{"id":2764,"date":"2011-01-17T00:12:57","date_gmt":"2011-01-16T20:12:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/?p=2764"},"modified":"2011-01-17T09:18:16","modified_gmt":"2011-01-17T05:18:16","slug":"tunisia-is-a-wake-up-call-%e2%80%93-for-pundits-not-the-arab-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/middle-east-politics-analysis\/tunisia-is-a-wake-up-call-%e2%80%93-for-pundits-not-the-arab-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Tunisia is a Wake Up Call, but for the Pundits"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The clarions are calling, and klaxons blaring. Tunisians, finally tiring of a corrupt government, replete with sycophants and sidekicks who were casting a pall of poverty around them while living it up, decided to take action.<\/p>\n

The catalyst was an unemployed student whose vegetable cart was confiscated by policemen for not having the requisite licensing and permissions. He self-immolated, more out of despair than protest, and those flames fanned a wildfire of indignation. Unarmed protestors, in their fury, stood up to riot police firing live rounds, and broke the illusion of invincibility that autocracy usually stands on. For it remains a little appreciated truth that an entire population can never be subjugated except by tacit compliance.<\/p>\n

Since, there has been any number of label-machine happy pundits wanting to describe the revolution.<\/p>\n

The Bush-Blair axis of incompetence want to attribute Tunisia\u2019s emancipation to actions in Iraq \u2013 though how rampant torture, plundering and targeted killings can be correlated to a grass roots citizen movement is beyond one.<\/p>\n

The denizens of Twitter were quick to claim credit- but they usually are. They\u2019d claim credit for the spread of HIV if they weren\u2019t perpetually shackled to their consumer technology. If you have a minute, stop by and get them to tell you the story of how they single-handedly managed to prevent the 2010 Iran Elections from being a farce, for all that it was still a farce.<\/p>\n

The optimists see it as a call for greater pan-Arab awareness; an acknowledgement that citizens\u2019 quality of life should be of greater importance than bullet-proof limousines and palaces.<\/p>\n

Of course, the enlightened West has been quick to label this as a hunger for democracy. Alas, but that\u00a0 also is farcical. The story of Tunisia is that of a people who were pushed to breaking point, and chose the cliff over the abyss. They revolted for there was little else left.<\/p>\n

They are not clamouring for democracy, or any of the plaudits and epithets commentators are keen to throw out, but rather for the right to live in dignity. They are putting bodies on the line because their physiques and physiognomies have been ravaged to the point of ridicule. They\u2019re demanding livelihoods, not democracy, regardless of what the adjective-happy brigade might say.<\/p>\n

There is a frenetic\u00a0hope amongst many that this will translate into a region-wide wake-up call for disenfranchised Arabs. Gadaffi of Libya has already abandoned his Ukrainian nurse to speak out against the Tunisian uprising. In a surprising grasp of the issues that matter to the United States, he even managed to implicate Julian Assange and WikiLeaks in the matter.<\/p>\n

There remains a fervent little whisper that perhaps the Tunisian phenomenon will spread, and that autocrats region-wide will be losing sleep. Why should it not spread, they say? And one is tempted to concur, for didn\u2019t the French revolution instil a Europe-wide hatred of the vicissitudes of nobility? But it won\u2019t.<\/p>\n

For what end is Tunisia\u2019s revolution towards? Not of vaunted democracy, neither of citizen empowerment, but merely a call to live and let live.<\/p>\n

Egypt may be next in line, for Mubarak\u2019s seemingly ageless regime has seen the country lurch from one crisis to the next. Just recently, soldiers were pressed to service to bake bread to appease starving masses, while educated graduates remain unemployed and disaffected. Of course, Mubarak does not make the same mistakes that Tunisia\u2019s Ben Ali did \u2013 his abilities to manipulate, control, mitigate and stifle remain par excellence.<\/p>\n

Algeria has already seen its first case of self-immolation, and unrest is spreading – not because of democratic ideals but because a pitiful standard of living is being further eviscerated by food price shocks.<\/p>\n

Should Egypt and Algeria fall \u2013 or rather, rise \u2013 Yemen and Saudi Arabia may have to pay attention. Both have a large disenfranchised population that is undereducated and unemployed.<\/p>\n

But what of other Gulf states? What about the UAE, Qatar and Kuwait? With a hint of schadenfraude, I\u2019m happy to announce that there will not be any traces revolution or dissent there. Bear in mind the constituency of these sheikhdoms. The local population is outnumbered scores to one by expatriate residents from various parts of the world. It is too small to rise. The expatriates, by definition largely opportunistic, would prefer to pack up and head elsewhere rather than effect change.<\/p>\n

People denied citizenship usually lack the validity and sense of belonging to be part of a sea change. \u00a0Plus, the citizen denizens are hardly disenfranchised. They recognize that dignity in living, and plush houses, are far more useful that esoteric ideas of representation. The rich oil states ensure they offer incomparable disposable incomes and subsidies to their citizens, and flash enough cash that even outsiders remain obsequient. It\u2019s an excellent stratagem, and one that works wonders. As an Emirati commentator from the UAE recently tweeted, \u201cI like my sheikhdom just fine.\u201d Yes indeed, and why wouldn\u2019t you?<\/p>\n

Democracy is not a panacea, and people will not rise unless deprived. Tunisia is not about ideals, nor is about Arab identity. It\u2019s merely about the right to a reasonably equitable life. And that is the noblest cause of all. It\u2019s just such a shame it doesn\u2019t fit a convenient label.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

HISHAM WYNE: Tunisa’s revolution has little to do with the ideals of democracy. It’s a simple cry for better quality of life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":2772,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[154,83,82,60],"tags":[18328,324,125,18300,470,18321,1585,18315,18332,126,3833,18307,18275,18322,166,18316,162,18302,18313],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2764"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/48"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2764"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2764\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}