The British foreign minister, William Hague, has some strange views on the revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt. Speaking on BBC Radio 4 after Hosni Mubarak's fall, Hague takes pleasure from his belief that people in the two countries are not bothered about how their governments conduct foreign relations. "I was very cheered, actually, by meeting young people in Tunisia earlier this week who had taken part in the revolution there," he said of his recent trip to Tunis.
"And their motivations were not religious, they were not foreign policy motivations; their motivations were to have economic opportunities, to have jobs..."
So, is it a good thing or a bad thing for the people to have a say in their nation's foreign policy?
Hague's above comments leave one wondering that he wants Egypt and Tunisia to outsource their foreign policy decisions to London. Such thinking goes beyond the issue of British support for Israel.
The British establishment continues to believe that it can still manipulate foreign policies beyond its borders. Autocrats like Hosni Mubarak and Zine El Abidine Ben Ali are the reason why some European countries feel emboldened in their attempts to dictate Arab policies.
When the whole world is saluting the courage of Tunisian and Egyptian people for toppling tyranny, Western politicians are busy trying to preserve the old order in security and foreign relations in the whole region. If you want Egyptian and Tunisian foreign policies to be outsourced, let there be a tender based on free market competition rules, allowing both government ministries in Europe and private enterprises of Tony Blair and Associates’ ilk to participate in bids and make an offer that the Arab people can't turn down.
Hague has every right to feel happy about the Tunisian and Egyptian activists not having "foreign policy motivations", but it will be seen as a symptom of the old colonial mindset.
