The Phenomenon of Arab Spring - Essay Example

 Arab Spring Towards the end of 2010 and the beginning of the 2011, a series or strings of protests and demonstrations originated in the Arab world. These series of protests later become known as the "Arab Spring". The world particularly the West watched as pro-democracy protesters rose across the Middle East and North Africa, and massive deaths reported. The Arab Spring of 2011 is commonly viewed today as one of the famous historical moments of political revolutions. However, the causes of the revolt have been a subject of considerable debate. Comparisons have been made to the then the post–cold war democratic transformation in Eastern Europe or European revolutions of 1848 while many have spoken of a probable “fourth wave” of democratization. The long-term political, economic and social ramifications of these revolutions in Middle East and North Africa remain to be seen. However, the debate that has been lingering in the minds of many researchers, political scientists, and various scholars has been what could have caused these series of uprising. Various reasons given are all but based on individuals or groups opinion. There are those who blame the governments and the unfavorable macroeconomic policies, and there are those who blame it on the rowdy youths and contagion effects. In this essay, the goal is to convince the readers on what could have resulted in such an historical revolution based on four arguments: Authoritarian governments, youth bulge, economic conditions and brutality by security forces over the years (Panara et al,37). One of the obvious the arguments that could have cause the Arab Spring is the citizens’ anger with the old and dictatorial government regimes. Those who argue on these bases claim that Middle East and North Africa world has a long history of scuffle for political change, from leftist factions to Islamist radicals. But the Arab Spring that started in 2011 could never have evolved if things were better then. The revolution could have not turned into a mass phenomenon that has produced about quarter a million loss of lives and millions of refugees had it not been for the widespread dissatisfaction with a dictatorial regime(Haas et al, 56). The argument can be advanced by the fact that the economic crisis which was one of the causes of the uprising could have stabilized over time under a credible and competent government, but by late 20th century most Arab dictatorships led by Muammar al-Qaddafi, Hosni Mubarak, Ben Ali were utterly bankrupt both morally and ideologically. When the Arab Spring occurred in 2011, Muammar al-Qaddafi had been in power in Libya for 42 years, Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak had been in power for 1980 while Tunisia’s Ben Ali from 1987. Furthermore, the leaders did not upload any human right that continuously angered the citizens for years basing on the way they even took power in the first place. For instance, Al-Kaddafi and Hosni Mubarak who were some of the oldest leaders in the world prior to the Arab Spring ruled through dictatorship. Indeed, the problem is never with the period of leading the country, but leaders did not give the opportunity to the young generation of citizens to improve not only themselves but their countries as well(Haas et al, 44). In addition, freedom of speech never existed in any Arab of countries during this era, and the proof of this feature was the continuous harassment case to which many Arab journalists were exposed to. All these scenarios and conditions in Middle East and North Africa can support the reason Arab Spring could have resulted. Arab Spring is far and wide believed to have been instigated by discontent by the government of the day particularly by youth. Unknown Arab regimes, they were for decades sitting on a demographic time. According to the UNDP, between 1975 and 2005 Arab countries’ population more than doubled reaching 314 million. In Egypt, for instance, 60 % of the population is under 30. The youths then for a while monitored the happenings in their countries and the existing future lack of opportunities. Prior to the Arab Spring, the sources driving youth dissatisfaction in the Arab region were multifaceted. They ranged from frustration with economic conditions, to a lack of a sense of efficacy in general, to opposition to the then political status quo (Dabashi, 171). It can be argued that the youths felt they had no place in the current economic structure, and their future was bleak at the same time adding to their frustration. Furthermore, political and economic development in many Arab nations simply could maintain the staggering increase in the human population, as the ruling elites’ incompetence assisted in laying the dangerous seeds for their demise. In other words, the youth populations in the Middle East and Northern Africa felt less at ease with the status quo compared to their older counterparts. Another catalyst for the revolution witnessed in all Northern African and Persian Gulf nations was Unemployment. Increasing