By John Galt
December 18, 2011 – 20:15 ET
As Bahrain and Egypt are getting scant notice beyond some of the cable news outlets in the U.S., there are other regions roiling with protests and riots which will impact not just the geopolitical picture, but economic future of the West in the year ahead. Thus I thought some alerts as to what just might be coming is worthy of reporting.
First from Reuters, a story today that could indicate that all of the plans of the West, especially Europe and even China, who wish to exploit the natural resource wealth of Kazakhstan might be in for a rude surprise unless a stronger authoritarian regime is established:
Protests spread in troubled Kazakh oil region
AKTAU, Kazakhstan, Dec 18 (Reuters) – Hundreds of demonstrators confronted riot police on Sunday as Kazakhstan's biggest protests in decades spread to the capital of a western oil region where 15 people have been killed in clashes.
The unrest in Mangistau region, triggered by the sacking of oil workers, is the worst to hit Kazakhstan in the 20 years since it gained independence with the collapse of the Soviet Union.
President Nursultan Nazarbayev has declared a 20-day state of emergency in the city of Zhanaozen, in the same region. Fourteen people were killed there in rioting that broke out on Friday, the prosecutor-general's office said on Sunday.
Late on Saturday, one person was killed and 11 people were wounded in a clash with police in the village of Shetpe, bringing the total official death toll to 15 and the number of wounded to around 100.
Public protests are rare in Kazakhstan, Central Asia's largest economy and biggest oil producer. Nazarbayev, 71, has overseen more than $120 billion in foreign investment during more than two decades in power, but tolerates little dissent and puts stability before democratic freedoms.
Yermukhamet Yertysbayev, a close adviser to the president, said “foreign funding” had fuelled the riots, but declined to elaborate. He said the situation was “firmly under control”.
“There will be no Arab-style revolution. You can see that Kazakhstan is calm,” he told Reuters by telephone. “Kazakhstan's entire multi-national population supports the head of state.”
Funny thing is, I remember the President of Yemen saying the same thing. Per Al Arabiya, things are not getting much better despite promises of peace and agreements the nation remains on the brink of civil war:
Yemeni general backs peace deal, 10 militants killed
A dissident army general said on Sunday he backed a peace accord signed last month, lending support to efforts to pull Yemen from the brink of civil war, as officials said ten Islamist militants died in attacks by government forces in the south.
General Ali Mohsen's announcement came one day after both his forces, and troops loyal to outgoing President Ali Abdullah Saleh, began withdrawing from the capital Sana'a as part of the Gulf-brokered peace deal.
“We are ready to support the Gulf initiative, which was bolstered by Security Council resolution 2014,” Mohsen told reporters at a news conference in Sana'a, referring to the resolution adopted by the U.N. body in October endorsing the Gulf peace proposal.
What the “General” fails to take into account is that there has been no commitment of support for a peace agreement yet from the Islamist rebels or some tribal regions of the nation, thus making the words somewhat hollow as the tug of war between Westernized and Islamic leadership in Sana'a continues.
Also from Al Arabiya, indications the smokescreen attempted by the King of Jordan to fulfill promises of reform are starting to fail:
Jordan on corruption hunt but Islamists skeptical
But the measures taken have so far failed to satisfy the opposition Islamic Action Front (IAF), the political arm of Jordan's Muslim Brotherhood.
“Preliminary steps are being taken to tackle corruption, but they are not enough at all,” Zaki Bani Rsheid, head of the IAF's political bureau, told AFP.
“Fighting corruption requires genuine and serious political will, which is not available now,” he added, warning against “attempts to thwart people's demands for real reform.”
Translation: The Muslim Brotherhood's decades old strategy of educating the masses and developing an “enlightened” masses to oppose Westernized monarchies and political structures in the MENA system will lead to the eventual overthrow of the King of Jordan, thus leading to the House of Saud being forced to intervene militarily or invite conflict of such proportions in the region, they sacrifice all claims to leadership and future power.
Lastly, the nation I warned about many months ago, Kuwait, is experiencing the wrath of Iranian supported protest as well as the inadequacies of the national border system of the region due to tribal differences. The Arab Times in Kuwait reports on another, not the first this year and definitely not the last, which ends in violence:
Tear gas, water cannon disperse stateless demo
‘Bedouns' demand Kuwait citizenship – Homes raided for arrests
KUWAIT CITY, Dec 16: Kuwaiti riot police used tear-gas and water cannons on Friday to scatter hundreds of stateless protesters demanding citizenship, a move that angered political groups and former MPs.
The police sought to break up a crowd of 400 people gathered after noon prayers in Jahra, 50 kms (31 miles) northwest of Kuwait City, raising Kuwaiti flags and banners that read: “We demand Kuwaiti citizenship.”
The assault came after the protesters refused to disperse, defying a police deadline to clear the area within 15 minutes. Security forces chased protesters to their nearby homes, while a helicopter hovered overhead.
Police arrested at least 20 stateless people, a journalist and a photographer of a local newspaper. Witnesses said that police raided a number of homes in the area to make arrests. Some sources said 25 arrests had been made.
Members of the dissolved Parliament, political groups and the students union strongly condemned police “repression” and warned that the use of force will not resolve the decades-old stateless crisis.
“The security method will only complicate the issue… We call for halting repression, the use of force and for the release of those arrested,” the leftist Progressive Movement said in a statement.
The Kuwait Students Union described the situation of the stateless “as a stigma in Kuwait's freedoms record” and a “humanitarian crime that should not continue in our country.”
Former MPs deplored the use of force against the peaceful protest and called on the government to resolve the crisis as soon as possible.
As of tonight, the Bedouins were released per the Arab Times but this is no less than the sixth major protest on this issue, as many within Kuwait feel the Iranians and Iraqis are dumping their unwanted tribal adversaries into the nation as Saudi Arabia has evaded offering humanitarian aid or citizenry to these stateless wanderers.
Stay tuned as the discontent from Morocco to Malaysia is no longer just a MENA problem, it is an Islamist issue which will eventually demand the world's attention, be it in the context of civil war or international conflict.
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