Our dear dictators, documentary Tegenlicht, 21th of March 2011

Een volk dat voor tirannen zwicht zal meer dan lijf en goed verliezen, dan dooft het licht.

This saying is from a poem by Henk van Randwijk, who was in the resistance against the Nazi’s: ‘A people that falls for tyrans, will lose more than life and goods, then expires the light.’

The present Dutch documentary analyses the Western discomfort about the changes in the Arab world and is full of sobering conclusions, especially by Joris Luyendijk who was for many years a correspondent for a respected Dutch newspaper in the Middle East, but also by Islam expert Tariq Ramadan and political scientist Luis Martinez.

Luyendijk comments on an interview with Mark Rutte, the conservative Dutch prime minister at the moment, who says that the Arab revolutions reminds him to those in Eastern Europe in 1989. Luyendijk says that Rutte ór doesn’t understand the system ór is hypocritical, because Mubarak was our man for a long time. Eastern Europe was held captive in by the Sovjet union, the Arab world by us, so it is a revolt against us.

Ramadan: the dictators were supported by Western countries, because the region is geopolitically important for oil, political strategy and the Israelian - Palestinian conflict.

Luis Martinez, more about him on http://www.ceri-sciencespo.com/cerifr/cherlist/martinez.php says that after 2001 the Western countries worked together with Lybia against Al Kaida, to protect their oil supply and for political strategy.

Luyendijk now looks at an interview with Jeroen van der Veer, president of Shell Holland about his contacts with Gaddhafi and says that their are no Dutch journalists who follow Shell and that this man keeps the façade intact by using terms like mister president, as if Lybia was a democratic country.

Luis Martinez: Gaddhafi wanted to change his bad image and look decent. He went to a communication office and with a new image started a charme offensive to sell his oil.

David Robertson, reporter of the Sunday Times has documents from Shell to Blair to ask Gaddhafi to give Shell permission to drill for oil in Lybia. See: http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/natural_resources/article7108957.ece#cid=OTC-RSS&attr=797084 A few weeks later Shell got the contract. Al-Megrahi, the Lockerbie bomber, was also released out of jail because of oil contracts.

Luyendijk: our former minister president Wim Kok became commissionar of Shell.  

Behind the scene there is a lot of trading. Libya is also interesting for banks.

Cameron was the first western leader to go to free Egypt, but Luyendijk says he was on a tour to sell weapons. Holland is one of the biggest weapons exports but nobody asks Mark Rutte about it.

These revolutions don’t seem to fit in the Western plans, as we see the stammering reaction for instance from The White House. Rutte, leader of the Dutch party for freedom and democracy, said on television that he did not know what the alternative would be and what would happen if the moslim brotherhood would take over power. He did not like that idea at all.

Luyendijk: only Turkey supported the revolution with its heart.

Martinez: Europe fears chaos and migrants flooding their countries.

Ramadan: Obama sent congratulations to Egypt but Europe kept quiet.

Martinez: Europe has lost its moral authority.

Ramadan: the West thinks that Islam and democracy bite eachother. Europe is afraid of the radical islam and fears changes in the Israelian - Palestinian conflict.

A speech from Netanjahoe verifies his words.

Luyendijk: the question is who is in power. Murabak said the same as Netanjahoe and the PVV (the Dutch nationalists, similar the the Danish nationalists).

The Egyptian revolutionary Gigi Ibrahim said earlier on Dutch television that the moslim brotherhood has become moderate and Egytians will vote for a seperation between state and religion.

Luyendijk: we don’t know what all those Egyptians want who were not on Tahrir square.

The moslim organisation El Azhar still has an important influence in Egypt. Gaddhafi is a different case. The London School of Economics let his sun Saïd speech because of the money they recieved.  

Gianni de Michelis was the Italian minister of foreign affairs under Craxi en speaks about their friendship with Libya. Other countries were not different. Even Reagan signed oil contrants three years after bombing Tripoli and the United Kingdom goes all the way for Libyan oil. Gaddhadfi from his part threatened to send migrants from Sudan, Somalia and Eritrea to Europe.

Luyendijk: dictators try to blackmail Europe. We cannot accept all these Africans. We are in a difficult situation.

De Michelis: we need to change the rules as the context changes.

Martinez: Egypt doesn’t want Europe to intervene in its future, but if Europe would not support the revolution it would miss an important step.

Ramadan: it is about human dignity.

Me: I hope McDonalds en Coca Cola will not, as they did in Moscou, walk away with the new found freedom. The development is still so interestng that I will keep my 21 th of January twibbon on twitter.  

see also http://tegenlicht.vpro.nl/nieuws/2011/maart/David-Robertson.html