A Small Lesson from the Arab Uprising

“We will leave when he leaves” he says, “Birruh, Biddam nufdeeka ya bilaad”( with our spirit and blood, we sacrifice them for our country) they say; these are signature statements protesters in Egypt are carrying, chanting with every fibre of their conviction and determination to bring about change they have been longing for over thirty years.

It started like a joke and gibberish in the streets of Cairo, everyone contemplating what if they had staged a massive protest against their own government demanding the president, Hossin Mubarak, who has ruled the country for over thirty years to stand down.

When we first heard about it, we harked back the French revolution but I underestimated that possibility for some reasons. One thing that we were for sure was that if this was to happen then it will take them to Tahrir Square in Cairo.

We all know that this was where moderate women in Egypt throw their veils away in expressing their freedom of choice hence the name Tahrir- meaning “freedom”.

Although Mubarak seem to be adamant but the message has reached his voicemail and he is yet to retrieve the message and act upon it if he has not yet done so. Until then, he will try to manoeuvre his capabilities and abilities in order to cling to power. He has been trying to create another dynasty in Egypt where he would ultimately impose himself as a King followed by his descendants. This is evidenced by his willing to hand over his power to his son if any kind of resentment to do so is felt. Those who are in opposition to this move are likely to end up in maximum prisons or killed as they are considered disparaging.

The problem is not only an Egyptian problem but all Arab rulers and in some cases, African leaders, who take their own people for granted. Arabs have a reputation of limitless love and affection towards their leaders as long as they remain shepherds to them. They always talk good about them in the open and praise them a lot. In Saudi Arabia every taxi driver highly praises the ruler for giving them peace and drives the enemy away even if there has never been an enemy. It is one of the Islamic tenets that a Muslim obeys a ruler and Arabs play by the same rule originated from the verse in the Holy Quran.

One might now see that times are different and this was centuries ago when leaders had one thing in mind, emancipating their nations from the economic and social bondage by leading them to a self reliant nation that do not go about asking for economic aid from other super nations. These were leaders who went to war with an enemy in order to protect and preserve the values that are distinct, unique and separate them from the rest.

One thing that’s noticed and conspicuous in all Arab leaders, is that spirit of having to ring fence their mantle with security wings separate and distinct from their armies. In Saudi Arabia King Abdullah has a special elite army called “Harasil Wattany” headed by his own son, a force that deals with internal issues as well as eliminating and silencing the King’s enemies. Mubarak’s presidential guard in Egypt, Gadaffi’s one hundred strong contingent of super trained loyal women body guards and the former Baath Elite for the fallen leader Saddam Hussein in Iraq, a style emulated by all the dictators who wish to cling to power for the rest of their lives. In smaller countries in Africa, we have non state agencies disguised as young democrats, youth wings, youth morales who suppress the very need of the people and carry the force of the party and true nature of the leader in power. Using these wings, the despots are able to blackmail, incapacitate and disenfranchise other political leaders through trumped up cases of treason and corruption, silencing them as long as they clearly pose a threat to their power. This is so because there is always this misconception that leaders are representatives of God the almighty and leadership comes from God alone, you are only chosen by Him and no person can try to take that away unless it’s from God himself. They therefore measure up themselves to Angels and agents of God on earth.

Mubarak’s call to stand down was mocked by his response to fire the entire cabinet and lay all the blames directed to him on them for failing the country. He also sought to appoint the vice president of the country, a move seen as desperate measure, too little to late. This is a sense of purity that it is impossible for him to make a mistake when at the end of the day he is guided by God himself; therefore this mistake might be the people he appointed to work with him hence firing them.

Surprisingly, their behaviour is just so human and these forces they create to protect them is just the manifestation of that. Leaders today have a reputation of looting their own states and help to enrich those super nations by entrusting them with their wealth.

 They tend to betray their cohorts and friends who worked side by side with them during the struggle or campaigning even taking a step further of disengaging a vice president duly elected by the same people who put them to power. Retirement is always the term they hate to hear with impunity.

Now that Tunisia has managed to get rid of Ben Ali and Egypt is on it, other countries are rumoured to follow suit, Yemeni and Jordan are next but where is this wind heading to? King Abdullah of Jordan recently sacked and replaced his Prime Minster while the President of Yemen stated in Parliament that he will not seek re-election in 2013 and promised his people that he will not allow his son to takeover, hence no resetting of time and the clock. These are very interesting times indeed for the Arab world, and as our adage goes “moto umapita komwe thengo latsala”, so your guess is as good as ours. As for the Arab leaders, there is a possibility that all of them will end up seeking asylum in Saudi Arabia, not because they are Muslims, rather, because their behaviour is somehow acceptable in that land.

