Men, turns and fingerprints

The powerful leave their mark on the lives of their countries and peoples. And there are many types of mark. Some of them require entire eras of effort to heal the wounds of their victims. History is not a neutral repository for the mark of the powerful. It receives those who come to its tunnels and then rises to retry them. It leaves an exceptional balcony for those who led their people on the path of progress, justice, and building bridges.

History is a morgue that reopens files, wounds, and trials, and dismantles narratives cooked up with official perfumes and cosmetics. The fingerprint has to do with the man and his abilities, with the turn and his sensitivity, and with the weight of the stage on which he moves. The first quarter of this century has quickly passed. Accumulated sciences and research exploded in it, and the doors of scientific and technological progress were thrown wide open. We are now in the care of a major visitor called artificial intelligence. This visitor will change our world and our way of life, and will enrich the experience of the doctor, engineer, teacher, general, and intelligence director. We will leave the task of doing justice to scientists, vaccine makers against epidemics, and pioneers of intellectual, artistic, and cultural progress to the experts in these fields. The task of searching for the fingerprints of political boxers and their arts is enough for us.

President Boris Yeltsin overdid everything. He staggered, and Russia, emerging from the Soviet rubble with many wounds, staggered with him. Yeltsin chose to leave with the century. On the eve of the new century, he handed the keys to the Kremlin to an officer who had come from the obscurity of the KGB and the disappointment of the Berlin Wall. Vladimir Putin saved the Russian Federation from disintegration, tamed the regional barons and subdued the money whales. Calm and cold, and never lacking in cruelty. You have no right to refuse a poisoned cup if it is a gift from the Tsar. Mr. President deceived the West and rebuilt the Red Army, which is now fighting on Ukrainian soil with the help of comrades sent by Kim Il Sung’s grandson.

Putin was waiting for Donald Trump's gifts when the winds of the Syrian setback blew on him. He smiles. Bashar al-Assad was difficult. He listens to advice and then forgets it, deluding himself into thinking he can dance on many ropes. The same boat cannot be saved twice. The world spent a quarter of a century with Putin, who tamed the constitution and the generals and was keen, in recent times, to play skillfully on the harp of the nuclear arsenal. Putin can review with his "guest" Bashar al-Assad the story of a quarter century of the world's life.

The first quarter also bore the imprint of a man in his twenties, Xi Jinping. Since 2013, he has been at the helm of the Chinese ship. A strongman who has changed the rules of the game. He turned the page on collective leadership and “convinced” China that it was wrong to limit the presidency to two terms. He fought corruption fiercely and adopted a more assertive foreign policy. And because parties love the strong, the party reserved for him a position parallel to that of the “great captain.” The Chinese leader is clever. Mao Zedong sleeps in his grave with honor. All that remains of his Red Book is a strict machine for imposing order and curbing “dissenters.” Xi exercises leadership with patience and skill. The world is fortunate that he did not act rashly and did not jump into Taiwan like Putin did with Ukraine. The leader of the global economy is not so lucky. In a few weeks, the name of the master of the White House, Donald Trump, will return. America will return to boxing the Chinese ghost with tariffs and protectionist measures.

A year after Xi took over the presidency in China, India handed over the office of prime minister to another strongman, Narendra Modi, who is still in residence. Modi has reduced the risks of clashing with the Chinese neighbor and made the most of Russia, which is mired in Ukraine, without forgetting that world leadership is in America’s hands until further notice. India has become a necessity for many. Russia needs it so that it does not become a mere captive of its Chinese ally, and America needs it to balance China’s rise in Asia and internationally. Modi has benefited greatly from the fruits of the economic policies pursued by his predecessor, Manmohan Singh, which contributed to modernizing the economy, engaging in technological progress, and combating poverty. Modi’s long stay helps him leave his mark on the features of his country at home and abroad. We are accustomed to writing about the Middle East through the imprints left by collapses, as happened in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, Muammar Gaddafi’s Libya, Bashar al-Assad’s Syria, or the imprints of the wars run by Benjamin Netanyahu. We have always dreamed that the countries of the Middle East would emerge with other fingerprints that would open the doors of the future instead of rubbing the wounds of the past.

In the second half of the second decade, a young man named Mohammed bin Salman emerged from Saudi Arabia. The young man earned the trust of his father, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz, who saw in him the antiquity of the past and the brilliance of the future. The ability to communicate with people is a talent that creates differences, turns and fingerprints. The young Saudi generation felt that a historic opportunity was emerging, so they came forward to meet it. Bonds of love, loyalty and friendship were formed between the expected energies and the engineer of dreams and numbers in “Vision 2030”. Thus, the locks that had blocked capabilities and confiscated spaces and arenas were broken. The country is a workshop that never sleeps, and dreams are translated and open the door to more dreams. Reforms were transformed into a comprehensive renaissance and profound changes in the economy and aspects of life. Hope ran through the veins of society, attracting multiple generations after everyone felt that a bright future would guard the antiquity of the past.

Progress, investment, prosperity, partnerships, cooperation, fighting corruption, and improving people’s living standards. Health, education, technological progress, environment, innovation, training, mastery, and local, regional, and international responsibility. These are terms that visitors to Saudi Arabia hear, as it has emerged from the conflicts of the past to focus on the values of convergence, cooperation, and building bridges. In contrast to the internal renaissance, Saudi Arabia’s presence is being strengthened regionally and internationally, and visitors flock to see the new experience and search for investment opportunities and common interests.

Mohammed bin Salman's fingerprints quickly appeared on the life of his country. His experience presents a model that speaks to the minds and hearts of many in the Arab and Islamic world. Our destiny is not to clash with the world, but to possess the conditions for engaging in it and participating in creating a better future for future generations. Mohammed bin Salman seems stubborn in his dreams. He calls on his visitor not to despair about the conditions of the region. He goes so far as to dream of a future for the Middle East that resembles the European scene. In creating the future, there must be equal and fruitful relations with Beijing and Moscow, and of course with Washington, which is preparing for Trump's return. At the end of a year and a quarter of a century, the world has the right to dream of better days, and the people of the Middle East have the right to commit such a dream despite the cruelty of the scenes coming from the hospitals of Gaza and the prisons of Damascus.

*Quoted from Asharq Al-Awsat