The Arab revolution

The collapse of Tunisia's government and the escalating protests in Egypt to end the 30-year rule of President Hosni Mubarak has gone, to begin with, to rattle Jordan and Yemen heralding an unprecedented Arab revolution, something unheard of in the recent history. The popular mood suggests this may be the beginning of the end of despotic rule in several North African states and Middle East countries where unpopular monarchs and dictators cling on to power with the active connivance of the so-called civilized world and neo-colonial super power for decades. Many so-called analysts and political commentators have attempted to attribute this change to Islamist parties but the fact remains that right wing parties have supported and colluded with these regimes in fulfillment of the imperialism agenda till the bi-polar world gave in to a unipolar system that closed on global rightwing parties all avenues of riches to give them a cause to lament and grumble. In a broader term, the genesis of Tunisia's protest - corruption, hardship and abuse of power - is shared across the region, most notably perhaps in Egypt, the most populous of the Arab world. Algeria has also started feeling the heat of the popular Arab movement with President Abdelaziz Bouteflika seemingly shaken after five days of violent protests earlier this month. The indigenous uprisings raging from Tunisia to Egypt to Yemen are heralding a new Arab world, unthinkable of. Today's Arab revolution is no less significant than those that preceded it in recent decades in Eastern Europe and Latin America. This time, Arabs are not being led by their leaders -- from colonialism to pan-Arabism, American or any other "ism". Instead, they have turned on those leaders who have failed to provide them their dignity, justice and a better life. No doubt we are witnessing today an Arab people's revolution. Like those before them, today's Arab revolution will transform the region's politics. What is happening today is nothing short of what experts have long been describing as the birth of a new Arab politics that will never be the same again. Propelled by the young and the digital revolution, citizens will demand nothing less than the right to choose and change their representatives in the future. To glimpse the nature of what can emerge, we should understand the rapidly changing social structure of Arab societies which are more educated, urban and connected than ever before. Due to the phenomenal growth of secondary and university-level education, literacy rates among the region's youths have skyrocketed in the past 40 years. The percentage of people living in Arab cities has risen by 50 per cent in the same period and modern technology and digital connections have reached the new heights. No wonder, then, that the people have finally snapped at the lack of opportunity and representation and the high levels of corruption and control that characterize their lives. Most tellingly, more has united the protesting people than divided them. And this happening despite they have no leadership to inspire them. The slogans convulsing the entire region yell aloud that the people want dignity, justice and a better life as a universal value, not the domain of any one particular party or its regime. Instead, the national movements, which these conditions have spawned, will continue to demand a political system that is more pluralistic, democratic and produces effective and competent governments sensitive to the legitimate aspirations of all the society's people. This is also a clarion call for Washington and its European allies, who have backed and abetted the remorseless regimes in violating and usurping fundamental human rights of their people, to lay their hands off the Arab world. They want to themselves determine their future under a system that guarantees them democratic and constitutional process independent of imperialist wrangling. The lesson left by the United States by unconditionally supporting Israel at the cost of Palestinian and Arab aspirations, has also sufficiently boosted the movement of a change from Cairo to Sana'a. And no wonder if the kingdoms of Saudi Arabia, the UAE etc. may also see the rising of tides in no distant a future. With the pressure mounting, what world policymakers can contribute is to make sure that transition in each country of the boiling region remains peaceful. Western policymakers in particular must strike a careful balance between ensuring peace in the region and unqualified support, rather collusion with Israel, and start respecting the wishes of the aspirations pf the people of the region.