Zawaya

Western agendas in the Arab Maghreb fall between truth and exaggeration

By: Selma Herraz

There is no doubt that unrest and political tensions anywhere on the globe, and particularly in the Arab world, have always been a loophole through which people with political predatory ambitions could enter.

The recent upheaval in North Africa has allowed Western interests to gain a foothold.

But Libya, which has yet to reap the fruits of its revolution, still has a long time to go before it gets its house in order. Libya remains an open door for all types of heavy weapons and the pace of killing by friendly fire has not yet slowed.

As for Tunisia, which sparked the Arab revolutions, no signs of ease are seen on its horizon. After the emergence of the Islamist “goliath” that was persecuted during the reign of Ben Ali and his cohorts, the President-elect in the first free and fair elections faces many challenges. He has to restore stability in a country where foreign hands are starting to exert influence.

In Algeria, whose borders are aflame even without the flames of revolution reaching it, the regime’s apparent resistance to change is an attempt to buy social peace while confronting unrest in the Sahel. Western military interests are reportedly establishing a military presence in the hot zone.

As for Morocco, the “isolated” one from the Maghreb Union, its policy toward neighbouring Algeria still depends on the issue of the Western Sahara.

Yet regardless of this fact, and away from pointing fingers at greedy politicians trying to draw a new political and strategic map of the region, we must stop and observe the causes of all this unrest.

All deposed presidents during the Arab revolts had been holding onto power for decades and did not leave their posts except over the bodies of their people. Let’s remember that the talk about foreign hands and ambitions was the discourse echoed by Kadhafi— and before him Ben Ali— and after them Mubarak.

One wonders then: “Where is the will of the people in all this?”

Isn’t the exaggerated talk about the ambitions of foreign forces and predators to divide the Arab pie a betrayal of the blood of the martyrs of the Arab revolutions and disdainful of the sacrifices of their people?

Democracy may be commonly seen as an American idea, but that does not mean that we in the Maghreb can’t give it a go.