Turmoil in Middle East - will autocracy be rooted out?
A near civil war situation is prevailing in the Middle East. Public protests, this time, have a unique character, a battle unprecedented in the last four decades. Arabs are fighting against tyranny, autocracy, brutality, oppression, and injustice.
THIS CONFLICT has a different connotation altogether as it pits the people who have attained a point of saturation against establishments who know nothing but to loot, plunder, suppress and murder innocent people. The message was loud and clear, “We want change”. This is a revolution in opposition to non-performance, unwanted economic stagnancy, uncontrollable corruption, hounding bureaucracy and misery of the poor. The protestors knew that this was their moment, because if not now than never. They used Satyagraha as a tool to defy the dictate of the government and were intoxicated by a drug called ‘A moment for Change’. This sea of change began when a fruit seller from Tunisia named Muhammad Bouazizi confronted the corrupt administrators, but was singled out. When his soul could not take the insult any longer, he burnt himself alive and the reaction to his untimely death triggered a wave of non-violent protests in which the people of Tunisia ousted their cruel President Ben Ali. As the pressure mounted on Ali, he quit office and left the country. This was the first time in the modern history of Middle East wherein the people were successful in ousting a regime, which had ruled them with the power of the muscle. However, what can be called rather incredible is the fact that how easily the people were triumphant and were able to crush the tormenters who have ruled them by their stick for decades. Even more startling is the truth that the change was brought about without firing a gunshot. The historic transformation in Tunisia inspired the Egyptian population to such an extent that millions marched on the streets of Cairo and assembled at the famed Tahrir Square protesting police brutality, unfair elections, and suspension of civil and fundamental rights. President Hosni Mubarak responded by sending troops on the roads, although the military said it would not fire on the non-violent protestors. With a non-cooperating Army, Mubarak had no choice but to budge in favor of the people’s demands and had to quit. With Mubarak gone Egypt has began her tryst with an impending transformation from autocracy to a democratic government, which the Army says will be installed in the next six months. After the toppling of governments in Tunisia and Egypt, the people of the Middle East realized that this could be their moment too. A series of anti-government protests have set in motion in Yemen, Bahrain and Libya and the confidence the people now have can be gauged by a banner held by a protestor; the banner has imagery of both the outgoing Presidents Ben Ali and Hosni Mubarak and asks “who’s next”. The regimes of Yemen, Bahrain and Libya have responded with brute force, unleashing a reign of terror, instigating a fear psychosis in the minds of the people with the help of a loyal Army which will do anything to save their totalitarian establishments from being overthrown. Especially in Libya the situation has worsened at an alarming rate as an impending civil war looms large if the West doesn’t intervenes. NBC Foreign Correspondent Richard Engel on 22 February described the movement as "the protest movement is no longer a protest movement, it's a war. It's open revolt." On the same day The Economist went a notch further and said it’s an "uprising that is trying to reclaim Libya from the world's longest-ruling autocrat." According to International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) more than three thousand people have been killed since the uprising began on 15 February. However, the rebels got a moral boost when the UNSC including India unanimously imposed harsh sanctions, enforced an embargo on arms trade and asked the member nations to freeze accounts and assets of Gaddafi and his family. Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi responded by using foreign mercenaries to terrorize people and is holding his ground in and around the capital city of Tripoli. The country’s East has fallen to the rebels, but in the last five days he has ordered airstrikes on insurgent’s strongholds. The use of air power had made the radicals feel a bit jittery, and they have demanded the West should make Libya a no-fly zone, i.e. NATO should destroy Libya’s air defense system and its military’s communication network. Qaddafi has claimed that there would be bloodshed on the streets of Libya and millions would die if United States and its allies send in their troops in the country. But the Western nations are showing their resolve towards the protestors and America had send two of her Navy Vessels off the coast of Libya. Nonetheless, the people have become reluctant to leave their demands and want change, at whatever cost it comes. Moreover, as Qaddafi’s stranglehold over the military weakens and as fear of a UN sponsored NATO intervention caves into his mind, he will have to give in to the wishes of the people. The reality is his days in command are numbered. It will finally come down to the wire who blinks first and there is strong evidence in support for change”, as people want to see the ‘end of misery’ and the ‘birth of democracy’. Let’s see who wins?
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