The Peace on The Horizon - 75 Years after The World War 2 in the Middle East (172)

 

(Japanese Version)

(Arabic Version)

 

(contents)

 

Chapter 7: The "Arab Spring" - A fleeting dream (5)

 

172 Arab spring has come (1/4)

Even after the collapse of Hussein regime in Iraq in 2003, many of the Arab countries remained as authoritarian states or hereditary monarchic states of dictatorship. Western style democratic states were only Algeria in North Africa and Lebanon in the Middle East. Iraq which was beaten up by the United States was struggling for democratization. Gaddafi of Libya, Assad of Syria, Saleh of Yemen, Mubarak of Egypt and Ben Ali of Tunisia had maintained the dictatorship for nearly 30 years each.

 

Dictatorship is not always a bad ruling system. Dictator has a good skill to grab the hearts of the people. In many cases dictator often appeared as a hero when the country became unstable and the people were stranded in social and economic turmoil. They knew that he was a dictator, but they had been bored with turmoil. They expected that dictator might bring stability to society. Dictator could reconstruct the order of society by an authoritarian method. He caught the heart of citizens firmly with populism. People enthusiastically support him. They ask him to stay as a leader as long as possible.

 

(To be continued ----)

 

 

Areha Kazuya

(From an ordinary citizen in the cloud)