Saturday, September 26, 2009

Erdogan's heroics belies moral standing

FEB 6, 2009 — The World Economic Forum's forum on the Gaza conflict was one that drew a lot of interest due to its sensational and international significance.
High-profile panellists in the form of Israeli President Shimon Peres, Turkish Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon and Arab League secretary-general Amr Moussa increased the value of the forum itself.
The whole world was awaiting the forum anxiously and they were not disappointed.
All the panellists criticised the extreme military actions by the Israel Defence Forces and the rocket attacks by Hamas.
Peres was the final speaker and defended the actions of the IDF in the face of Hamas' rocket attacks.
Erdogan, who wanted to rebut the arduously lengthy and self-fulfilling sermon by Peres, was stopped in his tracks by the moderator David Ignatius, a columnist for the Washington Post, on the pretext that time was up.
Erdogan was clearly upset at the imbalance of time given between him and Peres, ranted at Peres and Ignatius while storming off the stage.
More than anything else, Erdogan was upset by the standing ovation and round of applause given by the audience after Peres' speech.
The audience was mostly business leaders who came from all corners of the earth and their warm reception to Peres hurt the ego of Erdogan.
This caused Erdogan to raise his voice while trying to be courteous in calling the Israelis murderers and the cause of Palestinian women and children's suffering from their acts of aggression.
He then stormed off the stage, briefly stopping to shake hands with Moussa after accusing the moderator of being unfair to him and vowed not to attend Davos anymore.
Turkey and Egypt are among the few Muslim nations that have direct economic and diplomatic relations with Israel.
After the escalation in Gaza turned into an invasion, the only country that decided to call off its ties with Israel was Qatar.
There was muted response by Turkey and Egypt, at the most trying to be brokers for peace but unable to state their displeasure to US and Israel.
It is disgraceful that Turkey and Egypt did not take any significant measures much earlier to put Israel against the wall and to ensure that humanitarian crisis did not deteriorate further.
Turkey, a secular Muslim nation, allowed the US to use its airfield that killed innocent lives in the Iraq War and also Gulf War.
However, Erdogan finds it difficult to put his Muslim values into practise and has often had to bow to the demands of the influential Turkish army and also abide by the numerous economic and diplomatic agreements with US and Israel, among them.
Hence, he had to bow to the demands of the US and also Israel, what more with Turkey's application to join the European Union being dangled to cajole Turkey into submission.
Egypt, on the other hand, has almost zero moral high ground in its involvement in the Gaza conflict.
At the height of the escalation of the conflict, Egypt's refusal to open its borders to help ease the suffering caused a spike in the humanitarian crisis.
Egypt's worry that Ikhwanul Muslimin may infiltrate its borders was its utmost concern and not the welfare of its Palestinian brothers and sisters.
Even though Amr Moussa currently holds no formal leadership position in Egypt, his appearance in the forum as the Arab League secretary-general has further denigrated both Egypt's and the Arab League's standing.
Egypt and the Arab League's inability to support and help empower the people of Palestinians is one of the causes why the people of Palestine are so impoverished.
Egypt received a lot of assistance and aid in monetary and equipment from the big economies due to its "friendly" stance towards Israel.
Long-serving Egypt President Hosni Mubarak has destroyed and obliterated the essence of democracy in Egypt with his almost autocratic style backed by the monies and arms from the US and its allies.
It is clear that the Davos forum was meant to be a show of heroism for the consumption of both Peres and Erdogan's supporters at home.
Erdogan was given a hero's welcome and tributes came pouring in from all over the world especially the Muslim countries.
This goes to show the dearth of an icon or champion in the Muslim world who can bring them forward and progress.
Erdogan is slowly but surely trying to build his reputation in the Muslim world and put himself on the world map.
However, his public outburst may be best served through more beneficial channels.
If Erdogan is serious enough, he ought to take the lead to initiate a multilateral, international community strategic alliance to pressure Israel to adhere to international human rights and war crimes charter/declaration.
But then again, if our daughters and sons as well as our elderly fathers and mothers are maimed by the shelling and bombing by a certain armed forces we would definitely be harsher and not as diplomatic as Erdogan's timid outburst.

- published in The Malaysian Insider : Feb 6, 2009

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