How come a small tragedy in Tunisia…when a fruit vendor Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire after being roughed up by the police…could trigger a nationwide uprising that led to the ouster of the President? And why did the public anger rose concurrently in Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Syria and Bahrain demanding the despotic rulers to pack up? These questions baffled many political analysts who viewed the Arab world as an infertile ground for democracy. The events during the past few months have shown that the people of these nations shared roots in repression and brutality by their rulers and the uprisings there were waiting to happen since a very long time. Their aspirations for political reforms and their thirst for democracy had reached volcanic proportions…and the incident in Tunisia had only provided the spark to the outburst of anger across the Arab world.
The roots of the uprisings can also be traced in neoliberalism. Even in the midst of the global recession, the autocratic rulers of the Arab world continued to pursue ‘free market’ policies, unmindful of the woeful impact on the vast majority of population. The ruling class enriched themselves through a corruption-ridden process of privatisation. In Egypt, former National Democratic Party leader Ahmed Ezz, who monopolised the steel industry, was one of the major symbols of regime-sponsored corruption. Ezz is also believed to have masterminded the fraud in the 2010 legislature elections in Egypt. In Tunisia, the relatives and close associates of President Zine El Abedine Ben Ali had hugely benefited by acquiring public lands through the process of privatisation. The relatives of Bashar Al Assad in Syria, sons of Muammar Qaddhafi in Libya and the brothers of President Ali Abdallah Al Saleh in Yemen had become symbols of crony capitalism.
One must also ponder as to why the Arab Spring took birth in Tunisia, even as vibrant protests for political reforms were happening since many years in other parts of the Middle East? The answer to this question lies in the fact that the brunt of neoliberalism in that country was unparalleled. In 1989, the founding father of Tunisia, Habib Bourguiba was unseated by his interior minister Zine El Abedine Ben Ali with the support of the French and Italian secret services. Soon, he opened up his country to the World Bank and E.U. and became the poster child of the Washington Consensus. In about two decades, Ben Ali’s policies destroyed the country’s hitherto self-sufficient economy and made thousands of youth to lose their jobs.
Sidi Bouzid, where Mohamed Bouazizi died, is a small town of about 50,000 people, of which up to 50 per cent of the youth were unemployed. While on the one hand, Tunisia became more and more dependent upon the IMF and World Bank loans in the wake of global recession followed by the Wall Street collapse of 2008-10, on the other hand, according to the WikiLeaks, Ben Ali’s family owned 50 per cent of Tunisia’s economic assets. The anger and frustration in the people against the neoliberal policies had actually kick-started the Arab Spring.
The Arab Spring has so far made the people of Tunisia and Egypt, to feel the fragrance of democracy. The Muslim Brotherhood-led ‘Freedom and Justice Party’ secured 47 per cent of the vote followed by the more conservative Al Nour Party which polled 25 per cent of the vote. In the 498-member Parliament, the Muslim Brotherhood will have 213 seats and Al Nour 125. Together, these two parties have an overwhelming majority constituting two-thirds of the vote. However, Muslim Brotherhood, like its counterpart in Tunisia, has preferred a coalition government with smaller liberal and secular parties that have also secured a representation in the new Parliament.
The new democratic government of Egypt is making very cautious steps in view of several limitations. The military still continues to wield power and it will be many years before Egypt can come out of the dictatorial yoke. Besides, Egypt under Hosni Mubarak had been serving as a vassal state to serve the imperialist geo-political interests of the U.S and E.U. The U.S. administration has already signalled to the incumbent government that there should not be any breach in the treaty signed by Anwar Sadat with Israel.
Unfortunately in Libya, the chaotic situation prevailing after the fall of Muammar Qaddafi, has given an opportunity to fish in the troubled waters. The U.S. is playing its strategic cards under the garb of humanitarian intervention. It is contemplating to orchestrate its old game once again. Under King Idris, the pro-Western puppet ruler who ruled Libya from 1951 to 1969, the country was divided in three provinces, Cyrenaica in the east, Tripolitania in the west and Fezzan in the south. The bulk of Libya’s oil reserves are in Cyrenaica, where the U.S. had military bases during the reign of King Idris. The U.S. oil companies had monopolised the country’s oil resources. After Qaddafi came to power, he nationalised the oil industry and forced the U.S. to vacate its military bases. The U.S. has now scripted a NATO-monitored meeting in March this year, which wants to divide Libya once again in three provinces.
While Libya was important to the imperialist powers for economic reasons, Syria had been a hot potato to the West due to its geographic location. Since the times of Hafez Al Asad, Syria had been a stumbling block to the Zionist designs for a Greater Israel. The U.S has been supporting Syrian opposition groups financially since the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Taking advantage of the public anger against the repressive rule of Bashar Al Asad, the U.S. is exploring all possibilities (including violence) to enforce a regime change with the aid of insurgents and Pro-Arab states.
It is incorrect, however, to assume that the consequences of Arab Spring in the cases of Libya and Syria had been counter-productive. The good results in Tunisia and Egypt will surely rekindle new hopes in the people of the Arab world to pursue for establishing the people-friendly governments elected through the democratic processes. It will not be too long before all the pro-west puppet regimes would crumble one after the other. The silver lining in the entire chapter of Arab spring had been the role played by the social media. Nine out of the ten Egyptians and Tunisians responded to a survey that they used Facebook to organise protests and spread awareness. And probably in future, the social media can prove to be a potent force to defeat the neoliberal policies sponsored by the West.