On a visit to Tunisia in 2008, I was struck by the obviously liberal Islamic nation. Even though women wearing head scarves were common, those in fashionable western clothes could be seen all over the place. There wasn't too much hullabaloo about serving wine at some of our dinners — we were a group of international journalists on an olive oil tour of Tunisia. When I expressed surprise at this, one of the officials accompanying us said: “Long ago, our government decided that religion is a very private affair and should be kept at home. Also, we have a booming tourism industry, and we not only make wine for tourists, we also export quite a bit of it.” It is another matter that Tunisian wine is nothing to write home about.
But any visitor to Tunisia, till recently, couldn't possibly come away without having the face of its former President Mr Ben Ali — who, last month, had to flee for his life to Saudi Arabia, which seems to have become a shelter for Muslim despots in trouble — etched on the consciousness for quite a while. For you had Mr Ali staring out at you from every conceivable place… government offices to banks to any building that could accommodate his portrait.
Very soon I discovered, when to every question I posed from women's hijab to the grievances of people, I got an answer that seemed to say Tunisians were the happiest people in the world. Of course, prior to the visit, one had read about the heavily censored Tunisian media, but didn't expect the censorship to extend to people's private conversations.
Anyway, the Europeans loved the tiny North African country with its balmy Mediterranean climate, beaches, great food and resorts; the holiday came packaged at a rate so attractive that the retired from Germany, the UK and other European countries with harsh winters took an annual break here for six to eight weeks. They felt safe enough as Islamists were held at bay, no bombs went off and western rulers feted the region for its “stability”.
But at the end of the day, the Tunisian President, whom the West admired — oh yes, western powers pick and choose the Muslim dictators to nurture or knock off — proved too much of a despot for his own people. His regime was found to be too autocratic; power and pelf were concentrated in the hands of only his cronies and, in an unprecedented move, young Tunisians came out on the streets in revolt, and Mr Ali had to flee his country in the middle of the night as a common criminal.
It was only a matter of time before other Arab nations, ruled by similar despots, took a leaf out of Tunisia's book. In the last one week, thousands of Egyptian protestors, most of them below 30 years, were out on the streets against the President, Mr Hosni Mubarak's 30-year-old rule. The regime of the 82-year-old Mr Mubarak has been kept going through sham elections by the Army; he himself is a former General.
Poverty, oppression
As in Tunisia, in Egypt too, what brought youngsters onto the streets were the two monsters of poverty and oppression; world over, food prices have been rising in the last two years. In the recent past, Algeria has witnessed food riots. Ironically enough, Mr Mubarak has managed to keep democratic forces at bay with the help of the US, the most powerful democracy in the world, and other western powers. Sensing the public mood in Egypt — thousands of protestors have been pouring out on the streets of Cairo and Alexandria — the US President, Mr Barack Obama, has called for “change” in Egypt, of course falling short of asking Mr Mubarak to go.
The West is gingerly watching the developments in Egypt, as the former International Atomic Energy Agency chief, Mr Mohamed ElBaradei, who has been opposing the Mubarak regime for some time, has emerged as the leader authorised to negotiate a regime change in the troubled country, where more than 100 people have died. Egypt's youth spearheading the revolt, as well as the Islamic Brotherhood, banned and dreaded by the West, have put their weight behind Mr ElBaradei, who has sufficient international standing.
Consternation in the West
Western powers are petrified at the prospect of the Islamic Brotherhood seizing power; if that happens, the nation will only slip from one despotic rule to another. The example of Iran is there for all to see, and one only hopes the youngsters, who are leading the revolt — it gathered momentum through social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter — will not allow this to happen. In Tunisia too, the religious leader, Rachid Ghannouchi, exiled for 22 years from the country, has returned home. But in the West, there is much more trepidation about the Egyptian revolt compared to Tunisia's because, with its 77.5 million population, Egypt is the most populous Arab nation, and what happens there in the next few weeks can change geo-political equations across the world.
A new era of people power?
With youngsters leading the revolt against corrupt tyrants in both Tunisia and Egypt, there is hope that a new era will begin in the Islamic world and power will be transferred from monarchs and despots to people. And, more important, with more equitable distribution of wealth.
So what will be the fallout of Tunisia and Egypt for the entire Arab Street? As Robert Fisk, the British journalist whose understanding of West Asian affairs is unbeatable, put it in the British daily, The Independent, soon after Mr Ben Ali fled to Saudi Arabia: “Certainly they are shaking in their boots across the Middle East, the well-heeled sheiks and emirs, and the kings, including one very old one in Saudi Arabia and a young one in Jordan, and presidents — another very old one in Egypt and a young one in Syria — because Tunisia wasn't meant to happen.”
Well, looks like the “very old president” in Egypt will have to go. Perhaps, only time will decide what happens in countries such as Algeria, Libya and Jordan. But even in a democracy such as India, there is a message from this uprising. Yes, we don't have kings, despots or tyrants ruling us, well, at least not at the helm of government. But corruption, we have in plenty, and an exploding number of poor, frustrated people who just cannot put two decent meals together. An increasing army of educated youngsters with no jobs, watching the growing “black” wealth of their corrupt countrymen, is an explosive mix, and will have to be handled with not only care, but basic honesty and integrity.
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