A specter is haunting
Africa and the Middle East – the specter of an awesome army of youths on the
move, in revolt, marching for freedom, chanting for democracy and dying for
human rights and human dignity. Millions of youths are standing up and demanding
dictators to stand down and leave town. They are fed up with despotism,
totalitarianism, absolutism, authoritarianism, monarchism, fascism and
terrorism. They are sick and tired of being told to wait and wait and wait as
their future fades into nothingness. They are sick and tired of being sick and
tired. Youths rose up like the morning sun to brighten the long dark night of
dictatorship in Tunisia and Egypt. They dictated to the great dictators:
“Mubarak, irhal (go away).” “Degage, Ben Ali!” (Get out,
Ben Ali!). When Mubarak refused to budge like a bloodsucking tick on a milk
cow, they brandished their shoes and cried out, “Mubarak, you are a
shoe!” (a stinging insult in Arab culture). Mubarak finally got the point.
He saw 85 million pairs of shoes pointed at his rear end. In a 30-second
announcement, the House of Mubarak dissolved into the dust bin of history.
The Beautiful Egyptian Youth Revolution
What makes the
Egyptian youth revolution so beautiful, wonderful, absorbing, hypnotizing and
inspiring is that they did it with moral courage, steadfast determination and
without resorting to violence even when violence was visited upon them by
Mubarak’s thugs. They did not fire a single shot, as Mubarak’s thugs massacred
300 of their own and jailed several thousands more. Egypt’s youths fought their
battles in the streets of Cairo, Alexandria and elsewhere, but they won their
war against dictatorship and for freedom, democracy and human rights in the
hearts and minds of their people. How they went about winning their revolution
is a testament to a people whose civilization is the cradle of human
civilization. They transformed their oppression-seared nation into a molten
steel of freedom-loving humanity: Muslims and Christians prayed together in
Tahrir Square for the end of the dark days of dictatorship and the beginning of
a new dawn of freedom. Civilians held the hands with soldiers who were sent out
to shoot them. Religious revivalists locked arms with secularists, socialists
and others to demand change. Rich and poor embraced each other in common cause.
Young and old marched together day and night; and men and women of all ages
raised their arms in defiance chanting, “Mubarak, irhal.”
Victory of Courage Over Fear
For 30 years, Mubarak
ruled with fear and an iron fist under a State of Emergency. He established a
vast network of secret police, spies, informants and honor guards to make sure
he stayed in power and his opposition decimated. Under an emergency law (Law No. 162 of 1958), Mubarak exercised
unlimited powers. He banned any real opposition political activity and
unapproved political organizations, prohibited street demonstrations, arrested
critics and dissidents and clamped down on all he thought posed a threat to his
rule. Mubarak had the power to imprison anyone for any reason, at any time and
for any period of time without trial. Some he tried in kangaroo military courts
and sentenced them to long prison terms. Mubarak held an estimated 20,000
persons under the emergency law and the number of political prisoners in Egypt
is estimated at 30,000. Mubarak’s brutal (secret) police are responsible for
the disappearance, torture, rape and killing of thousands of pro-democracy
campaigners and innocent people. Acable sent to
Washington by the US ambassador to Cairo in 2009 revealed: “Torture and
police brutality in Egypt are endemic and widespread. The police use brutal
methods mostly against common criminals to extract confessions, but also
against demonstrators, certain political prisoners and unfortunate
bystanders.” When Egyptian youth overcame their fears and stood up to the
notorious secret police, spies, informants and bloodthirsty thugs, it was all
over for Mubarak and his kleptocratic regime. In less than three weeks,
Mubarak’s empire of fear, terror and torture crumbled like an Egyptian
ghorayebah cookie left out in the Sahara sun.
These must be days of
worry and panic for African and Middle Eastern dictators. No doubt, some are in
a state of total depression having sleepless nights and nightmares when they
catch a wink. They brood over the questions: “What if IT (the
“unspeakable”) happens to me? What am I going to do? How many can I
kill to suppress an uprising and get away with it? A thousand, ten
thousand?”
