Main Causes of the Arab Spring in 2011-2012 - Case Study Example

Main Causes the Arab Spring in 2011-12 Name: University: Date: Main Causes the Arab Spring in 2011-12 Introduction For over four years now, a scene of epic paroxysm has been exhibited in the Arab world; the greatest empowerment wave to be ever seen in the last two decades. From the Pacific to the Atlantic, young people motivated by decades of frustration from their leaders decided to move to the streets. They tried to change the existing state of affairs that had made their life miserable such as exacerbated social, economic, and political conditions. The uprising was ignited by an incident associated with a street vendor in Tunisia; still, the historical moment is attributed to the psychological rupture between people and their national leaders who had given empty promises such as restoring the historical prestige, building a bright future, and achieving national success (Kegley & Blanton, 2015). Upheavals in Yemen, Egypt and Tunisia in addition to Libya’s fierce uprising and intervention by foreign military has made political commentators to admit that, when a dictator stays longer in power it takes a shorter time for his government to be overthrown. Whether it is the enduring uprising and imminent civil war possibilities in Syria; repetitive political conflict in Bahrain; or the increasing post-revolution frustration attributed to slow pace of reforms as well as furtherance of status quo in Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen as well as other Middle Eastern countries; it is evident that factors such as unemployment, social imbalance, political and economic factors have forced people to rise against their regimes. In this article, the main causes the Arab Spring between 2011and 2012 have been analysed critically. Discussion On 17th December 2010, Mohammed Bouazizi, a Tunisian grocery vendor aged 26, set himself ablaze after the police impounded his goods. This occurred at Sidi Bouzid, a depressed city in Tunisia, where the rate of unemployment amongst the young people was almost 40 per cent. After that incident, an uprising that involved different group of people such as educated and wealthy and also students, spread across Tunisia like a wildfire. The upheaval hastily assumed the revolution traits, with the main goal of achieving greater political as well as civil rights. Early in 2011, the upheaval spread to other Middle Eastern and North African nations such as Yemen, Egypt, and Libya. As mentioned by Hale, Held, and Young (2013), the ‘Arab Spring’ uprisings were so influential to an extent that well-established autocrats and leaderships were overthrown. In Tunisia, for instance, Zine el-Abidine Ben Alì had been in power 1987 but was coerced to leave the nation during the uprising. Hosni Mubarak in Egypt had been in power since 1981, but the revolt made him resign and run away (Baylis, Smith, & Owens, 2013). The revolt in Libya, transformed into a civil war, wherein the NATO forces took part resulting in the killing of Muammar Gaddafi, who had ruled Libya for four decades. Even though the uprising in Morocco and Algeria were less marked as compared to those in other Arab countries, it resulted in reforms’ adoption for the benefit of the greater democracy. The revolt outbreak in Syria in March of 2011 resulted in a crackdown by forces loyal to President Bashar Al Assad but never produced any institutional or political changes. Notably, the uprisings in 2011 spread to the Middle East countries such as Jordan, Yemen, Iran, Oman, and Bahrain. Long ago, significant political changes had been experimented by Middle Eastern countries, but systemic transition towards egalitarianism was never realised. Popular uprisings are normally related to hostile economic trends: high unemployment rates, recession as well as scarcity or high prices of food. In view of the Arab Spring, analysts and scholars believe it was brought about by economic causes and discontent amongst the populations (Ansani & Daniele, 2012). Economic Causes Enfeebled by nearly thirty years of unproductive economic models that were worsened by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) stifling and austere policies, Aissa (2012) posits that the state of economy in the Arab spring-affected nations experienced more challenges because of the 2008 global economic recession. The majority of the Arab countries had achieved their independence towards the end of the 1950s; however, the successive regimes chose economic models that were largely ineffective in generating competitive and sustainable economies. Whereas the strong public sector that managed the rentier economies had achieved trade surpluses, the private sector quasi-absence left spring-affected countries with unyielding job markets as well as a narrow margin for managing demographic problems. Therefore, major economies in the Arab world changed with fluctuations of the oil price while energy bills of the non-hydrocarbon economies increased dramatically making their solvency be questioned. For instance, being a non-oil state and a good student of International Monetary Fund, Tunisia 5 percent GDP growth in the first decade of 21st century was attributed mainly to its economic prudence (Aissa, 2012). However, Tunisia’s macro-economic permanency advanced by the international financial institutions was disregarded for the State-planned economy which until the mid-1980s had ensured equality in the national wealth distribution. Similarly, Egypt, which was ranked as a top economic performer by World Bank, experienced a privatizations wave of bloated industries with the goal of producing an economy that was more competitive and leaner, but