Friday, November 2, 2012

Kuwait's protests remind us of the Arab spring's true spirit


The ferment in Kuwait isn't about poverty or sectarianism – but democracy. Blaiming it on Egyptian Islamists is a risky strategy


guardian.co.uk,


"It cannot be called an uprising. Nor do demonstrators demand regime change. The dispute is narrowly about preventing a change in the electoral law that would disenfranchise voters. Nevertheless, the demonstrations taking place in Kuwait are real enough. Tens of thousands, a number unheard of in Kuwait, took part in a "march of dignity" and a further mass protest is planned for Sunday despite an announced ban on public gatherings of more than 20 people. The wave of demands for democratic change, which Saudi Arabia fervently hoped had come to a crashing halt with the civil war in Syria, is now lapping around the feet of the Gulf states.....


The emir is, however, going full-steam ahead with an election on 1 December on this basis, which the opposition has now said it will boycott. The ferment in the Gulf undermines the thesis that the movement known as the Arab spring is primarily about poverty. It defies too the prediction that it has run into the sands of sectarian divides between Sunni and Shia. The Gulf rulers thought they could buy immunity from this change but they have found that dignity is not something that even their unlimited quantity of petrodollars can buy. All eyes are now looking nervously on Kuwait."

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