African and Middle Eastern dictators who have abused their power must know that
sooner or later their turn will come. When it does, they will have only three
choices: justice before their national or international tribunals, the dustbin
of history, or if they can make it to the airport fast enough to Dictators’
“home away from home”, Saudi Arabia (at least until their turn
comes). There will be no place for them to run and hide. Let them learn from
the fates of their brothers: Al Bashir of Sudan has an arrest warrant issued by
the International Criminal Court hanging over his head. Old Charley Taylor of
Liberia is awaiting his verdict at the ICC. Hissien Habre of Chad will soon be
moving into Taylor’s cell at the ICC. A gang of Kenyan state ministers which instigated
the violence following the 2007 presidential elections should be trading their
designer suits for prison jumpsuits at the ICC in the not too distant future.
Mengistu, Ben Ali, Mubarak, Al Bashir and others will be on the lam for a while
and evade the long arm of justice. Justice may be delayed but it will always
arrive as it did a couple of days for Pervez Musharraf who has warrant out for
his arrest in connection with the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.
All dictators are
doomed to an ignominious downfall. No African dictator has ever left office
with dignity, honor, respect and the adulation of his people. They have all
left office in shame, disgrace and infamy. History shows that dictators live
out their last days like abandoned vicious dogs– lonely, godforsaken and
tormented. Such has been the destiny of Mobutu of Zaire, Bokassa of the Central
African Republic, Idi Amin of Uganda, Barre of Somalia, El-Nimery of the Sudan,
Saddam of Iraq, Pol Pot of Cambodia, Marcos of the Philippines, the Shah of
Iran, Ceausescu of Romania, Pincohet of Chile, Somoza of Nicaragua, Hoxha of
Albania, Suharto of Indonesia, Stroessner of Paraguay, Ne Win of Mynamar,
Hitler, Stalin, Mussollini and all the rest. History testifies that these names
will forever be synonymous with evil, cruelty, atrocity, depravity and
inhumanity. It is ironic that Mubarak (which in Arabic means “blessed
one”) was born to live as the blessed one; but he will forever be
remembered in Egyptian history as the “cursed one”.
The Power of Nonviolence Resistance
As Gandhi said,
“Strength does not come from physical capacity”, nor does it come
from guns, tanks and planes. “It comes from an indomitable will.”
Winston Churchill must have learned something from Gandhi when he said,
“Never give in–never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small,
large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense.
Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the
enemy.”
As odd as it seems,
violence is the weapon of the weak. To shoot and kill and maim unarmed
protesters in the streets is not a sign of strength, it is a sign of fear and
cowardice. To jail wholesale opposition leaders, journalists, critics and
dissidents is not a demonstration of control but the ultimate manifestation of
lack of control. One speaks the language of violence because one cannot speak
the language of reason. Violence is the language of the angry, the hateful, the
vengeful, the ignorant and the fearful. Dictators speak to their victims in the
language of violence because their raison d’etre (reason for existing) is to
hate and spread hate. Their very soul stirs with hatred often damaged by
childhood experiences and feelings of inferiority. Hitler and Stalin exhibited
strong hatred towards Jews from childhood, and because they felt woefullyinadequate, they did things to try and show everybody
that they have power. Violence never resolves the issues that triggered the
violence; and as Gandhi said, “An eye for an eye makes the whole world
blind.” Dr. Martn Luther King explained it further: “The ultimate
weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very
thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it.
Returning hate for hate multiplies hate…” To reciprocate in violence is
to become one with the perpetrators of violence. “Darkness cannot drive
out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can
do that.”
But the nonviolent
resistor is strong, very strong. S/he is willing to sit down and reason with
the one brutalizing her/him. Gandhi, Martin King, Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu,
Vaclav Havel, Lech Walesa, Rosa Parks and many others have proven to be
stronger than those whose heartbeats stroked to the metronome of hate. Gandhi
drove the British colonialists out of India without firing a single shot. They
mocked him as the “little lawyer in a diaper.” In the end, the
British saluted the Indian flag and left. More recently, Eastern Europe shed
its totalitarian burden through nonviolent resistance. Now we have seen it
happen in Tunisia and Egypt.
