The people of the small Caucasian nation of Georgia have forced their President Eduard Shevardnadze to resign — not by force of the bullet but by “people power”, as the Georgians described their revolution that ousted the veteran leader. In reality, what led to Shevardnadze’s ouster was the blatant corruption and deception he had been practicing under the very nose of his two allies, the United States and Russia.
The big powers are masters at this game. They allow their favorite leaders a lot of room to corrupt and be corrupted. Such leaders think they can hold on to power because they are strong and clever and have won the confidence and support of their foreign allies. What they fail to realize is that big powers encourage such behavior, so that through their mistakes these leaders become virtual hostages to them. They then tighten the noose around their necks and let them dangle from the rope when the right moment arrives.
That moment may not necessary come because a leader has had a change of heart or rebels against his foreign masters. Such leaders are too cautious to commit blunder on that scale. The moment comes simply when specific international circumstances and internal or outside factors make it expedient for the leader to go.
Saddam Hussein is the best example here. For 30 years the big powers turned a blind eye to his atrocities and repression. During that time Saddam served the interests of both the West and East by weakening the Arab nation and plundering its resources. When he was thought to have outlived his usefulness, the big powers kicked him out for a crime he had not committed — acquiring weapons of mass destruction.
If Saddam had been on good terms with his people, and if Shevardnadze had been honest with the Georgians instead of pursuing his own interests, America would not have been able to buy traitors in Iraq or move the mobs in Georgia to remove the two men from power.
If Shevardnadze had had the support of his people, the CIA’s secret plots would not have harmed him or led to his demise. Instead, he relied on a long history of secret plotting leading to the collapse of the Soviet Union.
As foreign minister and one of America’s tools used to dismantle a superpower, Shevardnadze worked closely with his boss and long-time comrade, Michael Gorbachev. The latter accomplished the mission and, having fulfilled the role required of him, went to retire to the coasts of the Black Sea.
Shevardnadze was rewarded by being given the presidency in Georgia. But instead of building his nation up and taking it forward, he resorted to deception, pursued personal gain and allied himself with certain mafia groups against others. When the time came for his removal through the ballot in the presidential election held two weeks ago, Washington was quick to declare the election rigged and gave the green light to the opposition to mobilize the mobs and topple him.
Moscow sought to intervene, saying it wanted to see things calm down, while in fact it wanted to build bridges with the new Georgian leadership. It knew full well it could not resist a leadership change led by America and also does not want to see itself being encircled by the giant American snake.
It is a lesson for all: Rulers must derive their strength from their people and not from outsiders with covert or overt ambitions.
— Muhammad Al-Shibani is a Saudi writer based in Jeddah.
