Reform: Where does it begin?

الثلاثاء ٠٧ - مايو - ٢٠٢٤ ٠٦:٤٩ مساءً

اضيف الخبر في يوم الإثنين ٢٣ - يناير - ٢٠١٢ ١٢:٠٠ صباحاً.

Salam al-Kawakibi*

Very few events are celebrated before they are complete. However, in light of the continuous and deep-seated Arab disappointments since the Twelfth Century AD, the people of this region, both Arabs and non-Arabs, have the right to hold onto this small glimmer of light and celebrate it despite the shortcomings and setbacks, and regardless whether it is impeded or forging ahead towards a promising future.

The Arab reform process is therefore happily celebrating the first anniversary of the process of change in Tunisia that saw the Tunisian people rid themselves of dictatorship without any outside assistance, and embark on a process to build the future, fully prepared to take on any obstacles, setbacks or delays.

What is important in all of this is the fact that the Tunisian people, both men and women, have come to realize more than ever before that not only do they have a voice, but a voice that is loud, clear and effective. The position taken by the Tunisian Army had a decisive role in this respect. Moreover, several post-revolutionary factors, embodied by the High Council for the Protection of the Revolution’s Objectives, the Independent Electoral Commission and a media so free that it risked going out of hand, were exceedingly healthy phenomena. They revealed a deep awareness among the Tunisian people that, despite certain shortcomings, they were capable of steering the ship of state towards democracy, justice and a citizenship state.

It is, however, essential at this stage of the democratic transition to use every potential to raise awareness and build knowledge regarding the right practices likely to ensure the country’s transition towards democracy. There should be no room in it for those who pin the blame on others in order to exonerate themselves or those who, having emerged recently on the political scene, seek revenge against those who were less fortunate at this particular juncture.

In Egypt, the young revolutionaries ignited the spark of change and transcended the traditional political mindsets of the opposition, in all its shapes and forms. They made it clear to the Egyptian Army that instability and continued protests will erode its real power and take it down a blind alley, despite being represented by President Mubarak, meaning that it had to intervene in favor of the revolution and that the President, his family and his coterie would have to go. This broke the barrier of fear, and helped the Egyptian people get rid of various taboos, and begin liberating their memory from the nightmares of the past.

However, some conservative political groups saw in this an opportunity to highjack the process of change and, instead of jumping on the last wagon of the train as befits their role in the revolution, they used their vast financial and organizational resources to jump on the first wagon, even take the main engine over. Despite that, by moving deliberately and consciously, the Egyptian people proved their ability to continue riding the waves of change, with all their storms and predatory sharks, and forge ahead towards its objective of cooperation and solidarity among various political trends, leaving no one by the wayside.

The hope was that the military would go back to its barracks after earning the people’s appreciation for their role in the revolution, thus sparing the Egyptian people having to repeat one day what a Yemeni friend had once told me: “Dear God, why did you send us the military? They stole the stars from the night sky (the dream) and put them on their shoulders in the morning (tyranny)".

As for the people of Syria and Yemen, as well as others throughout the Arab region, they watch and wait with hope as events unfold in Egypt and Tunisia, eager to learn how to plan for tomorrow, a tomorrow bound to dawn sooner, or later, thanks to the iron will of the people. The tomorrow they seek would be free of interventions, whether real or imagined, and free of the plots that only exist in the minds of those who conjure them up, those whose narrow minds cannot fathom the thought that ordinary people are capable of making change happen. In doing so, they are simply adopting the distorted Orientalist view, in its worst connotation, a view that divides the region’s people into categories in their capacity as beings whose destiny is not in their hands, a people incapable of making demands or effecting change.

*Research Director at the Arab Reform Initiative (ARI)

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