The Arab Spring - Research Paper Example

The Arab Spring The Arab Spring is the series of events that happened and are still happening in the Arab world when the people of the various Arab nations started mass protests and open revolts against the autocratic regimes ruling over them. These events started taking place in Tunisia and they spread through Egypt, Yemen, Libya, Bahrain, and currently, they are happening in Syria. The Arab Spring has seen the fall of several autocratic regimes whose toppling has surprised many in the world. The coming to an end of some of the most powerful Middle Eastern regimes has provided the opportunity for Islamist parties, which had been previously suppressed by these regimes, to come to power democratically. The Arab Spring and the changes of government that followed in certain Middle Eastern countries brought with it many positive outcomes. The most important of these is that it has brought about, for the first time in many decades, an opportunity for real democracy in many Arab states.1 Not only has it done this, but it has also brought a new confidence in the power of the people to change their own destinies. While this has happened, there is still the chance that these new governments might turn out to be no more democratic than their predecessors are. The Arab Spring came into existence as a response to the lack of political freedom in the various countries in which it has occurred. At first, they were peaceful protests some of which became armed struggles whose aim was to topple the autocratic regimes ruling over these countries. According to Ben-Meir2, the rebellion against such governments was due to the fact that instead of taking into consideration the calls of their people to allow them freedom that is more political. These autocratic regimes responded with violence against peaceful protesters, a move that may have been spurred by their conception that their authority was being threatened and that there was a need for them to reclaim such authority by using brute force. The use of force against unarmed civilians led to the discrediting of the legitimacy of such governments and calls for the stepping down of these leaders were made from many international organizations and governments. Moreover, in cases such as Libya and Syria, the peaceful protests suddenly became fierce armed rebellions against the government that attacked the unarmed civilians. Jones3 states that protesters in the Arab Spring made very good use of modern technology such as social networks in order to organize protests as well as making people outside their countries aware of what was really going on because of the media blackout that had been created by the autocratic regimes. Many of these regimes had banned and continue to ban international journalists from having access to their countries perhaps because they do not wish for their crimes against their own people to be revealed in the international arena. To counter this, many protesters have devised ingenious ways of getting the information out of their countries including hacking through the heavily censored internet to sites, which are most suitable for them to relay their messages. The violent crackdown on civilians by their own governments has also led many military personnel to defect from the government ranks and these have joined the protesters to form the core of the armed rebellion against the government. These military defectors have been very instrumental, through their skills and experience, to bring a semblance of discipline into the ranks of the rebels. Democracy has been given an opportunity to flourish in the Middle East and while this opportunity is still available, there is the chance that it will not be taken by the governments currently in power. This is because the Arab Spring came to divide the Arab states along sectarian lines, which many of the previous regimes had kept in check. These divisions are likely to ensure that there is no real democracy in the Arab world because each sect or religious group will contend with its rival for power in any way that is deemed possible. Governments, even those that will be elected democratically, will be elected due to sectarian preferences, with those being elected coming from majority sects. This would mean that the government would not only be dominated by the majority, but that the other groups, especially those that have small populations, will have no say at all in the government. Such a situation would rapidly escalate to violence, which would keep the state in a state of civil war for a long time into the future. Examples of such scenarios have already started taking place in countries such as Egypt, where the Coptic Christians and minority Muslim groups have been kept out of government or are being oppressed because of their beliefs, by the Muslim Brotherhood controlled government. If such a circumstance is to continue in the Middle Eastern states, which have experienced the Arab Spring, then it is likely that true democracy will not be achieved any time soon. In addition, religious and sectarian tensions have floated up, and these have delayed the movement towards government representatives and open societies. In Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamist organizations have gained exceptional authority, but their perceived obligation to democracy has yet to be tested.4 Authoritarianism has existed for a long time in the Middle East due to the funding, which most of the regimes has gotten and still gets from the vast oil wealth, which this region holds. Therefore, it can be said that even before the Arab uprisings, the Middle East was not