Arab Spring

Arab Spring … no end!

Late in 2011 a Tunisian young man "a vegetable seller" sets fire in himself to protest the cruel treatment by a policewoman, and then the events turned dramatic in many Arab states because of this little incident which nobody expected it would have been a spark that will burn some Arab brutal regimes.

Anything in life should teach us a lesson and the development of the Arab Spring should be one, yet many Arab regimes still have the same old rhetoric arguing that their countries are unlike the other Arab states which saw the rise of revolutionaries.

Such argument is unfounded because in this way politicians try to hide the reality and be passive and this is very dangerous for their countries. Some Arab states started massive campaign of public media aiming at portraying a good image of the regime and advocate the achievements done by it on the national level of course. But the reality is different and people are aware of what should be done and what should not be claimed.

The lessons are missed and the regimes are adamant, in a previous article, I stressed the fact that the United States of America and Europe rather the whole world were surprised at the turn of events in Arab countries after the revolt in Tunisia, none was prepared for such circumstances, but the right thing to do was to support the young men and the civil society organizations in their struggle against tyrant regimes, that is all these powers can do and they do not dare intervene without Arab tacit and/or clear support.

I do not back despot and cruel regimes but I do not prefer international intervention because it will complicate the situation further on the ground, the players will be numerous and a solution will look far way to find.

Now there are many powers that are working day and night to fail the Arab Spring, these include other threatened regimes that are resistant to any change or reforms. Such regimes do merely superficial amendments to their laws and bring some officials to justice in order to please angry people. The powers also could be international and national apart from the authorities, any meaningful reform should take place now not tomorrow, and there is no excuse for putting forward an immediate and thorough and thoughtful reform anywhere in the Arab states.

However, If the revolts brought a glimpse to freedom of speech and end of the security grip, the outcomes of the events should be worked out and bring about stability and peace and economic prosperity. The antagonists of any change, those whose interests were threatened by change do not wish a deep reform but prefer status quo, the same could be said about the current political turmoil in Egypt, where president Morsi tries to dominate the whole political life in that country, which is wrong but necessary to pursue the path of the revolution and achieve its goals, anyway the confidence seems absent between the political stakeholders in Egypt and to some extent opposition is right because Morsi may go further by usurping the entire state and then nobody will be able to challenge him as long as he is protected by the law which he and his supporters put forward.

The question now is whether recent events in the Arab region will influence the whole world? The answer will come when the situation in Syria becomes clearer as I hope that very near solution will be found for the conflict there without loss of more lives.