Consequences of unfavorable world public opinion
Most of people around the world stand baffled at Russia and China's political stances toward the horrible state-sponsored massacres of children, women and the elders in several Syrian towns and cities; and their staunch political support in world organizations, such as the United Nations and other international conferences on the Syrian crisis.
However, these two superpowers are acting, as if life is normal while the rest of the world is boiling with anger against the Syrian regime, with a growing resentment and dislike toward Russia and China. This unfavorable sentiment makes one wonder whether these two countries are really concerned about their international image and what it can do to their current and future interests in the world, particularly in the Middle East.
Most Arabs know about Russia more than they do about China, as China only recently made economic presence in the Middle East visible. Nonetheless, Chinese products are perceived as not being similar to American and European consumer products with respect to quality. As a result, most consumers in this part of the world prefer American and European products.
As for Russia, most believe that Russia is the sole inherent of the former Soviet Union, in fact, most think of Russia and the Soviet Union as being the same because Russia is the principal base of this union of nations. Hence, most Arab populations constructed their knowledge of this country through two primary mediums. First, personal experiences with Russia’s form of government's duplicate, specifically, Iraq, Libya, South Yemen, and Egypt. In Iraq and Libya, the Russian duplicate form of government has demonstrated to the world that they are the most tyrant and oppressive regimes in modern history of humanity.
Also, despite that Iraq and Libya are oil-rich countries, the development levels in these countries and living standards are compatible with those poor Third World countries. This is exemplified by the waste of human resources and natural wealth.
Ironically, South Yemen integrated into more prosperous capitalist North Yemen. In the meantime, Egypt is still trying to recover from the negative consequences of its past socialist era.
Western media outlets portray Russia’s political system as being as being totalitarian, oppressively abusive of human rights and asserting itself politically through the use of military force.
The Russian economic conditions are not robust. World trade and business transactions deal with the dollars rather then the Ruble, the economic news do not mention this currency, and as a result, the Rule is not know to most ordinary people and prefer the dollar over this currency.
Socially, Russian people are silenced and denied any form of expressions and suspicious of foreigners. Consequently, life in Russia is viewed by millions as being dull prison where those people sentenced to slow and agonizing death spend their youth years until they pass away.
In contrast, for most people, the United States is heaven on earth that almost every living person dreams of living, where they perceive it as the land of milk and honey. But nobody dreams of living in Russia with heartless intelligence officers who travel to foreign countries to viciously kill dissidents.
Probably, since the disintegration of the Soviet Union, Russia has changed in all aspects of human relations and other areas of life, but its foreign policy only strengthens those negative views portrayed by Western media over long decades. More than 80 countries have gathered in Paris meeting to discuss ways to alleviate the human suffering of the Syrian people and to find a solution to rid them of their tyrant regime, but Russia and China did not even attend the meeting to show a sign of concern to end these atrocities.
What has been established as a fact is that the positive favorable perception of the United States and most Western countries is the reason behind the desire of millions of people to select these countries to live, study, visit, and do business with. In other words, for better or worse, it is the personal feelings toward a particular country that sets the decisions of officials and ordinary people when it comes to chose between two countries rather than its military might. It is winning the heart and minds of the people. A fact that has been proved that the Russians and Chinese failed to comprehend as superpower countries.
- Dr. Abdulrahman Al-Zuhayyan is a Saudi academician based in Riyadh. [email protected]
