The Era of the Governed
Hadiza Wada, DBA
…November 26, 2011
What started as
a sudden revolution in Arab Speaking countries of the Maghreb beginning with
Tunisia in December of last year 2010 and spreading to the Arab Middle East,
mostly tagged the “Arab Spring” has been ongoing now for close to a year. Recently, it has snuck into the
European countries too, most especially the United States. As we write this report,
demonstrators in New York, the economic and financial capital of the U.S.,
Oakland, California and other major cities have been ongoing. Thousands continue to defy cold
weather to camp outside select areas carefully chosen to send their intended
message i.e. “we are the 99%” of the U.S. population that the politicians in
Washington want to ignore, overtax, and keep jobless, while the rich 1% get tax
breaks, annual bonuses in the millions etc.
The global
message could be summarized as loosely organized collective actions among “those
who feel cheated and denied;” i.e. the governed, who are gradually rising up to
challenge the inequities they feel exists.
While all this was going on for a year, most of the hard questions have
not been asked, such as (a) who replaces those overthrown governments overseas,
and under what processes (b) what type of government is ideal for replacing such
administrations? Remember that most of these countries have been run from
inception by monarchies. (c) Is the western style democracy the ideal role model
to be emulated? (d) How successful do we expect those democracies to be, given
that they were nurtured in societies with different population make up, values,
culture, religious and economic systems?
Can we expect
the government and most especially the people of these countries to be able to
make abrupt and sudden changes, attitudinally, socially, culturally and
religiously, in order to make the system they are not used to work? A good starting point may be is, for
example, determining what could be termed an election that is “free and fair.” What is to be considered free and
fair, and how do such countries achieve that definition of free and fair.
Can people, in
fact, turn their attention and question as well as analyze the current “well
established” and enduring democracies analyzing their pros and cons before they
make their ultimate decision? For
example, right now the leading nation that remains the ultimate and most
enduring democracy [the United States], is also undergoing its own challenges,
where in its extreme grips today, the deregulated capital market is strangling
the economy; or do such countries learn from that and establish their adaptable
type of economies; ones that take into account the strengths and weaknesses of
their societies including their individual collective experiences thus far? Do
they start by demanding that those in position of authority and administration
establish policies that allow for close monitoring of capital markets, capping
profiteering, and protecting consumers from predatory practices of capital
markets and financial institutions.
While many
analysts have alluded to some expansionist agenda by Western powers, a sort of
culmination to Bush and Blair’s much publicized imperialistic ambition [a
subject of many best sellers], others see otherwise. They argue that even if such
industrialized countries are scrambling to get their hands on the vital
resources of the mostly resource rich Muslim nations, the complexities that have
arisen since these nations one after the other began to face the same fate,
appear too much to curtail, or else direct their individual fates. It appears to have gone out of
control they believe, asserting that even the Western citizens have begun to
also question their local leaders and their policies towards their local
populations.
Among the
countries still making waves are Syria, Egypt, and to some extent Libya. France has recently called for
humanitarian intervention in Syria to provide food and medical services, a step
others see as a pretext for intervention.
The EU has however rejected Thursday, the French call echoed by its
Foreign Minister Alan Juppe. Russia
is one of two countries to on the United Nations Security Council to veto a
resolution drafted to condemn Syrian crackdown on demonstrators and impose
strict sanctions against the government weeks ago. Russia is now stressing that Syria
needs to take immediate actions towards the right direction. At the same time however, Russia’s
deputy envoy to the UN, Sergey Karev was reported by Russian International
television RT to have said that “a human rights issue should in no circumstances
be used as a pretext for interfering in a country’s internal affairs”; referring
to the French proposal.
While Egypt, a
more liberal of the Arab nations undergoing ongoing demonstrations have just
managed to pull off its first elections since the upheaval, people have come
back to the city square [Tahrir] in the capital, including other important
cities such as Alexandria to continue their protest. This time they demand that the
Military should pack and leave, replacing themselves with a duly elected
civilian administration. This
accentuates what we laid out earlier in this article; i.e. the need to work
towards a replacement, or at the very least prepare in advance an agreed and
fully worked out comprehensive administrative plan before uprooting a less
desirable one.
On a final note,
African countries need to stand up and respect themselves, so others can respect
them also. Charity begins at home, goes
the common saying. Of the fallen or
ousted governments since the past year, only those of the Maghreb on the
continent of Africa allow for the humiliation and abuse of their ousted leaders. How can Egyptians, a country that has
a lot to teach the world both in History and today [through its esteemed
scholars] allow for the trial of its ousted leader Former President Hosni
Mubarak in a cage? And the drama
that unfolded in Libya, summary execution of their leader, followed by an open
display of his half naked body in a very humiliating state for days, in strong
violation of Islamic principle of shrouding and burying the dead in a very
timely manner?
Where is the
African Union? They need to speak
out loudly, even if they have to pay for time on world media to put out their
messages to the world, expressing their opposition to such barbaric actions. If they do not feel it is of concern
to them, they should begin to think about their individual ends too, and the
possibility that others may treat them the same way, if they do not find ways of
arresting such demeaning actions, including putting pressure on such nations to
find and prosecute anyone taking laws into their own hands in such ways.
(c) The Optimist Voice. All Rights Reserved.
..
