RECENT and not so recent events in the Middle East and our region are so confusing that it leaves one in a daze. It is never easy to unravel what goes on in the minds of the powers that be. It becomes even more complicated when one comes face to face with a nascent imperial power. Empires are not born nor are they hatched out of eggs. They rather evolve over time rather than pop out of the bottle like a genie. Given the money and fire power of modern technology, it may be possible to capsule the evolution stage to some extent, as the world has seen to its horror over the past few years. Emergence of an empire is one thing; maintaining it quite another. It is the latter that represents the difficult part.
As an erstwhile imperial power, Britain did rather well for itself. In maintaining the British Empire, perhaps the most outstanding feature of imperial tactics was that of “divide and rule”. The name of the game was to size up the opposition and then to engineer fissures in its ranks to weaken it. While the fragmented opposition was up to its neck in internecine quarrels, the imperial power went about its dirty business with comparative ease, unchallenged and uninterrupted. The secret of success was the colonial masters’ strategy of aligning themselves with one or more factions while encouraging them to undermine those that could have been their natural local allies. With the opposition thus at sixes and sevens, they (the Imperialists) could devote all their energies to whatever it is that the imperialists set themselves to do.
As part of the political games that they played in abandon, the British colonialists had specialized in using religious and ethnic divides among their subjects to further their own ends. When they felt threatened by a populace belonging to a certain religious denomination, they used all tactics to widen schisms within the latter’s ranks. They, at times, even went to the extent of engineering brand new sects to further sub-divide the already fissured society. One finds that Muslims were singled out for the third degree during the apex of the colonial era. There is a lesson to be learnt from all this.
This subject has become relevant once again because, according to the best-informed analysts, brand new ‘Virtual Empires’ are in an advanced stage of evolution. As an awe-struck world looks on in dismay, the world’s superpowers (aided and abetted by the minions) appear to have set its mind on this. There is precious little the small fries at the receiving end can do except to grin and bear it. Though the powers that be must surely have worked hard at developing a brand-new imperial concept to adapt it to the demands of the present century, in some ways the planners appear to be harking back to age-old tactics.
Experienced advisers at their beck and call notwithstanding, the new ‘virtual empire’ builders do appear to have encountered teething problems of some magnitude. From all appearance, it would seem that they have stepped into a mire of sorts, extricating themselves out of which appears to be presenting unexpected difficulties.
A dispassionate look at the whole jolly circus would indicate that, in their new venture, the new Empire-builders did take British advice to heart at least in so far as the tactic of “divide and rule” is concerned. This tactic was applied, for instance, with varying success in Iraq. The strategy was to play off the Iraqi Shia Muslims against the Sunni Muslims. The Iraqi Shiites were used to destroy the Iraqi Sunni resistance. In the past, though, it had appeared as if Iraqi nationalism had proved strong enough to bridge this schism within their ranks.
Alas, no more! It remains to be seen how well the Iraqi religious leaders play their cards. A certain measure of irresponsible behaviour can be expected in the sort of stew that Iraqi nation has been landed into for no fault of its own. But the leadership has a responsibility to counsel restraint. Iraqi nationalism is on test and not for the first time. One can only wait and see!
Similar tactics were used in Afghanistan where the ethnic card was played to devastating effect. It may be recalled that the ethnic cleavage between the majority Pakhtuns and the minority Tajiks, Uzbecks and Hazaras had initially been exploited ruthlessly by the Soviet occupiers during the nineteen eighties.
The Soviets had sided with the minority ethnic groups in order to isolate the Pakhtuns. Post nine/eleven, the Americans opted for the strategy of extenuating the ethnic divide by siding with the essentially anti-Pakhtun Northern Alliance against the mainly Pakhtun Taliban. As history is witness, Afghanistan has never been an easy country to govern from a central authority in Kabul. Real power has always been with the warlords around the countryside.
This situation was transformed for a short period during the rule of the Taliban, when Afghanistan briefly exhibited a semblance of a unitary state entity. Now the situation is back to the proverbial ‘square one’. The world is in for very turbulent and somewhat uncertain times.
Here, in the Land of the Pure, our once much-vaunted strategic geopolitical situation is fast becoming a millstone around the nation’s collective neck. Meanwhile, all right-thinking people are hoping and praying that the mother ship does not drift into choppy and uncharted waters! The time has apparently come to brace ourselves and to separate the grain from the chaff.
Those that made hay while the (nascent imperial) sun shone had better take a second look at the world around them that may collapse any minute. And let us not forget that when empires – even virtual ones – collapse they take their quislings down with them. A bit on the tough side that, but woefully near the truth nevertheless!
— The writer is a former Ambassador and former Assistant Secretary General of OIC.
Email: [email protected]