rates of unemployment over the past two decades prior to the Arab Spring had led to frustration among the people, especially among university graduates who were for years seeking unemployment but in vain. Frustration among unemployed population spilled out into major streets at the beginning of 2011, leading to revolutions against the then political regimes in Syria, Egypt, Yemen and Tunisia. Civil disorder and strikes exacerbated the situation and lowered the prospects for any rapid economic recovery. The unemployment crisis witnessed was being accelerated by low capital flows and the sharp decline in Arab nations’ exports, as an outcome of the slowdown in investment and persistent growth in the economies of the Arab region’s principal trading partners. According to International Labor Organization (ILO), in the year 2010 Twenty-four percent of youths in the region who were to be in the labor market were not able to find jobs(Dabashi, 99). This percentage of young unemployment was very high, and the Arab nations in the region had not been able to change this situation in their countries and create new jobs, particularly after the world financial crises. This was as a result of persistent poor macroeconomic policies by the dictatorial regimes. Besides, the Arab nations did not provide good employment opportunities to their graduates due to corruption, which caused a weak economy and poor investment. Besides, Arab nations didn’t have a good infrastructure in, health, education and lived conditions despite the resources they are endowed with. To conclude this point, Arab nation, in general, never distributed equally the country’s fortune and these led to poor economic and living conditions that angered both the old and the young and these can be argued to have resulted into the Arab Spring (Haseeb, 114). The fourth argument could be that these uprisings shared a similar root in repression or brutality by security forces in these Arab nations that experienced Arab Springs. The police and other security agencies for years had been brutality handling the citizens and cases of extrajudicial killings was an obvious trend. For instance in Tunisia, Bouazizi Mohamed set himself ablaze after being roughed up by security officers in another high-profile scenario of the trend. In Egypt, the death of Khalid Said at the hands of the security officers is another case in point. It can be further argued that these events and comparable ones provided the spark that prompted the revolution in the Middle East and Northern Africa. Some, however, have argued that social media played a major role in causing and making the Arab Spring a successful revolution. Those who argue on this basis note that revolutions had exhibited similarities in social media in these countries as a strategy before the revolt erupted and even during the revolution. They further argued that the activists across these uprisings used social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook to spread calls for protests in public squares. To an extent, these claims can be considered to be true as social media played a major role particularly in Egypt and Syria. However, one can fault these arguments to a larger extent. Moreover, these uprisings in both the Middle East and Northern Africa were not merely the product of short-term revolutions (Haseeb et al, 118). The key to the mass appeal of the Arab Spring was its universal message rather than the avenue used. The message is what called on the Arabs to take back their nation away from the corrupt dictators, an ideal mixture of patriotism and message of hope. Contrary to the argument that the social media was the main tool that incited the pubic, the message from the social media is what many identified with. The dissatisfaction with the dictatorial regime and other underlying factors can be argued to be the true causes of the Arab Spring. As a conclusion, the four arguments that provided: Authoritarian governments, youth bulge, economic conditions and brutality by security forces over the years are for a fact the causes that could have resulted in the deadliest revolution in recent past in these Arabic nations. Through the causes and the later impacts, many governments around the world can learn and check on their governance to combat such revolts in their countries in future particularly countries inMiddle East. Work cited Top of Form Bottom of Form Top of Form Bottom of Form Top of Form Al-jazzera. 5/2011. Web. 20th February 2012 Dabashi, Hamid. The Arab Spring: The End of Postcolonialism. London: Zed Books, 2012. Print. Haas, Mark L, and David W. Lesch. The Arab Spring: Change and Resistance in the Middle East. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2013. Print. Haseeb, Khair El‐Din. "On the Arab ‘Democratic Spring’: Lessons Derived."Contemporary Arab Affairs: 113-22. Print. Panara, Carlo, and Gary Wilson. The Arab Spring: New Patterns for Democracy and International Law. Leiden: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 2013. Print. Bottom of Form Read More