what one would consider a place where democracy could flourish. It is a fact that the Arab Spring has dangerously threatened only one ruler whose rule was funded by oil revenues, and that was Libya's Muammar al-Qaddafi. This was only achieved because of the intervention by western powers that prevented the Libyan rebels' certain defeat. It can be noted that since the nineteen seventies, the oil-producing states of the Middle East have stayed behind far less self-governing than the other states either in the same region or in other parts of the world. Oil has always been a barricade to democracy in the Middle East because the governments involved have seen no need to be accountable to their people. In the Middle East today, those leaders, whose countries have vast oil resources, normally act in response to demands for liability by donating new donations, or the reduction of taxes, and this normally works on their people, who cease to question the actions of their rulers. Therefore, it can be said that control over oil revenue has helped dictatorial governments to stay in power in various ways. The first of these is that it has provided them with an opportunity to placate the citizens by providing them with many payments with practically no taxes. Secondly, dictators who get most of their funding from the oil industries of their nations find it easier to keep their countries' finances a secret, ensuring that there are no questions concerning their wealth. Finally, oil wealth allows dictators to abundantly finance and purchase the loyalty of their armed forces, hence ensuring that these forces do not lift a finger to overthrow them and instead remain as tools to do their bidding.5 As stated, the oil wealth in some of the Middle Eastern countries has enabled the rulers to be less accountable to their people since they do not rely on them to fund the governmental activities. The same can be said of the recently democratically elected governments because it is possible that they also will not see the need for accountability. It is possible that the members of these new governments saw the Arab Spring as a means of attaining power in their respective countries, and that once the democratic fever has gone down, then they might turn out to be just the same as their predecessors, or perhaps even worse. If such a situation were to take place, then it would be extremely difficult indeed for protests to take place on the same scale as they did during the Arab Spring.6 These new governments have been a part of the opposition for a long time and they have learnt all the tactics that are used by the opposition. Therefore, if an attempt were to be made to overthrow them, in case of their being authoritarian, they would be ready and the potential opposition movement would be swiftly crashed, perhaps even without international notice. The oil wealth, which some of these governments have control over, will act as a means of their maintaining power because they will have the funding needed not only to buy out the opposition, but also to maintain the loyalty of the armed forces. In some cases, the old regimes have managed to remain in power because of the oil wealth they hold. In addition, in some cases, such as that in Bahrain, where the monarchy was almost overthrown, these repressive regimes have had the support of their more powerful allies in maintaining their grip on power. In Bahrain, the objections and government onslaughts that took place at the height of the Arab Spring have inflamed nervousness between Sunni and Shiite Muslims. The government of this state has held responsible Shiite dominated Iran for much of the conflict and called in forces from Sunni dominated Saudi Arabia, hoisting apprehensions across the whole Persian Gulf.7 In some parts of the Arab world, democracy is finally beginning to take root and all of this due to the Arab Spring. Women are, for the first time being given an opportunity to participate not only in the economic, but also in the political life of certain states. The exclusion of women from any kind of public life has been a tradition in the Middle East and this has continued to the present day. This exclusion, although not originally a part of Middle Eastern culture came about after the death of the Prophet Muhammad when men started becoming dominant in public affairs and pushed women to the background. Instead of there being a balance between the influence of men and women in society, the Middle Eastern societies came to be increasingly paternalistic in nature. The exclusion of women has now become so embedded in a culture that it is difficult for people, especially those who are conservative, to even consider allowing women to work outside the home.8 However, this view is beginning to change as over the past few years, women have been advocating not only for their right to work but also for their right for getting involved in public life. In fact, since the beginning of the Arab Spring, women have increasingly become vocal and their confidence has been encouraged by the successes of this movement, which are making governments, even the very conservative ones, listen to their demands and take action to make sure that these demands have been fulfilled.9 Many women in the Middle East, and most especially in Saudi Arabia, have had a very good education and in fact, their literacy rate in the country is very high (Hamdan). A large number of these women have gone through tertiary education and many hold university degrees in diverse subjects and fields. However, most of them do not have jobs because these jobs are either male dominated, or because their societies are very critical