ENGL 131
Arabic Spring
The topic of Arab Spring matters a lot in today’s world as it changed the course of Arab world in a short span of time. The Arab Spring started in December 2010 and engulfed the entire Arab world in very short span of time. It overthrew the long established monarchies and dictatorship through public protests and demonstrations ably helped by the social media. Lauri Laker highlights in his article “Arab Spring and Social Media Technology” that the two main actors of the Arab spring, the Arab youth and social media, both worked in coordination against the corruption and poverty prevailing in Arab society (Lauri 2). Egypt is one of the many Arab countries where the revolution overthrew the long established dictatorships of Hosni Mubarak in a record short time of just eighteen days. The paper restricts the scope to the revolution in Egypt that had the special impact on Egypt in particular and the Arab world in general.
The liminality; our conscious awareness helps us to understand the real face of ongoing events in Egypt. If one has the conscious to feel the things; right or wrong, only then he can feel the bad things happenings with himself and people around him. If we become liminal, we can understand the pain, Egyptians underwent during Hosni Mubarak regime. The events in Tunisia as highlighted by Lauri Laker, inspired people of Egypt to come on the streets and protest against the regime of Hosni Mubarak. The conscious of Egyptian people that was down under the fear of Hosni Mubarak for decades became liminal, and they rose against the regime of Hosni Mubarak. Egyptians gathered on their national holiday, the Police Day on 25 January 2011, to protest against the thirty years old dictator regime of Hosni Mubarak. The protests continued until in the face of “Friday of Departure” demonstrations Hosni Mubarak was forced to resign on 11 February, 2011. The result came out in a matter of just eighteen days. National Democratic Party was removed from power that ended the 30 years of dictatorial rule of Hosni Mubarak. Supreme Council of Armed Forces took over the reign of the country, disbanded the parliament and suspended the constitution of the country (Korany and Rabab 14). On 12 February, 2011, thousands of Egyptian gathered in Tahrir Square to celebrate the ouster of Hosni Mubarak on a clear sunny Saturday and promised for a new Egypt.
Corruption was one factor that motivated people of Egypt to move towards transition and come out on the street and protest against the regime of Hosni Mubarak. Corruption. People were well aware of the corruption done by the Hosni Mubarak aides and other top government officials but did not have the courage earlier to come out and protest against the same. However, as they became liminal, their fear of Hosni Mubarak faded away, and they came out on the streets to protest. Allegations of systematic torture of people by the government and support provided by the social media made the revolution quick and successful. Initiated as small street protests, soon there developed into a revolutionary movement at national level. In the start, protests were held only in the major cities like Cairo and Alexandria, however, later, people from all over the country gathered in the central Tahrir Square of Cairo. Few also fought street battles with Mubarak’s troops. Mubarak’s forces countered the protests fiercely, but Egyptians had overcome the fear of dictatorship and they kept fighting in Tahrir Square and the streets of different cities of Egypt.
Poverty was another factor that moved people toward transition. People had been suffering from poverty for decades under the rule of Hosni Mubarak but did not have the conscious awareness that they can voice against their poor condition. They day they got the awareness through social media; they came out to agitate against the governments failures to improve their living standards.
Demography played a major role in the Egyptian revolution. An ideal demography gives cohesion and unity to the society and the country. There was a volatile amalgam of energized youth, urbanization of educated people and availability of university level of education to the people. There were numbers of people with university degrees but no job. Jobs available in the country was only sufficient for about twenty-five percent of graduates, and remaining remained jobless. The demographic structure motivated the people of Egypt to move towards the transition.
