Fawaz A. Gerges: The Arab World's Berlin Wall Moment
[Fawaz A. Gerges is the director of the Middle East Centre at the London School of Economics. He is author of the forthcoming book, “Obama and the Middle East: Continuity and Change.”]
As mass protests rock Tunisia, Egypt, Algeria, Yemen, and Jordan, the omnipotence of the Mukhabarat, or security-controlled state, appears to be crumbling. In particular, the inability of President Hosni Mubarak’s much-feared security apparatus to suppress swelling protesters and retain the status quo signals the beginning of the fall of the Arab authoritarian wall. Against all odds, hundreds of thousands of young Arabs – men and women – have taken to the streets and called for change and freedom, risking their lives.
Tunisia provided the spark that has ignited political fires across the Arab world. If the Tunisians could oust their oppressive dictator, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, many Arabs dared to think the unthinkable. If Egypt, the most populous country in the Arab world and the capital of its cultural production, transitions to pluralism, there will be a ripple effect across the region.
Regardless of whether the oppressive Arab regimes weather the violent storm, their ruling order is no longer sustainable. Ordinary Arabs feel empowered, on the verge of a new democratic dawn. They have shed political apathy and joined the political space. The genie is out of the box.
In contrast, Arab rulers worry that their long authoritarian reign has come to an end. After 32 years in power and despite a recent effort to appoint himself president for life, Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen said he will neither seek reelection nor hand over authority to his son once his current term ends in 2013. “No extension, no inheritance, no resetting the clock,” Saleh stated. But those concessions failed to quell a planned large protest on Thursday in the capital Sanaa, dubbed a “day of rage” following the Egyptian and Tunisian models....
Read entire article at CS Monitor
As mass protests rock Tunisia, Egypt, Algeria, Yemen, and Jordan, the omnipotence of the Mukhabarat, or security-controlled state, appears to be crumbling. In particular, the inability of President Hosni Mubarak’s much-feared security apparatus to suppress swelling protesters and retain the status quo signals the beginning of the fall of the Arab authoritarian wall. Against all odds, hundreds of thousands of young Arabs – men and women – have taken to the streets and called for change and freedom, risking their lives.
Tunisia provided the spark that has ignited political fires across the Arab world. If the Tunisians could oust their oppressive dictator, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, many Arabs dared to think the unthinkable. If Egypt, the most populous country in the Arab world and the capital of its cultural production, transitions to pluralism, there will be a ripple effect across the region.
Regardless of whether the oppressive Arab regimes weather the violent storm, their ruling order is no longer sustainable. Ordinary Arabs feel empowered, on the verge of a new democratic dawn. They have shed political apathy and joined the political space. The genie is out of the box.
In contrast, Arab rulers worry that their long authoritarian reign has come to an end. After 32 years in power and despite a recent effort to appoint himself president for life, Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen said he will neither seek reelection nor hand over authority to his son once his current term ends in 2013. “No extension, no inheritance, no resetting the clock,” Saleh stated. But those concessions failed to quell a planned large protest on Thursday in the capital Sanaa, dubbed a “day of rage” following the Egyptian and Tunisian models....