What is Arab spring? Arab Spring refers to the democratic uprisings that arose independently and spread across the Arab world in 2011. The movement originated in Tunisia in December 2010 and quickly took hold in Egypt, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan.
Why Arabs rose up? This is because they had similar demands like unemployment, they needed freedom of speech, better education, political stability .They also wanted to be participants in democracy and active learning of the country and not just spectators. They also needed justice and to get rid of corruption. For example in Egypt, people wanted to get rid of the regime of Hosni Mubarak who had ruled them for almost 30 years.They needed ” Change”. The protests began in Cairo, Egypt and spread throughout the country.
The Mubarak government tried to crush protest with armed forces and plain-clothed supporters and when those tactics failed, protests in Egypt portrayed more than political will. On February 11, 2011, Hosni Mubarak resigned his presidency and handed power to the army In Libya, people wanted to remove Col. Muammar Gaddafi, The uprising in Libya instantly became violent when the Libyan government reacted harshly towards peaceful protests. The government’s forces also opened fire on people attending a funeral for those killed in the protests.
The move to attack civilians has cost Gaddafi many of his close advisors and military. Yemen wanted to get rid of Ali Abdullah Saleh. President Ali Abdullah Saleh was “accused by many Yemenis of pushing the country toward civil war by clinging to power despite massive protests, the defection to the opposition of key tribal and military allies, and mounting international pressure to step down. In Tunisia they wanted to get rid of Zine el- Abidine Ben Ali and same as in other parts like Bahrain, Jordan.
Syria. Protests in Syria, though on a small scale, faced harsh retaliations from the government. On March 18, three people were killed in what was referred to as “the most serious unrest to take place in Syria for decades” and then on March 25, a group of 100,000 protesters took to the streets of Daraa. The protesters are calling for freedom, human rights and the end to the emergency law. In efforts to calm protesters, President of Syria Bashar al- Assad dissolved the government in Daraa, where the protests originated. Al-Assad is looking to replace the emergency law with a new anti-terrorism law. As of September 21st, 2012 the situation in Syria has escalated into an ongoing civil war that has claimed over 29,000 lives and has left over one million displaced.
Well I personally can learn that Middle East society is organized differently in clan and tribal structures – and adherence to a particular brand of Islam – are often seen as much more important than ‘the Government’ which is in most Middle East countries seen as a sort of enemy to the people anyway.
So very often it is a matter of particular clans and tribes – as in Libya and Syria – thinking it is time that they now get their turn lording it over the other tribes instead of the other way around.
Moreover, all kinds of non-local jihadists, as now in Syria, see unrest as a great opportunity to side with and then take over the opposition and the fighting. So chances are that the ‘evil’ presently in power might be replaced by forces that could be much more oppressive to their citizens and much more fundamentalist and anti-Western in their attitude. In the end we want want and wish our brothers and sister in Syria better life and to rebuild their own freedom and peace.
DEMOCRACY. I define democracy as: «Government of the people, by the people, for the people». Democracy is by far the most challenging form of government – both for politicians and for the people. The term democracy comes from the Greek language and means “rule by the (simple) people”. The so-called “democracies” in classical antiquity (Athens and Rome) represent precursors of modern democracies. Like modern democracy, they were created as a reaction to a concentration and abuse of power by the rulers. Yet the theory of modern democracy was not formulated until the Age of Enlightenment (17th/18th centuries), when philosophers defined the essential elements of democracy: separation of powers, basic civil rights / human rights, religious liberty and separation of church and state.
Democracy is also a form of organization of power, governing, command, or decision making in which decisions are made by popular vote. Some people would say democracy is a form of government only, but it can also be viewed as a type of organizational structure, because democracy does not just occur in strictly human systems. It is also to a degree decentralized because power lies in the hands of a large number of individuals. Democracy can be the best form of governance if all the loopholes it has currently are overcome/fought. Because currently its full of dictatorship, corruption, no freedom is not given to people, yet they are the voice. It’s a government of the people, by the people, and for the people.
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