Tunisian dominoes

Islamic democracy, democracy in Islam, and Islam and democracy, all miss the point. It is always about governance.

The name of Mohamed Bouazizi should be on everyone’s lips. On December 17 last year, this 26-year-old street vendor from Sidi Bouzid doused himself with gasoline and made himself a funeral pyre, after a female police officer first slapped him and then spat on him. His ‘crime’ was selling fruit and vegetables without a permit. Humiliation forced Bouazuzi to engage in an act of defiance and a last gesture of freedom.

This article does not seek to applaud suicide, but rather to spotlight how this act helped reveal a host of failed policies.

What has happened in Tunisia was not predicted, not only due to our own prejudices, but also due to the entry point of analysts themselves. Tunisia, an Islamic state, was immediately factored out of any possibility of experiencing a democratic revolution. Islam and democracy were supposed to be like the mixing of oil and water. Any cook can tell you how to mix oil and water — just add a little egg yolk. Analysts were trapped in narrow academic arguments about defining democracy and minutely measuring the ‘space’ provided by Islam. Islamic democracy, democracy in Islam, and Islam and democracy, all miss the point. It is always a question of governance. No one likes being dictated to and denied political voice or economic freedoms. Many people over-promise what democracy can deliver — it will not make you rich or make you happy, it will, however, provide you with a voice and the chance for open political competition. A democratic revolt took place in an Islamic state. This fact should be reverberating throughout one-party states and in Washington, DC.

Also, analysts looked at the state, the party, bureaucracy, the army and security forces and the fact that the Tunisian government was part of the war against terror. Yet all these factors were irrelevant, as true power rested in the will of the people. Decades of silence and repression did not mean that people did not talk. In states like Tunisia, the only real sport is that of politics and people talked incessantly about issues that concerned them. Gossip plays a crucial role here because even if the media controls information, there are always leaks. Average people sitting over their coffee would become indignant over the unfairness being meted out to them. The abused street vendor, harassed and humiliated, had thousands of kinsmen who cut across class and tribal lines. Tunisia’s revolt, therefore, was not limited to students and the left wing or labour, but encompassed the whole society. Since the protest was so widespread, it was impossible to stop.

Distance and differences aside, stark similarities exist between Tunisia and Pakistan — complete elite capture, nepotism and corruption that always results in inequalities and injustice. In Pakistan, anger amongst the public has reached boiling point. The rising number of protests, violence and suicides tells a lot. Second, the ruling coalitions in the centre and in the provinces show no signs of feeling this rising heat. Third, western allies continue to support the corrupt military-civilian elite — a perfect case of the ‘boiling frog syndrome’.

Symptoms of this syndrome are in abundance. Let’s look at some. For our prime minister, inaugurating multi-billion-rupee luxury lodges for parliamentarians was business as usual, whilst millions of flood-affected people are still without any shelter. The government is delaying spending Rs6.6 billion and $119 million from the Prime Minister’s Flood Relief Fund and US donations for flood victims, respectively. What is stopping the coalition government from spending this amount? Nothing but self-centred elite interest. Pakistan’s economy is facing an emergency-like situation and food inflation is as high as 27 per cent. What has happened in Tunisia has spread to Egypt and is affecting Morocco, Sudan, Algeria, Mauritania, and Saudi Arabia. Though many revolutions had small and spontaneous beginnings, early signs of alarm were always there. In all cases, the ruling elite felt they were insulated from the flames. Here, in Pakistan, the elite are out of touch. Are they also out of touch in western capitals? It is as if the plight of millions in the countryside is happening in a faraway distant land. One only has to listen to know that something is in the making, the air has changed.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 3^rd, 2011.