ARAB SPRING TURNS STORMY ! ---------------------------------------------------- To day and tomorrow ( 25th & 26th May ) Egypt goes to polls ( almost a farce ) to elect its new President , where the victory of Field Marshal Abdel Fattah al-sisi is certain , as there is no strong rival. Mayhem has gripped Egypt and Syria , not to mention Libya , Yemen and Bahrain where the angry and the aggrieved have created chaos in the name of democracy . According to President Bashar Assad , his armys war on terror has reached a turning point. His allies echo this rosy view. On the ground the picture is much more blurred . The latest fighting seems to have consolidated territories held by each side. According to Intel agency 100 Dutch jehadists ,habituated to extreme violence have entered Syria recently . Palestine is a lost cause . Sympathy to it has greatly diminished following reconciliation agreement between Hamas and Fatah conclude in Gaza on 24. 04. 2014 . Arab world is busy with its spring . The most important Arab states , Saudi Arabia and Egypt have given up on it . Nobody will claim that blood stained Syria is anything but a tragedy . But too much of todays criticism of the Arab spring is itself naïve , because it forgets that the dictatorial alternative is corrupt , repressive and ultimately doomed . That is the lesson from Algerias bogus election . The Arab spring has largely passed Algeria by . The election won by Mr Bouteflika , even though he is ailing and77-yr old . Oozing with gas , Algeria should be rich , but its economy is as moribund as its politics and rife with corruption . In Saudi Arabia another gerontocrat , King Abdullah , has just appointed his half-brother Muqrin a 69-yr old as second in line to the throne , behind the feeble 78-yr old crown prince , Salman. Too much of Arab politics is still stuck. Of the Arab Leagues 22 countries , only one , Tunisia , can nowadays be deemed fully democratic ---- a rare beneficiary of the Arab spring . Does any body think that rule by dictators , however benevolent , will last ? Algerias apparent stability will prove an illusion in the long run. In Egypt the fall of Hosni Mubarak showed that corrupt regimes , however militarily muscular are not impregnable . Fatah al- Sisi , the field marshal who led last years coup against an elected Muslim Brother president , Md Morsi will win ongoing election ; but unless he can mend the economy , his popularity will wane , just as Mr Mubaraks did . THE ARGUMENT THAT SOME CIVILIZATIONS ARE UNSUITED TO DEMOCRACY HAS BEEN USED FROM TAIWAN TO SOUTH AFRICA: It seldom holds water for long . THE ARAB SPRING HAS SO FAR BEEN MAINLY A MESS . BUT TO CONDEMN ARABS TO POLITICAL SERVITUDE IS NO ANSWER . It only delays the explosion .
Posted on: Sun, 25 May 2014 06:39:05 +0000
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