LESSON

What lesson do we really learn from these events as they unfold? People may seem to be sleeping or slumber but they should not be deemed to be ignorant and cowards to stand up for their rights. Allegiance comes with a price and if Rulers eliminate these and tend not to give allegiances they get its true meaning then events like those in Egypt become inevitable. It is important to bear in mind that the army cannot turn their guns against their own people because they are just part of the same citizens of the country. It is their families that make up this group of protesters therefore they cannot harm them. Their job is to protect the country from an intruding enemy not an enemy of the leader within. The Special Forces power is measured with the power that the leader has, if his power is diffused at a certain point, his orders carry no more than an empty weight. He cannot mobilise them against people who are not on a compromise position. It just doesn’t work.

In the words of American President that leaders should ensure that power is by all means attained by consent from the people they rule. Unfortunately, there has been a shift from this trend of attaining power by consent in the last century, most countries cry foul of having the General Elections rigged and the electorate having to experience both death and bodily harm if they did not give their consent to the seating president. This is institutional kind of attaining power without the consent of the people. Even where this has given the opposition a constitutional power to challenge the results of the elections, the courts have not shown an interest to either declare the election null and void or demanding the seating president to reconsider the outcome.

Ironically, Democracy nowadays is Communism in disguise, you cannot tell the difference between Zimbabwe and North Korea although the former is a democratic country where the president rules by consent after serving a term. People from these countries have but same kind of forced allegiance towards their leaders and their human rights are almost usurped from them. The only media that’s allowed to air the views of the people is that of the government and that’s descriptively the essence of communism. At times the ruling party is in control and determines the need of the Country rather a government which comprises the legislature, executive and the judiciary. Although the separation of power has for a long time now not made any sense at all as it leaves a lot to be desired, the president and the cabinet is an executive arm, the legislature with majority of representatives from the ruling party and the judiciary appointed by the president himself. It therefore leaves so much room for the seating president to have control over every business in government.

Dictators Take Note

The fallen President of Tunisia, Ben Ali, who fled to Saudi Arabia indeed might still be living in the lap of luxury, but make no mistakes Tunisia's former President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali and his family are prisoners. They are friendless, homeless and humiliated.

They are prisoners because they have no country to attach themselves too, they have no freedom to walk in the streets with their heads up and they cannot even run their day to day business, most importantly they have lost everything. They will spend their lives looking above their shoulders and on the run from very same people they mistreated. They are worse off than a prisoner charged, stood trial and currently serving his jail sentence. The latter gets to seeing people left behind and those loved ones.

Indeed it does not matter whether they are now housed in a palace or castle but they are like a bird in a gilded cage and the truth is Ben Ali and his equally odious and corrupt family have nowhere else to hide.

Most dictators fantasise their relationship with countries in the West and how close they can get to the West in desperate times but they forget that that no matter how close you think you are to the West, in times of trouble they will drop you faster than a burning coal. The United States has proven this so many times that they are fickle friends; they have their own problems to focus on rather helping people who take advantage of the people who put them to power.

Ben Ali had that predicament, scrambled to board a plane to escape what some may consider a well deserved lynching; the truth is he had no idea where he was going.

Mubarak is just joggling his chances too, the West led by the United States of America has already expressed their disapproval and therefore not ready to take him.


Ben Ali tried to contact and half a dozen other countries but the truth is no one wanted the 74-year-old.

A desperate man finally found a bolthole in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah in Saudi Arabia arriving around midnight after close ally President Nicholas Sarkozy rejected a request for his plane to land on French soil.

It just tells us that dictators towards the end of this century will have their own country ruled by another oppressor.

The White House will not entertain any dictators who cling to power, it does not want to be seen as aiding and abetting their heinous crime they commit on their own people.

We remind dictators that just as the late Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi discovered when he went in to exile after his repressive regime in Iran was overthrown in the Islamic Revolution of 1979. The former Shah spent his exile in Egypt, totally isolated and shunned by the very same leaders in the West who had once supported him.

The Saudi government seem to be still very soft just as they accepted and give freedom among other dictators Idi Amin Dada of Uganda when he fled the country.