After Yemen, Jordan, Tunisia, it's Egypt which is on fire now. People are protesting strongly at Liberation square demanding the ouster of their President. However, President of Egypt Mr. Hosni Mubarak has refused to step down stating -"I am fed up, but if I quit now there'll be chaos". Obliquely, he wanted to suggest that Egyptians have only left with two choices, either Mubarak or an unbearable chaos.Democracy is not even considered as an option by him. He fears that the conservative Islamic Muslim Brotherhood may take over the country in case he gives in.
On January 14, 2011, Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was ousted after series of demonstrations and riots by the people of Tunisia those were started over unemployment , food inflation, corruption , freedom of speech and poor living conditions in December last year. The protests on such legitimate issues are spreading across the Arab world. People are raising their voices against their authoritarian rulers and the rage is obvious.
The Arabs are the world's most injured civilization. They don't have leaders whom they can look up to. The EIU Democracy Index 2010 shows that out of 20 Arab countries, 16 are authoritarian. Apart from those 16, Iraq and Jordan are extremely chaotic and are flooded with corruption. Countries like Sudan, Egypt , Jordan and Syria are among the poorest. Even if economic reforms happened, they only upgraded the elite ones and led to an authoritarian rule. Sorbonne's Burhan Ghalioun, a great scholar defines these rulers as ' corrupt elites backed by Western countries'. Such a dictatorial regime, though a distorted one was supported by West to control Islamic militancy which is actually its own baby. The Bush administration's policy of 'Democracy by invasion' after 9/11 has further accentuated the anger of the people and they don't want themselves to be mere puppets in the hand of US.
In the middle of all this, the people of Egypt have preferred to revolt without militancy which should be appreciated. People are defying curfews, not willing to be fooled by their rulers, determined to their cause. Even Egyptian Army is neutral and not taking action against the protesters.The power of unity among citizens have done what the years of militancy had been unable to achieve.The slogan powered by Islamic Muslim Brotherhood- " Islam is the solution" is replaced with " Tunisia is the solution" by demonstrations at Tahrir (Liberation) Square. Egyptians have valid reasons to revolt.
The world can't afford the Arabs to struggle for Democracy. Half of the 350 million of total Arab population is under 30 and economically underdeveloped. They have extensive fossil fuel reservoirs but their politics have kept them at the back foot. India has diplomatically supported the Egyptians in hushed voice. It's required that
pro-democratic voice should not be too low that it can't be heard. The people of Egypt are looking at secularism rather than extremism.They want democracy rather than conservative Islamism. Their revolution is driven by faith but is not governed by it. They are giving a chance to democracy, it's time for the world to give them a chance to achieve it.
Penned by-
Anubha Shukla.
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