Down with Dictators

Volume 2, Issue 16, February 4-10, 2011

International Tribune

Ten years in power is a lot.  Twenty years in power is scary.  Thirty years in power, well, good luck!  Dictators of the Arab world, beware.   People’s power is back and with a complete vengeance.

Believe it or not, dictators still roam the world today.  There are a few in the cold and barren terrains of East and Central Asia.   But the most ferocious and power-hungry types can be found in the warmest region of the world, such as the Middle East and Africa.  They reign supremely in lands with untold wealth and resources.  They remain to be the undisputed inhabitants of their kingdom.  But today, things are changing.  From Tunisia to Egypt, Yemen to Jordan, there are massive protests taking place to get rid of their long-entrenched and often greedy leaders.   The political landscape in the Middle East is being uprooted.  In today’s age of information technology and with the help of social media outlets to fuel protests, one by one, they are becoming extinct. 


  

Within this week, the presidents of Yemen and Egypt, made official announcements that they will no longer run for reelections after witnessing the ouster of President Ben Ali of Tunisia (in power for 23 years).   Feared by the angry protesters in the streets of their nations’ capitals calling for their immediate resignation, they tried to quell the lingering anger of their citizens with such decisions.  President Hosni Mubarak (in power for 30 years) of Egypt is in deep trouble.  Hundreds of thousands of protestors are packing Cairo’s Tahrir Square waiting for him to step down.  In Yemen, President Ali Abdullah Saleh (in power for 32 years) even promised that his son would not seek to be his successor in 2013.  Their influence and credibility are dithering.  These proclamations will not suffice, not today, and certainly, not tomorrow.   They are seen as empty promises and their motives are questionable.  Nobody wants to endure another day with the same leader.  

Citizens of the Arab world are calling for a change.  This is an opportune moment in Middle Eastern history where representative governments can flourish and democracy given a chance.  This is an unprecedented event which even pundits of Middle Eastern affairs could not have predicted.  It is a class struggle, a discontent being manifested by a growing middle class who wants to live a stable and prosperous life. There is also another lesson from this crisis, Europe and the United States should stand together and vigorously support a framework of shared values and hopes, not merely a prism of geostrategy in the region.  The world - not only the Middle East and Africa - will be much better off if these rapacious leaders shall have finally gone from power.