President Mubarrak has gone the way most dictators have gone over the years- unwept, unsung and unmourned. He could have managed a dignified exit had he read the pulse of the nation he has ruled for 30-long years. The three-week long protests — peaceful and resilient despite numerous efforts to suppress them- gave him enough opportunity to mend his ways though it was a little too late in the day. Instead, he tried to cling pathetically. In his failure, there is a lesson to his contemporaries in West Asia and Africa, who have already been put on notice by the Jasmine Revolution in Tunisia.
Most Muslim countries are rocked by varying degrees of rumblings of anger and discontent with the disparity between the ruling oligarchs and the ruled showing no sign of being bridged. It is this disparity and the tendency of the rulers –Kings, emirs, military dictators and their sons to rule these countries as their personal fiefdoms and inheritance that makes the region a volcano.
There is a message to the West from the farewell to the 82-year –old former air force commander, who filled the vacancy caused by the assassination of Anwar Sadat, who was one of the architects of Camp David peace accord. And it is that it is not enough to pop up regimes which appear to suit their geo-political and strategic interests; it is also not enough to force such regimes to adopt economic reforms as a panacea to end backwardness. Their clout must be used to make regimes sensitive to people’s concerns and aspirations. Economic reforms should bring direct and tangible benefits to the people suffering from poverty, unemployment and rising prices and should not end up in only opening the markets for western goods. Unfortunately, this is not the case as the events in Egypt show. It is time the West gives up its natural tendency to give primacy to stability over democratic ideals
What happened in Tunisia first and in Egypt now shatters the myth that democracy is unsuitable for Muslim countries because of very high level of illiteracy and the stranglehold of religion. India story has already demonstrated that illiteracy, superstition and all that goes with them are no hindrance for democracy to survive whatever be the odds. Democracy and parliamentary system where the leaders are accountable to the people offer enough checks and balances. That is why India needs no Tahrir (Liberation) Square. It has its very own protest area at Jantar Mantar, a Mughal era sun dial, off Parliament Street in the heart of capital, Delhi, which comes alive particularly when parliament is in session. As people’s voice is heard and their despair is heeded making Indian democracy work despite flaws, and giving immunity to social and political upheavals common to the Third World.
As Shada Islam, Dawn’s correspondent in Brussels notes (‘Inspiration from the East’, Dawn, Feb 12), Hosni Mubarak’s attitude is reminiscent of the swan songs sung by other embattled dictators, including Pervez Musharraf. The former Pakistan strongman, who is now likely to be put on trial in the Benazir assassination case, used to claim that Pakistanis were congenitally unprepared to embrace democracy. Like him, both Mubarak and his deputy, Omar Suleiman had warned that the Egyptian people were “not ready for democracy.” Mercifully they did not, like Musharraf, try to offer an ‘enlightened’ democracy of their vision. May be it was a day too late for them to do so. But the point is the generals and commanders believed in the past and in the present too that they alone are clever enough, intelligent enough and able enough to lead their countries till the Last Post was sounded.
The Egyptian military appears to be far more popular among the people than the Mubarak government. This is surprising because both the deposed president and many of his top aides had military background. Also surprising is the way the military sent its signals of support for the people’s demands, repeated visits to Tahrir Square by top generals, and its decision not to forcibly suppress the protests. Yes, the army delayed the announcement of formal exit of Mubarak but it is understandable as it wanted a safe landing to the former supreme commander in the salubrious surroundings of Sharm el-Sheikh before the transition plan was made public. It has already announced that the 30-year-old state of emergency would be lifted “as soon as current circumstances end”.
Undoubtedly, Egypt’s military is one of the strongest in the Arab world. As events in Cairo showed, the military remained relatively impartial between the regime and the protestors. Now it must show the same impartiality by holding elections within the promised period and handing over the reins of the country to a democratic government.