one with inadequate social benefits and low wages. In mid-2010, notwithstanding the socially tense environment as well as the serious economic crisis that Tunisia faced, Zine el-Abidine led government strategized to continue with its economic policy, which to somewhat was in line with the IMF recommendations that required countries to meet their budgetary as well as financial balances, even despite the projected trends of world shortages in food commodities as well as fuel prices that had hit the roof. According to Aissa (2012), the south-Mediterranean economies situation was likely to exacerbate, unless the countries implemented a reformed subsidy system that had enhanced targeting is put into place. All these worsened the economic situation of some Arab countries resulting in high rate of unemployment. It is unemployment that made Mohammed Bouazizi to set himself ablaze prompting an uprising in Tunisia that spread to other Arab countries. Rather than assisting the 26-year-old who had tirelessly searched for a job both in private and public sectors, the officials of the Zine el-Abidine government confiscated his Kiosk that he used to sell vegetables and successfully stopped him from meeting his daily needs. Without available alternatives, Bouazizi set himself ablaze to register his extreme disapproval of Zine el-Abidine 23-year-old regime as well as the country’s economic policies (Kegley & Blanton, 2015). Undoubtedly, his sacrifice marked the end of the totalitarian regimes in numerous Arab countries, since he started a massive revolution that changed Tunisia for the better. Political Cause In 1913, the first Arab Congress meeting was held in Paris demanding independence within the Ottoman Empire, almost a century later, the populations in the Arab countries are still hoping to establish stable and strong nationwide political systems that certainly reflect their history as well as accept their ambitions. Categorized as republics or monarchies, the Arab countries exhibit unique as well as complex differences because of the origin of these entities after the First and Second World War, their societal and social fabric, in addition to the choices they made in the course of the Cold War. In the Arab countries, the centers of power have customarily been held by the military, ruling families or dynasties, influential tribes or separatist secular parties. In view of this, people in the Arab countries have always been disregarded in the power transfer process. This proves that democracy in the Arab world failed ages ago considering that no Arab president (apart from Lebanese head of state) has been reelected democratically: prior to the uprising, the average term for an Arab leader, especially in the Arab Spring affected countries was 22 years. Holding onto power for more than two decades, whether on secular or religious bases, stopped the Arab societies from developing contemporary states where human rights, the rule of law and democracy would facilitate a non-violent and smooth power transfer between political leaders. Therefore, while Eastern Europe successfully managed its own spring almost two decades ago, Panara and Wilson (2013) posit that the majority of the Arab regimes are still not affected by the wave of change. The war on terror steered by the West created the idea that the leaders from the West represented future assets, and this resulted in a deception developed around the equation of being led by a totalitarian or a global jihad. Still, the Arab regimes experienced numerous changes that created a platform for revolution. In consequence, the stability pillars in Arab tyrannies; the government control over the economy as well as the military-security complex were extremely shaken. Certainly, the Egyptian and Tunisian military cases break conspicuously with that of the Yemeni and Syrian where the longevity and firmness of their totalitarian regimes have been supported by clan or tribal-based armies. As pointed out by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, every person is entitled to all the freedoms and rights laid out in its Declaration, without being discriminated because of political opinion, sex, language, religion, social or national origin, or other status (OHCHR, 1998). However, this is not so in Bahrain where the Shiites who are the majority are continuously fighting with the minority Sunnis and there is a possibility it can lead to a civil war. Evidently, the Bahraini monarchy is led by the Sunni, who have historically victimized the majority Shiite by restricting housing as well as jobs opportunities. The ruling Al-Khalifa family has continuously assisted Sunnis from the bordering countries by offering them the Bahraini nationality with the objective of countering the Shiite majority. This is also noticeable in Syria where President Bashar Al Assad from the Alawite tribe, which is the minority tribe, is ruling over the majority Sunni who resents the lengthy authoritarian rule over Syria since the Baathist revolution in 1963. Police State Another factor that resulted in the Arab Uprising is the introduction of police state, where by the government exercised repressive as well as rigid controls with an assistance of secret police agencies and forces over the political, economic and social life of the country. This can be evidenced in Syria where people were repressed by the dynastic Al-Assad regime with the aid of state apparatus such as secret services. All forms of political freedoms, activism, demonstration, and opposition have been banned by arbitrary laws. Unemployment, poverty, as well as unforgiving economic conditions made masses rise up against the dictatorial regimes led by Muammar Gaddafi, Bashar