In a lecture by Mohammed Hassanein Heikal on ‘The Gulf: The Day after Tomorrow” at Qatar National Convention Centre on Sunday, which was attended by H H Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani and H H Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, the famous Egyptian journalist talked about the Gulf and the international conflicts.
Heikal raised in his lecture a number of issues and questions, which I will not discuss in detail in this article because it has been reported by the Arabic local media. Some of the issues he discussed are about international powers and their ambitions; however, there is a need to take a serious look at the local issues.
In his lecture, Heikal said the “Gulf has three big neighbouring countries overlooking it from all sides, namely Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Iran, and these powers are currently preoccupied with other things.”
He also said: “The population of the Arab Peninsula is growing at high rates, and Saudi Arabia is expected to become 50 million in 15 to 20 years, and this will constitute a mass of population which will fill the Arabian Peninsula.” He described that as a desirable thing but like any ‘filling action’ it will result in ‘replacement’ and create pressure on the available resources.
I would like to ask some questions: Does Heikal mean that Saudi Arabia is not part of the Gulf? Why is he talking about Saudi Arabia as if it is not part of the Gulf? What does he mean when he says a human mass will fill the Arabian Peninsula?
I would also like to ask Mr Heikal who is going to be replaced. Heikal might have forgotten both geography and history, when he said, “any thinking about future — any future — cannot be outside the context of time and place or outside the context of geography and history”.
The interesting thing is that even my son who is in school knows well that Saudi Arabia is bigger than Egypt, which has over 90 million people, and the population of Cairo alone is about 15 million, and this is what is taught in the lessons of geography. As for history, my son knows that most of the Arabian Gulf tribes and families originated in the Arab Peninsula, and we still repeat the Gulf song of “Our Gulf is one and we are one people”.
Here I have to admit that the problem with small Gulf countries is that they have small populations and the native populations of these countries do not exceed 15 percent of the total population, which include expatriates.
This is not the first time we hear such talk from some thinkers, intellectuals and sections of the media. It has been said that small countries in the Gulf fear the domination of Saudi Arabia, not only politically, but also population-wise. This was said even when the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz called for (at the 32nd meeting of the GCC states in Riyadh recently) moving forward from cooperation to the level of unity to launch a new phase in relations between the member countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council.
True, there are internal and external risks and challenges, but the people of the Arabian Gulf have to have a common perception of all these risks and challenges. We need to take steps towards unity. We need to have a common will that will enable us to reform and implement ideas to realise more economic prosperity, and political and social stability. We need to disseminate the culture of citizenship for sustainable development of the GCC countries. We should not be dragged into the turbulence in the Middle East. The Peninsula
