The Clash Of Knowledge and Power

Wikileaks

By Mohamed El-Moctar El-Shinqiti
Thursday, 09 December 2010 10:29
Courtesy Of "On Islam"

The recent leaks released by Wikileaks offer valuable lessons on the relationship between knowledge and power

The classified diplomatic documents, recently released by Wikileaks, have revealed some aspects of "the traits of tyranny" enduring in our Arab countries and exposed its ugly face, which cannot be beautified any longer by the makeup of propaganda.

They have also disclosed some signs of "the downfall of the American enslavement", as the United States appears in these documents as a devastated power that is frantically going after illusions of global hegemony, for which it is no longer qualified. A deeper lesson here is the shift in the relationship between knowledge and power, in favor of the former. In this age of ours, the monopoly of information can no longer exist thanks to the internet.

The relationship between knowledge and power is very complicated, only fathomed by a few of such discerning people as `Abdul-Rahman Al-Kawakbi, Michel Foucault, and Edward Said. A clear manifestation of this relation is the earnest endeavor of despotic, corrupt regimes to keep their peoples in deep ignorance and total darkness. This makes controlling them much easier.

Al-Kawakbi on Tyrants

In his book "Traits of Tyranny and Downfall of Enslavement", written over a hundred years ago, Al-Kawakbi noted this logical bond between despotism of the ruler and ignorance of the ruled. He wrote a whole chapter on "Tyranny and Knowledge", in which he remarked, "He who ponders the situation of superiors and subordinates will find that when the latter grow in knowledge, the power of the former falls, and vice versa."; "Tyranny and knowledge are two opposites struggling against each other. Every tyrant exerts his best efforts to extinguish the light of knowledge and confine his subjects into pitch-black darkness."; and "Whenever the light of knowledge spreads in any nation, the shackles of captivity will be broken and the tyrants, among political or religious leaders, will face their evil fate."

Al-Akawakbi explains with a clear vision that tyrants do not actually fear all types of knowledge and scholars, as they know well how to exploit some areas of knowledge, as well as some scholars, as a means of ascribing moral legitimacy to their corruption and autocracy. However, tyrants, according to Al-Kawakbi, dread such areas of knowledge that pertain to the rights of nations, social rules, civil politics, etc. Such knowledge boosts people's confidence and self-esteem, broadens their minds, and raises their awareness about their usurped rights and how they can demand, get, and maintain those rights.

Every authority – whether it seeks to remain in power on the national level or pursues international hegemony – needs to legitimize itself and its actions. It does so by hiding behind any moral mask, no matter how transparent it may be. The more it is involved in tyranny and corruption, the greater its need and desire for that moral mask. This puts it in a hypocritical position all the time. In a chapter of his book on "Tyranny and Morals", Al-Kawakbi illustrates that "The least effect tyranny has on the morals of people is that it forces the noble among them to get accustomed to hypocrisy and duplicity. And both attributes are evil."

This pattern of hypocritical relationships between the ruler and the ruled first emerged in our history in the mid of the first Hijri century, when Mu`awiyah ibn Aby Sufian said, "People submitted to our authority, and we showed them tolerance coupled with concealed anger. They in turn demonstrated obedience under which grudge was veiled. So, we dealt with them accordingly, and they did the same. If we fail them, they will fail us. And we do not know whether things will turn out favorably for us." (Ibn Katheer's book: The Beginning and The End).

Wikileaks & US Relations with the Arab World

Such a relationship is a reality today among many of our governments and their own peoples, and even their international backers. This was rightly noted by Thomas Friedman, as he once wrote about the ties of some Arab countries with the United States, saying, "We have allowed the leaders of Arab and Muslim countries to forge secret friendships with us. Truly, those relationships have always been illegitimate."

When the barrier of monopoly is pulled down and secrets are revealed, the power of the weak will manifest and the weakness of the powerful will be laid bare.

Late Professor Edward Said was one of those who managed to penetrate the depths of the relationship between knowledge and power. In his memoirs titled "Out of Place", he recalls the harvest of his journey of knowledge and struggle and how he acquired the ability to detect the hypocrisy veiled in the attitude of despotic or colonial regimes. Such regimes pretend to advocate moral values, whereas they actually use them as a pretext for illegal gains.

