government office.
No one should be surprised by this evil design because the US-led Western powers are firm believers in the idea that the end justifies the means. They will do anything to convince a people to overthrow the government that does not serve Western interests as readily as they expect and elect someone they approve; or encourage protesters to keep social unrest going until the government has no choice but to crack down, turning the "color revolution" to bloody red and giving Western powers a perfect excuse to interfere by force.
Throughout human history revolutions have never been seen in any other color but that of blood. While the Egyptian authorities insist some gunmen in the crowd fired at the soldiers first and the military only responded in self-defense, we should probably realize it is practically impossible to prevent this kind of situation from bubbling out of control and turning into mass violence, because there is no way to stop some ill-motivated parties from triggering a riot when so many people are on edge in a big crowd.
The bloody incident in Cairo has sounded an alarm for us in Hong Kong, where the opposition camp is preparing to launch its version of a "color revolution" by the name of "Occupy Central" with Western powers' blessing and support. There is little doubt the standoff between the occupiers and the police will end up in violent clashes when the radical members of the opposition camp receive the order to charge or some hotheaded youths lose self-control and begin pushing police officers deployed there to maintain order. They are ready to sacrifice Hong Kong for Western powers' benefit. We must not let them succeed!
The author is a veteran current affairs commentator.
(HK Edition 08/22/2013 page9)