Al-Assad, Hosni Mubarak, Zine el-Abidine Ben Alì, and the others. The regimes reacted with full force; for instance, more than 5,000 people were killed in Syria by opening fire on after the police started shooting the protestors indiscriminately and precipitously killed suspected opposition activists. Scores of human rights groups as well as opposition political activists claim that the Syrian intelligence services together with the Military, normally acknowledged as the ‘Shabiha’ were behind the arbitrary arrests and massacres that occurred in cities and towns such as Duma, Qamishili, Homs, Banyas, Idlib, and others. According to the Human Rights Watch, thousands of political prisoners such as journalists and bloggers have wrongfully been imprisoned in Egypt, Bahraini and Syrian jails with no any trials. Since the Baath Party took power 1963, Syria has always been under a stratocracy, and has continuously used the its security forces, particularly the general intelligence directorate, air force intelligence, the political security directorate, as well as military intelligence. The above mentioned agencies, acknowledged as Mukhabarat (intelligence) have powers to detain any person devoid of any arrest warrant. Demographic cause The Arab Human Development Report had in 2009 pointed out the intensifying problem of human security in the Arab countries. According to the report, most of the Arab governments had failed to offer a quality service in the fields’ human security, education, as well as health and nutrition. Therefore, the search for state security with no consideration of human security brought about suboptimal outcomes for both the citizens and the government. Eventually, people got tired of the regime that pursed security with no investment in human. Basically, the security issues preeminence over social issues in Arab countries was highlighted in 2010 by the figures from the SIPRI (Stockholm International Peace Research Institute) report. The MENA (Middle East and North African) region according to SIPRI report had spent a staggering 117.6 billion US dollars in military-related expenditures while nearly thirty-five million Arabs were surviving with two-dollars-a-day and the rates of unemployment was doubled digit (save for the United Arab Emirates that has 6 per cent unemployment rate) amongst the youth in the Arab world ranging between 16 per cent to 46 per cent. Social Imbalances Another reason attributed to the Arab Spring is the social imbalance. The theory of social balance states that consuming private goods needs a regulating or facilitating mechanism from the state (Mattern, 2006). In view of this, majority of the Middle East countries have large public sector, which delivers services such as electricity supply, health, and water supply to the masses, but the public utilities and services have been monopolized. Even though the private sector exists, the majority of people prefer public sector because it offers affordable service. On the other hand, services provided by the private sector are more costly and concentrate on revenues; therefore, limits the public access. Most people in Arab countries live with less than 2 dollars a day and depend on government-run food, transportation, education, health and energy sectors because of the cheap rates as well as widespread availability. The majority of the Arab governments, however, adopted Neo-liberalism with the objective of reducing public spending. Therefore, most of the institutions were privatized making the services inaccessible and expensive to many people in the society since the new owners focused more on growth and profits instead of quality and affordability. Even though the private sector had promised to improve the countries’ health, transportation, education, and food as well as energy production, the prices escalated while most people income remained the same. Without a doubt, this social imbalance made the gap between the rich and poor wider, fuelling tensions between different classes in the society. Being the poorest country in the Middle East, Yemen suffers from the widening gap between the privilege and underprivileged as well as the ensuing social imbalances. Yemen’s annual GDP per capita is around 1,200 US dollars with almost 50 per cent living under the poverty line (Groth & Sousa-Poza, 2012). The former president, Ali Abdullah Saleh who was in power for 22 years (1990-2012), had amassed a mega fortune while most of the citizens experienced an economic decline leaving the country on the verge of collapse. Conclusion In conclusion, the article has critically analysed the main causes the Arab Spring between 2011 and 2012.as mentioned in the article, the wave of uprisings that spread all through the Arab world between 2011 and 2012, collapsed some long-standing regimes such as in Tunisia, Yemen, Libya and Egypt and left other such as Syria seriously destabilized. The Arab spring ensued after decades of totalitarian and oppressive political systems, socially dissatisfied and separated populations, especially the youths and failed economic policies. As indicated in the article, the combination of high rates of unemployment, youth demographics, as well as high levels of education, together with a misleading political system, instigated the social unrest in most Arab countries. 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Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). Retrieved from Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/UDHR/Pages/Language.aspx?LangID=eng Panara, C., & Wilson, G. (2013). The Arab Spring: New Patterns for Democracy and International Law. Boston, MA: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. Read More