The Middle East and People Power

When that young impoverished fruit vendor in Tunisia was slapped and insulted in public by an arrogant and oppressive police officer, he had already suffered constant police harassment and abuse. This final humiliation ended his desire to live. He knew it was useless to complain, protest and seek justice; the uncaring hardhearted regime made life unbearable.

Mohammed did not resort to violence against the police. He would not give them the satisfaction of killing him and depriving him of the only valuable thing he had left, the one thing they had not taken away from him - his life. He decided to end it by himself in a powerfully visible defiant act of self-immolation. He doused himself in gasoline and set himself afire in public in the most final and horrific act of defiance and outrage that a human being could commit.

He ignited the rage of a nation and others have since followed. In five days of mass protests, the Tunisian dictator of thirty years reign fled. That stunning historic awakening empowered the people and conquered fear and they claimed their freedom to speak out, express their opinions and enjoy their human and civil rights. Now they will decide how and by whom they want to be governed so that those rights and their dignity will be respected. They have hope for a better future. But the elite may try to come back and rule again.

It happened in the Philippines and the People Power street protest that forced Marcos to flee was not a revolution at all. It was a failed military revolt against Marcos that prompted the Church leader Cardinal Jaime Sin to call out the people to block the Marcos military from attacking the surrounded rebel soldiers. After three days of the massive people’s rally and a march on the palace, Marcos was forced to flee. Last week was the 25th anniversary.

The real heroes were those civilians who died for the struggle for justice and opposition leaders and nuns who stood bravely before the Marcos tanks to stop them. US dire warnings and a promise of exile in Hawaii convinced Marcos it was time to escape. It was unusual for the United States to give shelter to a tyrant it once supported for 20 years having ignored his more than ten thousand victims of torture and murder. This week, some of them will get compensation through a US court ruling, a measly thousand dollars each.

The dynastic ruling families behind Marcos continue to rule their economic empires until today, more powerful than before. Those families Marcos exiled came back triumphant to reclaim their business monopolies and vast estates. The oligarchy was reborn stronger than ever. His wife, son and daughter, 25 years later, are in influential government positions, the son is a senator. Only a fraction of the billions of dollars stolen and hidden abroad has been recovered. Corruption is worse now than during the dictatorship. President Aquino is trying to curb it but is still hampered and opposed by the entrenched Marcos cronies and tycoons now wearing grinning masks of innocence.

Poverty is widespread. The Philippine justice system is still unreformed. Many prosecutors and some judges take bribes from the rich and jail the poor. Some judges are accused of bribery, incompetence and ignorance of the law. Many appear overly accommodating towards the rich traffickers, pedophiles (especially foreigners) and their pimps. The Court Administrator is trying to reform and clean up the justice system. The high approval rating of President Aquino is a sign of hope and stability. However, he and his administration are up against an entrenched ruling elite.

The people of Egypt, Yemen, Libya and Bahrain face the same challenges. They have cried-out enough is enough! They want to be free. The tyrants may fall but who and what will replace them? It is amazing that there is no significant evidence that Islamists or Muslim extremists are dominant in these revolutions. The assumptions and stereotypes of western imaginations are turned upside down. We can only hope that the self-immolation of Mohammed will not be in vain and these countries will form viable, just, and free democracies, where all will have a voice.