THE FIFTY-FOUR-YEAR-OLD MIDDLE EAST (READ THE ZIONIST AND THE UNCIVILIZED WESTERN WORLD) PROBLEM – FROM A FILMMAKER'S POINT-OF-VIEW. – PART 3.

by Mansor Puteh. (In conjunction with the photo exhibition - Nakba - Dispossession –Pengusiran.

MORE MEMORANDA AND DEMONSTRATIONS.

The White House, UN and the OIC and other Muslim leaders are still repeating the same statements again mid again like they were brilliant and pursuing the same agenda.

And what is the most depressing is that Muslim leaders and other small groups are still issuing memoranda, protest letters and ultimatums and holding noisy demonstrations outside of the American Embassies, and bum the American flag as if they matter. Don't they_ all know that such things don't work" especially with regard to the Palestinian Problem?

Perhaps it is good to remind all parties again and again that the Palestinian Problem started in 1948 and this year they will mark their fifty-fifth anniversary or the Al-Nakba' or Dispossession from their land later this year.

Perhaps with this, all the parties concerned, especially The White House. UN and O1C will be able to look at the problem in the proper perspective and hopefully will find other meaningful ways to solve this Palestinian Problem once and for all­

The Israeli hawks must be told that human political experience does not agree with their policies; they simply have to change to suit with the present time. They should not hope for the whole to change to suit their needs and demands.

Historically speaking the Israelis have no real lawful claim to the land in Palestine; they simply cannot carve out a new state that never existed before. There was never a state of Israel before 1948; it just appeared from out of the blue. The Israelis always claim that their ancestors had lived there since biblical times.

It's true, but they were just a small minority that comprised of a mere three- percent of the population or less. And minorities don't normally rule.

NO LESSON FROM THE PALESTINIAN EXPERIENCE.

Why did the Palestinian Problem happen like the way it did? Surely, after so many years, all leaders of the Muslim World would have realized something and learn something valuable from it.

But, unfortunately, even despite that, none of them have been able to see beyond the real problem itself and ask what possible lessons or ‘ikthibar' that they and all Muslim could learn from them. All of them are still stuck with their national problem of nation building and development that the Palestinian Problem in all Muslim countries has become their way towards attaining international prominence, and the topic to be discussed only in certain forums and seminars that are occasionally held.

Whatever that had happened in Palestinians and to the Palestinians in the past especially since 1948 cannot be changed. The only thing that we can do is to learn from all the mistakes that we have made since then.

But the question is have we all learnt anything from this tragedy? [t is sad that despite that we have not really learnt much from it. The OIC is still dilly-dallying, while the UN is still standing with both arms folded and The White House is selling its weapons of mass destruction while pretending to be the peacemakers and the bastion of democracy.

If there is one lesson that we can learn from all this is how ignorant we all have been, and how frail the so-called Muslim brotherhood really is. Muslim brotherhood and unity to me only hinges on official visits of leaders to each other's countries and the issuing of official communiqué that expounds unity and the need to promote trade.

We must therefore find ways to promote greater unity of the Muslim Ummah so that it becomes a bloc, not just in the military sense, but also in the commercial, cultural and social sense.

We must also resolve to engage all the qualified people in all fields, and not just politics to play their part, and use all means possible to ensure that the unity of the Muslim Ummah is tenable.

It is only when we have achieved real unity of the Muslim Ummah that we can tone down any aggressive tendencies that The White House and the Israelis have. This is the lesson that we can learn from the Palestinian Problem.

MUSLIM MLITARY ALLIANCE.

The North Area Treaty Organization (NATO) now considers that an attack on any of its member countries is seen as an attack on all NATO countries. Just where do you think that this attack might come from and who do you think are their potential enemies? Surely, not from South America or Africa, but from the Muslim World.

In other words, NATO and the Western World consider Muslims as a threat to their existence and civilization.

Therefore, I would like to propose that we copy NATO and form a military alliance so that any attack on a Muslim country is seen by us as an attack on all Muslim countries.

LEAVE UN F'OR OUR OWN GOOD.

We must and can copy everything that the West has been doing to protect their political and economic interests land geopolitical influence. How come none of our leaders are talking about establishing a Muslim geopolitical influence like establishing the Muslim United Nations Organizations so that we do not need to be part of the UN anymore since the UN is not serving the interests of Muslim countries but America and Israel?

The Muslim World comprises of fifty-seven countries and the total population stands at 1.6 billion people. This includes the millions of Muslims who live in the West and the six million in America itself Yet despite that our real influence is hardly felt anywhere even in some Muslim countries where non-Muslim influences have seeped into the system right before our very eyes.

I am sure all the other Third World countries will also follow suit and leave the UN if all Muslim countries take the initiative to leave it.

And if possible all Muslim countries must disengage themselves from the UN and leave the organization since it is of no use to the Muslim World. This idea may sound preposterous now, but it is not as absurd as the suggestion that the former Soviet Union could collapse or that the Berlin Wall could collapse.

MUSLIM CINEMA AS AN ANTITHESIS TO HOLLYWOOD AND THE FIRST LINE OF DEFENSE.

What else that we can do to promote greater Muslim unity? One is to create the Muslim cinema. I presented a paper entitled, 'Muslim Cinema as an antithesis to Hollywood' in at the First Muslim Filmmakers Conference in Tehran, Iran in February 1994 during the Fajr International Film Festival where my film was also shown.

I proposed the setting up of a Muslim cinema. and laid out the plans that we can use to achieve this. In this way we can create more interesting films, documentaries and television programs and introduce new Muslim faces in the entertainment world who can be better role models for the young and highlight our different cultural and social facets and redefine the concept of hero and artistic and creative achievement.

We have the talent, the stories, technicians, cinema-halls and audiences, but unfortunately, we have surrendered them to the West as if we do not know that Hollywood films and entertainment only aim to bring back the Ummah to back to the Age of Jahiliyah or Ignorance. We can start to produce films that cost from ten to forty million and distribute them throughout the Muslim World and Third World.