of the idea that women can work.10The conservative view towards women’s right to education and work is now being pushed aside as more women are taking the initiative not only to have an education, but to find work for themselves. Even conservative governments such as the one in Saudi Arabia are now recognizing that women can no longer be denied their rights and these are now taking tentative steps towards the easing of women into public life. Recruitment agencies whose aim is to help women to find work have now started coming up in the Middle East and these are said to be having a very high degree of success as more women are getting into the job market. Women are now getting more confident in their ability to assert themselves in society and this trend is most likely to grow as more and more women become active in public life.11 The involvement of women in the public life of some Arab states is promising because it is a sign of hope for the new democratic systems that have recently developed. It is possible that the regimes in power today will no longer attempt to keep women in the background because many of them have come to be exposed to the democratic ideals of the Arab Spring. An attempt to do so will likely bring about protests at a scale similar to the ones held during the Arab Spring, which may also result in the toppling of the governments, which are in power. While women have come to be allowed democratic space for the first time in the Middle East, it is still too early to decipher whether this progress is going to last. The election of Islamist parties into political power in \Tunisia, Egypt and Libya has raised some concern in the international community of the possibility that they might not carry through with the reforms that were the main cause for the revolutions in these countries.12 The main reason for this is that despite being in the opposition for a long time, many of these parties did very little to fight for democracy. Some analysts view these parties as opportunists which hijacked the legitimate political movement of the Arab people as a means of coming to power. It is a fact that since they were elected, these new governments have done little to promote democracy despite claiming to be doing so. The youth and other leaders of the Arab Spring have been left out in the cold, their ideas for true democracy having been put under the carpet. It has become the new reality that the Islamist parties that have recently acquired power have become drunk with it. Therefore, instead of working towards reforms they are working towards securing their own power and that of their allies. This has created a situation where the move towards democracy has come to a standstill, with the new government’s borrowing tactics from their predecessors to keep the population at ease while they remain secure in their power.13 In conclusion, the Arab Spring has brought many changes to the Arab world, most of which are positive especially in the political arena. Most of the countries formerly ruled by autocratic regimes have in the recent months had their first legitimate elections in decades and the majority of them have brought Islamist parties to power. Furthermore, those Arab governments which are afraid of what happened to their neighbors happening to them have started to allow more democratic space in their countries because they would otherwise lose their legitimacy. It is hoped that the Islamist parties which are currently coming to power in the wake of the Arab Spring will be more democratic than their predecessors will. Those autocratic regimes that are still in power, such as Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, have been provided with an opportunity to start making political reforms within their states before and event far worse than the Arab Spring takes place. There should be a realization, among these regimes that the Arab people can no longer tolerate being under authoritarian rule and that the best way for the current regimes to survive would be through the opening up of the democratic space. References "As Arab Spring Turns Violent, Democracy Advocates Face Big Challenges." (2011). Wall Street Journal (Online): n/a. Los Angeles Times; National Newspapers Core; The Wall Street Journal. Ben-Meir, A. (2012). "In all Or in Part: A Look at the Unique States in the Arab Spring and their Collective Future." The Whitehead Journal of Diplomacy and International Relations 13.1: 105-16.  Ebadi, S. (2012). "A Warning for Women of the Arab Spring." Wall Street Journal: A.13. Los Angeles Times; National Newspapers Core; The Wall Street Journal. Gerecht, R.M. (2012). "The Islamist Road to Democracy." Wall Street Journal: A.15. Apr 23 Los Angeles Times; National Newspapers Core; The Wall Street Journal. Web. 27 Jan. 2013. Jones, P. (2012). "The Arab Spring." International Journal 67.2: 447-63.  Krauthammer, C. (2012). "Arab Spring Yields to Long Islamist Rule." The HeraldJul 13. Washington State Newsstand; Western Newsstand. Mansour, I. (2012). "The Seasonal Effects of an Arab Spring." Open Democracy. Phillips, James. (2012). "Egypt's Arab Spring of 2011 Descends into an Unsettled Islamist Winter of 2012." Human Events: 19. Ross, M.L. (2011). "Will Oil Drown the Arab Spring? Democracy and the Resource Curse." Foreign Affairs 90.5: 2-7. “Saudi Arabia Profile.” (2012). BBC News. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-14702705?print=true Hamdan, S. (2012). Saudi Arabia Signals Openness to Women Seeking Work. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/06/world/middleeast/saudi-arabia-signals-openness-to-women-seeking-work.html?pagewanted=all&_r=1& Read More