TUNISIA : People fed up with dictatorship tell the dictator to go to hell; a leaderless revolution driven to succeed by an unstoppable belief that Tunisians deserved better
NEW YORK CITY—No sooner had longtime Tunisian dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali fled his country after a 29-day popular uprising than the race of the naysayers began.
On one side was the expected group: a host of Arab dictators. From kings and emirs whose monarchies ensured continuity to longtime dictators of republics on the verge of becoming dynasties, as sons inherit countries from fathers with the ease of a family estate changing hands, the men who rule the Arab world watched in horror as one of their own was kicked out of a country he robbed blind with one hand and suffocated into submission with the other.
Who among them could not imagine a similar ignominious end? If Ben Ali's perfect police state could crumble then, clearly, dictatorships just aren't what they used to be. If Tunisians had somehow imagined the unimaginable, who knew what your average Egyptian, Saudi, Yemeni or Libyan was thinking.
So it's perfectly natural for Arab dictators and those who do their bidding to insist their countries aren't Tunisia, that despite the uncanny resemblances in frustration, repression and autocracy, the Tunisian revolution was a one-off. And for those Egyptians, Saudis, Yemenis, Libyans et al who were getting ideas, they reminded us of the chaos that would surely ensue if we dared imagine a future without them.
The most uninhibited of our leaders, Libya's Moammar Gadhafi — who with 41 years in power is the world's longest-serving dictator — reminded us: “Tunisia now lives in fear . . . Families could be raided and slaughtered in their bedrooms.”
But let me tell you what really distresses me off: a host of Western “analysts” and “experts” determined to outdo our despots in coming up with reasons why the Tunisian revolution will fail and why it's impossible to replicate.
Watching the Tunisian people courageously face down Ben Ali's security forces and fill the streets again and again in protests that started out about unemployment but quickly picked up with rage against police brutality, corruption and repression — a toxic mix that plagues the Arab region as a whole — shattered many stereotypes of Arabs. Passive, apathetic, timid, loving of “iron-fisted” dictators: the list was depressing.
Another stereotype, of course, was that without men in beards, Arabs didn't stand a chance against their regimes. It was exactly that regime/Islamists paradigm that fuelled Western support for dictators like Ben Ali and others and allowed such support to pretend to be anything but hypocritical.
“What pisses me off most about naysayers is that they conclude that Arabs are incapable of democracy, yet they demand that Arab societies democratize,” said Mauritanian activist Nasser Weddady. “There's an inherent double standard. Whereas Arabs are seen as inferior because of the state of their societies' lack of democracy — when historical opportunities to democratize come by, naysayers seem to be willing to trade Arab societies' freedom for their own (false) sense of security because of their fear of Islamists.”
So here, in the case of Tunisia — without an Islamist in sight — we watched people fed up with dictatorship tell the dictator to go to hell; a leaderless revolution driven to succeed by an unstoppable belief that Tunisians deserved better; thousands of people poured into the streets fuelled by dignity and self-worth. Millions of Arabs are watching in ecstasy and with restored hope.
I barely sleep.
My heart goes out to the courageous people of Tunisia as they figure out the best way to rule their country. I know it will take a while to be rid of uncertainty, but I am grateful to them for creating the most exciting times of our lives.
“I get the sense from naysayers that they're saying ‘Oh we were counting on your eternal apathy,' which is very insulting,” said Abeer Allam, an Egyptian journalist who is the Financial Times correspondent in Saudi Arabia. (Her views are her own and don't reflect the newspaper's.)
Many of those rushing to outdo our regimes in trying convince us Tunisia will fail or that we will fail in emulating its revolution, love to remind us how robust the Tunisian economy was under Ben Ali, how well Tunisia was doing in terms of educating its people, etc. Clearly, they — like Ben Ali — missed something.
“What's most appalling is the sense that they're suggesting the Tunisian revolution is economically bad for our region. Some economists dealt with it as an unwelcome nuisance, almost saying ‘How dare they revolt and challenge or disturb our political-risk calculation?' ” Allam said. “Many ignore the fact that economic growth did not trickle down to most Tunisians and that it was anger with corruption more than anything that fuelled the uprising.”
Analysts often refer to the “Arab Street” to characterize a region of more than 300 million. There are hundreds of Arab Streets, obviously, and they will absorb the lessons of Tunisia and adapt accordingly. As Weddady often tells his Twitter followers: it's about empowerment!
No one is working on a cookie-cutter Tunisia model. While Islamists had nothing to do with the Tunisian revolution, neither — thank God — did foreign troops sent to “liberate” the country. Tunisians didn't need help tearing down Ben Ali's portraits.
“What bothers me about naysayers is that they still speak from the same ideological positions that blinded them to the possibility, if not even inevitability, of revolution,” said Syrian poet and democracy activist Ammar Abdulhamid. “They don't see us as complex human beings and societies capable of making calculations, weighing odds and considering where our interests lie, but as caricatures, figures and puppets in the hands of extremists, autocrats, or, at times, their own Western hands.”