In one of the most valuable studies in English about Edward Said, Abdul-Rahman Hussein explains how Said adopted what he calls "quarrelsome tactics" against hypocritical authority, by exposing its theoretical weapon and refuting its weak logic. Nothing can expose the falseness of tyranny, and the corruption and hypocrisy that rely on it, like the circulation of correct information and perceptive views about the lies and deceptive means employed by corrupt regimes. Indeed, nothing is more effective in enabling a tyrant to subjugate people than have a monopoly on information.

Yet, when the barrier of monopoly is pulled down and secrets are revealed, the power of the weak will manifest and the weakness of the powerful will be laid bare. It will be clear then who is double-dealing and two-faced, showing one face of patriotism and even piety before his own people, and keeping another face of an opportunist who is oppressing his people, oppressed by the international powers, unprincipled, and shameless.

• The US secret diplomatic documents, released by Wikileaks, have indeed disclosed the extent of moral duplicity assumed by some of our political leaders, who are far from honest and frank with their own peoples

• The documents have also revealed aspects of the corruption and arrogance characterizing some leaders of Muslim countries, even the poorer among them, which were engulfed by wars and where human dignity is humiliated because of need.

• Aspects of political hypocrisy also include the revelation that some Arab leaders have secretly urged their American and Israeli allies to destroy Iran. This clearly contradicts their exchange of visits and kisses in public with Iranian leaders and the statements they make about the Muslim brotherliness and good neighborliness. Yet those same leaders spent generously and made their best efforts in the past to destroy Iraq and Iran during the 8-year (first) Gulf war, and later Iraq by the cruel embargo followed by the destructive foreign invasion.

It is noteworthy here that a scientific military study, by the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, suggests that bombing Bushehr reactor alone will cause the immediate killing of thousands of nearby residents, in addition to hundreds of thousands of deaths by cancer as a result of falling into the circle of radiation leak. The fatal circle, according to the study, will certainly include Bahrain, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates.

Interestingly enough, the Americans – quite aware that some Arab leaders lack independent reasoning and are passionate to carry favor with the US regardless of the consequences – do not want to get mired in this quagmire with those leaders.

Wikileaks Lessons on Knowledge and Power

The revolution of electronic communications has brought the monopoly of information to a decisive end

The recent leaks released by Wikileaks offer valuable lessons on the relationship between knowledge and power, most significant of which are the following:

First: The age of political secrets is over. The revolution of electronic communications has brought the monopoly of information to a decisive end. This is a great stride taken on the path to liberating people from the grip of national as well as international tyranny and subjugation. In an article published in The Guardian dated 28 November, 2010, Journalist Simon Jenkins notes that "electronic secrets" have become a self-contradictory expression, and the leaks by Wikileaks clearly indicate that "the only secret in the future will be the spoken, not the written, one."

Second: A single conscientious individual today can change the face of the world by spreading correct information that tyrants and oppressors want to keep secret. The experiences of Julian Assange, founder of Wikileaks, and Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia, both show that humanity has entered a new historic phase in which an individual committed to a certain cause can communicate information to millions of people, thereby expanding their perception of the ploys used by politicians and animating their energies toward serving political knowledge, the logical opposite to tyranny.

Third: The world can no longer be ruled by a single nation, no matter how arrogant it is or how lightly it takes international law. Simon Jenkins, in The Guardian, 28 November, 2010, notes that since September 11 attacks, the United States has acted like a wounded bear. But the power and energy it has used since then, he says, were totally counterproductive, and the world did not become any better as a result of obedience and acquiescence to Washington. Jenkins failed to say, however, that it is only those who are idolatrously attached to Washington who still believe in the American hegemony. Muhammad Iqbal rightly said, "Masters owe their status of mastery to their slaves. If they reject them as masters, they cannot be."

References

The original article by the author was published in Arabic on Al-Jazeera.net web site on December 3rd 2010.

This partial English translation of the full article was prepared by Ahmed El-Gharbawy.

Related Links:

Pursuing an Islamic Metamorphosis
Freedom Comes First
Arab Intellectuals Between Power and Reform
Ending Despotism: The Way to Development
Exposing the Hypocrisy of Muslim Governments

Mohamed El-Moctar El-Shinqiti is a writer, poet, and political analyst. He writes extensively on political thought, Islamic literature, Islamic Movements, dialogue between the Islamic World and the West and American policies and politics.