Role of social media remained very crucial in entering the Egyptian in the liminality. Media played a major role throughout the revolution period and even in the post revolution period. Protestors coordinated their demonstrations and next day’s events through FaceBook and Twitter. Social media provided the inner stories with images of the revolution to the outer world. Social media awakened the Egyptian youth, and it was the youth that spearheaded the protests throughout the country and gave a standoff in Tahrir Square. The social media revealed that most of the demonstrators were not part of any organized activist group, and they were common people in small groups throughout Egypt. Some of the protestors were part of organized groups, and they played their role at critical moments of the revolution. It was a male dominated revolution and only men could be seen on the TV. Participation by the women was estimated to be 10-15% that is an adequate representation of the gender in view of Egypt’s historical standards (BBC News World1). On 27 January, governments ordered the shutdown of internet and mobile services that made no difference to the protestors and protests continued. Army then decided not to react and open fire on protestors. Bahgat Korany and Rabab El-Mahdi in their book “Arab Spring in Egypt: Revolution and Beyond” highlight that Hosni Mubarak made few concessions and promises to the people of Egypt from a weaker position. Appointment of intelligence chief Omar Suleiman as Vice President, promise of not again running for the Presidency after the end of the term, did not appeal the people of Egypt. It was amassing of huge numbers of people on the streets that gave the protestors a degree of immunity from the action by the Army and other Law enforcement agencies.
Events in Tunisia incited the people in Egypt and gave them the motivation to move on with the struggle against the decades old dictatorship. The incident of the self-immolation of Muhammad Bouazizi, a street vendor in Tunisia, caused a domino effect in Egypt and rest of the Arab world. It was a new type of urban and social media driven insurgency that outmaneuvered the security forces. Protestors also used humor as a weapon and displayed different placards and posters showing the incompetency and corruption of Hosni Mubarak regime.
An analysis of the Egyptian revolution reveals that revolution in Egypt was not the result of only two factors of poverty and corruption. There are people who call it a social media revolution and few term it as a revolution caused by high prices of food. Human rights groups claim the abuse of human rights a reason for this revolution. In the nutshell, there have been varying drivers of change in making the Egyptian revolution a quick success. However, the major cause of the revolution seems to be the prolonged tenure of Hosni Mubarak and denial of support by the Army to the brutal operations by Hosni Mubarak. The different other factors that undermined the legitimacy of Egyptian government included absence of institutions that influence the bureaucracy, institutions that illustrate the political behavior through rewards and punishments, procedure for culpability of politician and institutions.
An analysis of post revolution period does not give a pleasant view of the Egypt. Egypt seems to be more repressive today as it was at the time of Hosni Mubarak. Muslim Brotherhood was considered to be moral and patriotic group. Egyptians took a sigh of relief after the election of first democratically elected president Mr. Morsi from Muslim Brotherhood but their dream of democracy turned into a nightmare. A different game started and framing war began. America and West backed so-called pro-democracy activists gathered in Tahrir Square; this time with the aim of removing the first democratically elected Egyptian President. In order to establish the writ of the government and remove protestors from Tahrir Square, government used force and held many foreign generalists suspected to be behind the conspiracy against the government. West and America got the reason to move forward with their plan of removing Morsi from the Presidency. President Morsi was removed and the state of emergency was imposed with military taking over the control of the country (Raheem 2). Judiciary got politicized and awarded death sentence to 1200 members of Muslim Brotherhood including their leader Mohamed Badie. Government declared Muslim Brotherhood as the terrorist organization. Criminal trial of a democratically elected President goes on under a biased and politicized judiciary. Army leader is planning to contest the election of next President and has recently removed his uniform so as to be eligible for the election.
The new democracy under the military rule is the democracy with no trust, no care, no love, no freedom and no opposition. People of Egypt now miss the era of Hosni Mubarak. The people of Egypt regret the revolution when they see military back in power. Election of ex-Army chief as the new President of Egypt is a joke to so called democracy in Egypt. United States and West support to the process is also disturbing and questionable. But there are few Egyptians who are still hopeful for the real democracy in their country, and they are not ready to give up. The struggle for democracy continues.
Works Cited
Lauri Laker. Arab Spring and Social Media Technology. 2013. Web. 22 May. 2014.
Korany, Bahgat, and Rabab El-Mahdi. Arab Spring in Egypt: Revolution and Beyond. American University in Cairo. Web. 22 May. 2014.
BBC News World. Arab Uprising: Country by country- Egypt. 2014. Web. 22 May. 2014.
Raheem, Ahmed Abdel. The Arab Spring Chokes in Egypt.2014. Web. 22 May. 2014.