Naysayer: Stop raining on our revolution!
Mona Eltahawy is an Egyptian-born award-winning columnist
On one side was the expected group: a host of Arab dictators. From kings and emirs whose monarchies ensured continuity to longtime dictators of republics on the verge of becoming dynasties, as sons inherit countries from fathers with the ease of a family estate changing hands, the men who rule the Arab world watched in horror as one of their own was kicked out of a country he robbed blind with one hand and suffocated into submission with the other.
Who among them could not imagine a similar ignominious end? If Ben Ali's perfect police state could crumble then, clearly, dictatorships just aren't what they used to be. If Tunisians had somehow imagined the unimaginable, who knew what your average Egyptian, Saudi, Yemeni or Libyan was thinking.
So it's perfectly natural for Arab dictators and those who do their bidding to insist their countries aren't Tunisia, that despite the uncanny resemblances in frustration, repression and autocracy, the Tunisian revolution was a one-off. And for those Egyptians, Saudis, Yemenis, Libyans et al who were getting ideas, they reminded us of the chaos that would surely ensue if we dared imagine a future without them.
The most uninhibited of our leaders, Libya's Moammar Gadhafi — who with 41 years in power is the world's longest-serving dictator — reminded us: “Tunisia now lives in fear . . . Families could be raided and slaughtered in their bedrooms.”
But let me tell you what really distresses me off: a host of Western “analysts” and “experts” determined to outdo our despots in coming up with reasons why the Tunisian revolution will fail and why it's impossible to replicate.
Watching the Tunisian people courageously face down Ben Ali's security forces and fill the streets again and again in protests that started out about unemployment but quickly picked up with rage against police brutality, corruption and repression — a toxic mix that plagues the Arab region as a whole — shattered many stereotypes of Arabs. Passive, apathetic, timid, loving of “iron-fisted” dictators: the list was depressing.
Another stereotype, of course, was that without men in beards, Arabs didn't stand a chance against their regimes. It was exactly that regime/Islamists paradigm that fuelled Western support for dictators like Ben Ali and others and allowed such support to pretend to be anything but hypocritical.
“What pisses me off most about naysayers is that they conclude that Arabs are incapable of democracy, yet they demand that Arab societies democratize,” said Mauritanian activist Nasser Weddady. “There's an inherent double standard. Whereas Arabs are seen as inferior because of the state of their societies' lack of democracy — when historical opportunities to democratize come by, naysayers seem to be willing to trade Arab societies' freedom for their own (false) sense of security because of their fear of Islamists.”
So here, in the case of Tunisia — without an Islamist in sight — we watched people fed up with dictatorship tell the dictator to go to hell; a leaderless revolution driven to succeed by an unstoppable belief that Tunisians deserved better; thousands of people poured into the streets fuelled by dignity and self-worth. Millions of Arabs are watching in ecstasy and with restored hope.
I barely sleep.
My heart goes out to the courageous people of Tunisia as they figure out the best way to rule their country. I know it will take a while to be rid of uncertainty, but I am grateful to them for creating the most exciting times of our lives.
“I get the sense from naysayers that they're saying ‘Oh we were counting on your eternal apathy,' which is very insulting,” said Abeer Allam, an Egyptian journalist who is the Financial Times correspondent in Saudi Arabia. (Her views are her own and don't reflect the newspaper's.)
Many of those rushing to outdo our regimes in trying convince us Tunisia will fail or that we will fail in emulating its revolution, love to remind us how robust the Tunisian economy was under Ben Ali, how well Tunisia was doing in terms of educating its people, etc. Clearly, they — like Ben Ali — missed something.
“What's most appalling is the sense that they're suggesting the Tunisian revolution is economically bad for our region. Some economists dealt with it as an unwelcome nuisance, almost saying ‘How dare they revolt and challenge or disturb our political-risk calculation?' ” Allam said. “Many ignore the fact that economic growth did not trickle down to most Tunisians and that it was anger with corruption more than anything that fuelled the uprising.”
Analysts often refer to the “Arab Street” to characterize a region of more than 300 million. There are hundreds of Arab Streets, obviously, and they will absorb the lessons of Tunisia and adapt accordingly. As Weddady often tells his Twitter followers: it's about empowerment!
No one is working on a cookie-cutter Tunisia model. While Islamists had nothing to do with the Tunisian revolution, neither — thank God — did foreign troops sent to “liberate” the country. Tunisians didn't need help tearing down Ben Ali's portraits.
“What bothers me about naysayers is that they still speak from the same ideological positions that blinded them to the possibility, if not even inevitability, of revolution,” said Syrian poet and democracy activist Ammar Abdulhamid. “They don't see us as complex human beings and societies capable of making calculations, weighing odds and considering where our interests lie, but as caricatures, figures and puppets in the hands of extremists, autocrats, or, at times, their own Western hands.”
Naysayer: Stop raining on our revolution!
Mona Eltahawy is an Egyptian-born award-winning columnist
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