The idea of democratisation planted in Egyptian minds is beyond containment, yet Mubarak continues to resist.
A GOOD PIECE
Larbi Sadiki
Al-Jazeera
"The realist terminology of the 'domino effect' does not capture the agency that Arabs are today assuming to unseat Arab hegemons, from Cairo to Sana'a.
This agency is unshackling itself from a threefold dynamic: the fear of the Arab police state; Orientalist constructions demoting Arab agency; and Euro-American democratisation theorists' obsession with structure, culture and top-down institution-building.
Similarly, this agency stumbles upon the structures of a world order driven by self-interest and impervious to the dreams of millions of Arabs to be free.
A precedent has been set in Tunisia, and Egypt is on the move. Whilst the challenges are awesome, the seeds for planting democratic dreams have begun by the display of people's power in Tunisia.
Planting a dream
"Once an idea has taken hold of the brain, it's almost impossible to eradicate," said Dom Cobb, played by Leonardo DiCaprio in Christopher Nolan's Inception.
And thus spoke the Tunisian people, ousting their dictator and unleashing shockwaves whose political reverberations will be felt for a long time. Today Nolan's leitmotif of inception has a powerful resonance in the Arab world.
The Tunisian flag showing in the riots witnessed by many Arab cities manifest both inspiration and admiration. But more importantly, Tunisia is a dream come true. The dictator who was once fearsome and thought to be invincible fell and fled rapidly.
From Tunis to Cairo, "people's power" represents a watershed, an Inception in the making. It now serves as a fount of democratic streams with a fierce and determined thirst for self-governance by the oppressed across the Arab geography.....
Resurgence of a Renaissance
Egypt and Tunisia are the two states with the longest tradition of statehood in the Arab Middle East.
Both were a source of light in the Arab age of liberal thought from the mid-1800s. Both experimented with the first elected councils and both exercised intelligent syncretism in order to wed modernity and tradition.....
However, there is one difference as far the current people's power protest sweeping the region. People's power in Tunisia has fanned the winds of popular protests in several Arab cities. Success of people's power in Egypt would change the entire Middle East region, if not the world.
It would have the effect of a collapsing house of cards; elites, policies, alliances, strategic doctrines, and Arab-Arab relations would be changed forever. It would re-write Egypt-Israeli relations as much as reposition the Palestinian question at the centre not only of Arab-Israeli relations, but also of Arab-Western relations.
This is not to say Egypt would renege on its agreements with Israel. Rather, Egypt would regain its status as the engine of the Arab world, dynamically championing fairness, legitimacy of Palestinian rights, and just solution as the only route to brave and just peace.
Democratising the Arab world would bring to power fiercely pro-Palestinian forces unencumbered by realpolitik and not desensitised by the diplomatic and ethical apologism on the question of Palestine - whether US, Quartet or UN-led. A dangerous cul de sac is obviously conspicuous.
Thus far the only party gaining from peace negotiations or absence thereof are the Israelis. This is why the democratic dream and winds of people's power blowing across the Arab world must no doubt worry Israel more than any other nation on earth.
Israel is ensconced in the knowledge that many of the existing delegitimised Arab ruling elites have more or less dropped Palestine from their foreign policy-making agendas.
Within the Arab World, should people's power succeed - and momentum is already in place for Mubarak to change his mind about running for a sixth term, and to abandon hereditary plans for his son to take over power - Libya's dynasty will be next to be swept away by the wrath of a people bored with Ghaddafi, worn out by his oppressive clan......
.....
..."
A GOOD PIECE
Larbi Sadiki
Al-Jazeera
"The realist terminology of the 'domino effect' does not capture the agency that Arabs are today assuming to unseat Arab hegemons, from Cairo to Sana'a.
This agency is unshackling itself from a threefold dynamic: the fear of the Arab police state; Orientalist constructions demoting Arab agency; and Euro-American democratisation theorists' obsession with structure, culture and top-down institution-building.
Similarly, this agency stumbles upon the structures of a world order driven by self-interest and impervious to the dreams of millions of Arabs to be free.
A precedent has been set in Tunisia, and Egypt is on the move. Whilst the challenges are awesome, the seeds for planting democratic dreams have begun by the display of people's power in Tunisia.
Planting a dream
"Once an idea has taken hold of the brain, it's almost impossible to eradicate," said Dom Cobb, played by Leonardo DiCaprio in Christopher Nolan's Inception.
And thus spoke the Tunisian people, ousting their dictator and unleashing shockwaves whose political reverberations will be felt for a long time. Today Nolan's leitmotif of inception has a powerful resonance in the Arab world.
The Tunisian flag showing in the riots witnessed by many Arab cities manifest both inspiration and admiration. But more importantly, Tunisia is a dream come true. The dictator who was once fearsome and thought to be invincible fell and fled rapidly.
From Tunis to Cairo, "people's power" represents a watershed, an Inception in the making. It now serves as a fount of democratic streams with a fierce and determined thirst for self-governance by the oppressed across the Arab geography.....
Resurgence of a Renaissance
Egypt and Tunisia are the two states with the longest tradition of statehood in the Arab Middle East.
Both were a source of light in the Arab age of liberal thought from the mid-1800s. Both experimented with the first elected councils and both exercised intelligent syncretism in order to wed modernity and tradition.....
However, there is one difference as far the current people's power protest sweeping the region. People's power in Tunisia has fanned the winds of popular protests in several Arab cities. Success of people's power in Egypt would change the entire Middle East region, if not the world.
It would have the effect of a collapsing house of cards; elites, policies, alliances, strategic doctrines, and Arab-Arab relations would be changed forever. It would re-write Egypt-Israeli relations as much as reposition the Palestinian question at the centre not only of Arab-Israeli relations, but also of Arab-Western relations.
This is not to say Egypt would renege on its agreements with Israel. Rather, Egypt would regain its status as the engine of the Arab world, dynamically championing fairness, legitimacy of Palestinian rights, and just solution as the only route to brave and just peace.
Democratising the Arab world would bring to power fiercely pro-Palestinian forces unencumbered by realpolitik and not desensitised by the diplomatic and ethical apologism on the question of Palestine - whether US, Quartet or UN-led. A dangerous cul de sac is obviously conspicuous.
Thus far the only party gaining from peace negotiations or absence thereof are the Israelis. This is why the democratic dream and winds of people's power blowing across the Arab world must no doubt worry Israel more than any other nation on earth.
Israel is ensconced in the knowledge that many of the existing delegitimised Arab ruling elites have more or less dropped Palestine from their foreign policy-making agendas.
Within the Arab World, should people's power succeed - and momentum is already in place for Mubarak to change his mind about running for a sixth term, and to abandon hereditary plans for his son to take over power - Libya's dynasty will be next to be swept away by the wrath of a people bored with Ghaddafi, worn out by his oppressive clan......
.....
..."
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