Watching Mr. John Kerry, the 2004 US Democrats presidential candidate and currently the secretary of State of the Obama administration standing shoulder to shoulder with President(?) Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt reminds of the Yoruba adage; “t’ina ba j’oni mo omo eni, t’ara eni la n koko gbo”. Loosely translated, it says “in case of fire incident, you instinctively attend to yourself first before you quench the fire on your child”. In this case, the US is the “YOU” while global human right is the “CHILD”.
The very many administrations that have governed Washington have always shown the world, albeit in a subtle way (but sometimes brazenly) that only Americans deserve human rights in its entirety. Their solidarity with other nationals around the world concerning their rights is subject to their own (US) overriding national interest. This actually is not a problem on its own if it ends there. Conversely, Washington and the politicians on the Capitol Hill as well as their “omniscient” civil societies often rob our collective noses in their “absolute freedom for America, absolute freedom for the world” creed which we all know better (and often manifesting ) as “freedom for Americans, to-hell-with-others”.
Last year, the Nigerian parliament in a popular move passed a bill to criminalize homosexuality after surviving several months and N/m2 of diplomatic pressures from supposedly human right campaigners especially in America and Europe. Few hours after the bill was assented by President Goodluck Jonathan, threats started emanating from several “developed” nations. The Canadian government canceled the visit of GEJ, UK threatened aid withdrawal; US raised their sword of “world police” over our necks. Ask them why; they think all humans have the rights to be whatever they so desired (no matter how obscene and strange they might be to certain cultures) and such rights must be respected and protected. How GEJ survived those diplomatic warning shots without wetting his pants, I really can’t tell. Specifically, the UK government withdrew a lot of aids from Uganda which passed similar laws. Several other nations have received the “advanced” slap on their faces for not respecting human rights of their citizens. Some recent accounts include Sri Lanka, North Korea, Iran, Syria, Myanmar, etc. China and Russia have their economic and military standings to thank; otherwise sanctions would have crippled their economies.
Back to the matter! The Obama administration withdrew its military assistance to Egypt in the wake of President Moh’d Morsi’s ouster and following the roughshod manner the military rode the country principally against the members of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) and any other opponents who dared showed “they have mouths there”. The Egyptian military led by Gen. el-Sisi called their bluff. Washington kept silent; few regimes normally get away with that.
For those who might not be well acquainted with the happenings in Egypt, I’ll set some reminders here;
1. Members of the MB were instrumental to the expulsion of former Pres. Hosni Mubarak.
2. The MB promised never to interfere in the political transition of the post-Mubarak era. They did the exact opposite through their political arm, the Justice & Development Party, JDP (sounds much like PDP, *scoffs*). Not only did they participate, their candidate, Moh’d Morsi went ahead to win the election.
3. Morsi, in an unprecedented democratic suicide, bared his fangs and cracked down hard on the media, judiciary and anything unrelated to the MB’s Islamic doctrines. The last straw was his presidential fiat arrogating powers to himself that override and subjugate judicial authorities. His time was up!
4. The people being fed up, demanded his disappearance from power…by resignation or removal. el-Sisi’s military cashed in on the confusion and deposed him in a palace coup and subsequently detained him on strange charges.
5. The members of MB took to the streets with violent demonstrations. The military would have none of that: they attacked and killed some of the protesters in a manner that drew worldwide condemnation. They also labeled the MB a terror organization. Many countries including the US disagreed. Nonetheless, many MBs were hounded and incarcerated in fascist style that would even make Lenin green with envy in his grave. This was when Obama withdrew his military aids on human right protection grounds.
6. Gen. el-Sisi retired and presented himself as a presidential candidate for elections with little or no opposition and/or opponents.
7. Recently, 183 death sentences were handed down to MB members while 3 al-Jazeerah journalists were given 7year-terms each by the same top courts. Their offence was that they were doing their job to the dissatisfaction of the Cairo powers.
8. While Morsi remains a leprous but valid political entity that nobody (not even a single Arab nation) wants to associate with, he still needs a competent court of law or the act of parliament to depose him legally. That fact, the human right groups would do well to remember.
If at least one the above does not constitute infractions on human rights, then I don’t know what else would do. Then came the Cairo meeting of last weekend between Kerry and el-Sisi where the US promised to “unlock the $575m freeze in military aid to pay pending debts and procure 10 Apache helicopters” …to fight whom? Don’t ask me.
One might be tempted to empathize with the US over their seeming helplessness in the face of Cairo’s rascality when we take time to study the peculiarity of the mid-east’s politics and America’s (often imperial?) national interests. This is even more compelling when we bear in mind the penchant of both China and Russia for snapping up sympathies wherever America diplomatic flop blows. America understands this factor more than anyone else, so they are not unstrategic.
With their economic and military aids, GMOs (I hate those), warships and submarines patrolling the treacherous waters of the Indian Ocean and tributaries, and ubiquitous military bases dotting the mid-east region; America’s influence cannot be wished away by both Russia and China. However, they are not resting either. By dangling fat carrots of economic partnerships before African and Mid-East nations, they have been able to successfully but gradually wind down US influences in those regions and assert their own allegiances and alliances. Moreover, the sweetest part of those carrots is that they come without the “stick” part of respect-human-rights-or-else. Therefore, delinquent regimes and dictators don’t have to worry about the gravest human right abuses. Also, Russia’s only allies in the whole Mid-East remain the sit-tight Assad’s dynasty of Syria, Hezbollah controlled Lebanon and the theocratic Islamic Republic of Iran …now you understand why Russia has been using its veto to block UN resolutions and sanctions on both Assad’s Syria and Iran’s nuclear programs.
Considering the importance of its own internal stability and Egypt’s stabilizing influence on the region, Cairo has become the beautiful bride that must be courted by world powers regardless of how obnoxious her manners might become. In other words, no serious- minded imperial power can afford to lose Egypt’s patronage if they mean business in that region. Currently, the US has the upper hand in that game, and they are not ready to change that –not even for cries of gross right abuses. These factors can sufficiently (in my opinion) explain the recent rights-don’t-matter-so-far-it’s-not-Americans’ diplomacy of Mr. Obama with Cairo. Can we them accuse el-Sisi and indeed, Egypt of narcissism? I really can’t answer that.
If I remember the “subject of the formulae” part of mathematics very well, I can confidently read the gospel to civil societies around the world; America’s concern for your rights and struggles is not really sacrosanct…as they often want you to believe. It is however, but curiously and absolutely subject to their own (formulae) of national interests…and seriously, that’s not selfish. My dear CSOs, the Calvary won’t always come.
Do I support abuse of human rights (chiefly those of children, women and disabled persons) in any form? NO!!! What I do support is absolute integrity, and majorly on the part of those who preach it.
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