But there are some
who believe that nonviolent resistance will not work in the face of a morally
depraved, conscienceless and barbaric adversary who will mow down in cold blood
children, men and women. Others say nonviolence resistance takes too long to
produce results. Such views have been articulated since the time of Gandhi, but
the historical evidence refutes them. As we have recently seen in Tunisia and
Egypt, two of the most brutal and entrenched dictatorships in the world
unraveled in less than a month through nonviolent resistance.
As to a long-term
nonviolent struggle, there are many instructive experiences. Let’s take Poland
as an example. In 1981, the Soviets put General Wojciech Jaruzelski in charge
to crackdown on Solidarity, a non-communist controlled trade union established
a year earlier. Jaruzelski immediately declared martial law and arrested
thousands of Solidarity members, often in in the middle of the night, including
union leader Lech Walesa. Jaruzelski flooded the streets of Warsaw, Gdansk and
elsewhere in Poland with police who shot, beat and jailed strikers and
protesters by the tens of thousands. By the beginning of 1982, the crackdown
seemed successful and most of Solidarity top leaders were behind bars. But
Jaruzelski’s campaign of violence and repression did not end the nonviolent
resistance in Poland. It only drove it underground. Where the jailed union
leaders left off, others took over including priests, students, dissidents and
journalists. Unable to meet in the streets, the people gathered in their
churches, in the restaurants and bars, offices, schools and associations. A
proliferation of underground institutions emerged including Solidarity Radio;
hundreds of underground publications served as the medium of communication for
the people. Solidarity leaders who had evaded arrest managed to generate huge
international support. The U.S. and other countries imposed sanctions on
Poland, which inflicted significant hardship on Jaruzelski’s government. By
1988, Poland’s economy was in shambles as prices for basic staples rose sharply
and inflation soared. In August of that year, Jaruzelski was ready to negotiate
with Solidarity and met Walesa. Following the “Polish Roundtable
Talks”, communism was doomed in Poland. In December 1990, Lech Walesa
became the first popularly elected president of Poland. It took nearly a decade
to complete the Polish nonviolent revolution. History shows that nonviolent
change seems impossible to many until people act to bring it about. Who would
have thought two months ago that two of the world’s worst dictators would be
toppled and consigned to the dust bin of history in a nonviolent struggle by
youths?
The wretched conditions of Ethiopia’s
youth point to the fact that they are a ticking demographic time bomb. The
evidence of youth frustration, discontent, disillusionment and discouragement
by the protracted economic crisis, lack of economic opportunities and political
repression is manifest, overwhelming and irrefutable. The yearning of youth for
freedom and change is self-evident. The only question is whether the country’s
youth will seek change through increased militancy or by other peaceful means.
Youths always inspire
each other. Ethiopia’s youths seek the same things as their Tunisian and
Egyptian counterparts: a livelihood, adequate food, decent housing and
education and basic health care. They want free access to information – radio,
newspaper, magazines, satellite and internet — as they are absolutely and unconditionally
guaranteed in their constitution. Above all, they want to live in a society
that upholds the rule of law, protects human rights and respects the votes of
the people. They do not want corruption, nepotism, cronyism, criminality and
inhumanity. That is not too much to ask.
When the uprising took place in Tunisia and Egypt, it was not the
“leaders” that led it. Youth power became the catalyzing force for a
democratic revolution in both countries. Africa’s dictators should understand
that people do not rise up because it is in style or fashionable, but because
their conditions of existence are subhuman, inhuman and intolerable. It is
possible to stop the satellite transmissions, jam the radio broadcasts, shutter
the newspapers, close the internet cafes, grab a young journalist and human
rights advocate as he walks out of an internet café and interrogate, threaten,
intimidate and terrorize him, but it is far more difficult to quiet the hungry
stomachs, mend the broken hearts, heal the wounded spirits and calm the angry
minds of the young people. Youths united in Ethiopia and elsewhere on the
African continent can never be defeated.
