Old political structures must be rebuilt around the people’s will

What Arabic-language writers are saying about the political fallout from the Arab Spring

Arab societies have a tendency to accept the game of creating confusion by mixing up things when dealing with major causes, according to commentator Ali Mohammed Fakhrou in the Sharjah-based daily Al Khaleej.

This game has long been used by many political and intellectual players to get the Arab public locked in marginal issues with the objective of having the major cause neglected or distorted, the writer said.

After the autocratic regimes in Tunisia and Egypt were ousted, elections brought the Muslim Brotherhood into office in both countries.

The two Islamist parties, however, made several political mistakes when they failed to understand that post-uprising periods need to be run via consensus and cooperation. Open competition and disagreement should be postponed until the goals of the revolution are met and the situation is stable.

Yet no sooner did those mistakes happen than political and intellectual manipulation had messed with the original issue – democracy.

The writer continued: “Today, we are faced with a fierce disinformation campaign aiming at persuading Arab citizens that they have only two options: if they choose democracy, they will get nothing but political Islam, and if they do not want political Islam, they have to accept the junta’s brutal thumb.”

The truth, is that just as fair elections brought Islamist organisations to power, they will be capable of replacing them with other players who advocate different platforms and ideologies. This simple fact was lost and, with it, the goal of the Arab Spring was blurred.

In the early 1950s, a pan-­Arab model was promoted by the Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser as a means of helping the Arab public achieve unity, independence, development and social justice. Buoyed by Egypt’s significant position in the region, pan-Arab parties and millions of people across the Arab nation, the efforts bore some fruit and seemed to be an omen of even better things to come.

But conspiracies from home and abroad, political mistakes and the death of the leader brought that promising dynamism to a halt. Again, political and intellectual manipulation reared its head to magnify wrong practices and weaknesses and downplay the achievements in efforts to make people forget the original cause: the way to an Arab renaissance and liberation.

There is an odd propensity among some Arab writers and journalists to cash in on defects in major Arab uprisings and endeavours in order to destroy or derail them, or force them away from people’s collective memory, instead of analysing them objectively and contributing solutions to get things back on track.

Noble efforts to carve a better future for the Arab public can be hobbled by this propensity to get the main point disfigured in the maze of details. However, hopes are high that the youth of the Arab uprisings will never enter the maze of the lost and instead focus on the major issues regarding the fate of their nations, the writer concluded.

Meanwhile, Mamoun Fandy posed a question in the London-based newspaper Asharq Al Awsat: Can we talk about the Arab Spring revolutions in a technical manner that is beyond desires and prejudices?

The goal behind the question is to have a positive look to the future so as to build a new political institution that avoids the defects of the Arab regimes that have fallen since the 2011 Tunisian revolution. No such rebuilding is possible unless the defects that led to the rebellions are understood away from the conspiracy narrative, the writer said.

For instance, the swift fall of Egypt’s institutions in the 2011 uprising raises a lot of questions that need careful consideration. Where were the two million members of the ruling National Democratic Party on the day of Hosni Mubarak’s removal? Why did police institutions fall so quickly? Why did no one defend the falling regime? Is it because Mr Mubarak had no loyal sect? Or because he lacked a grassroots base? Where were those who are now displaying their loyalty and love for Mr Mubarak?

What happened is the concurrent breakdown of both legitimacy and institutions, pure and simple, the writer said. In Egypt, Libya, Tunisia and Yemen, national institutions were no longer able to carry the burden of one single regime for more than 30 years. These institutions were expired just like dilapidated buildings that will fall down at the slightest shock.

New materials and standards are needed to build structures that are viable enough to survive shocks, the writer concluded.

Translated by Abdelhafid Ezzouitni