EVERY DAY, the headlines focus on war, terrorism, and the abuses of repressive governments, yet we see a selective, inconsistent response from the United Nations (UN) Security Council that does not bode well for international relations.
The final election results in Egypt are going to be the acid test.
Last Friday, more than 100 people were killed in the continuing violence in Syria which has been going on for the past year with no end in sight. As is now customary, there was the usual condemnation by the UN Security Council; nothing more.
However, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon introduced some doubt into the “massacre”. He told the Council that these killings could have been the work of rebels or government forces that moved in after the bombardment.
Syria, as we have consistently maintained, is a special case. Despite brazen atrocities, there has been little action and President Bashar Al Assad has merely been asked by peace envoy Kofi Annan “to prove he wants a peaceful resolution to the crisis racking his country”.
Unfortunately, there is no light at the end of this tunnel of regime violence and the power play among permanent members of the Security Council. The destruction across Syria has set the country back decades, politically, socially and economically.
As this goes on, the Western powers continue in their insistence that they will not arm the opposition out of fear that this will cause civil war. This is a pointless line of argument, counterproductive to even their narrow political interests.
Civil war has started and is creating a storm that is going to spread not only in Syria but across the region, taking with it the interests of these powers. If regional and world powers are impotent, the least they should do is to keep quiet and desist from making statements fooling only themselves.
At this point, Syrians are being put to pasture by the UN community in the face of brutality from their government.
On the other hand, the presidential vote in Egypt has split open the society. The top two candidates reflect the extremes and clearly demonstrate that the Arab Spring hasn’t come full circle as yet.
The duel has brought to fore an interesting observation. The very fact that a remnant of former president Hosni Mubarak’s regime leads with 25.3 per cent of votes is startling to some observers.
This negates the assumption that the entire political mosaic of Egypt has written off Mubarak or his allies. Similarly, the Muslim Brotherhood, being part of the run-off, has just furthered the impression that the Islamists, though on a united campaign, only need to properly choreograph their presidential move.
It seems Egyptians have a Hobson’s choice to make, while preserving the ideals of Arab Spring, as they get back to the polls on June 16.
