The Peace on The Horizon - 75 Years after The World War 2 in the Middle East (176)

 

(Japanese Version)

(Arabic Version)

 

(contents)

 

Chapter 7: The "Arab Spring" - A fleeting dream ( 9)

 

176 Short spring festival (1/5)

"Arab Spring" was named by Western countries, in particular by its media or intellectuals. It was defined as resistance and democratization movement by citizens against the tyranny of dictators in the Middle East and North African countries. The word "spring" in the political scene was used for the first time in the Czech democratization movement during the Cold War. It was called "Prague Spring". The word implied the positive and open-minded meaning. It became a symbol of the resistance movement against USSR communism. All of Western Europe media was fascinated itself the sound of the word. The Prague Spring was crashed by the USSR in 1968. But in 1989 the Velvet Revolution took place in Czechoslovakia. Unification of East and West Germany followed in the next year. Western countries were convinced that democracy was absolutely correct ideology and that Prague Spring was its forerunner.

 

Through the experience of ‘Prague Spring’, West European people believed that Arab Spring would be able to achieve the victory overwhelmingly. However, it was true that Arab Spring brought even more chaos and stagnation in each country than before. History shows that the extremism seeks further reform while the conservatism aims to restore the order of good old days. They resume to fight each other and the society had been disturbed one after another. It took more than 30 years after Prague Spring that Czech accomplished the democratization. Therefore, it might be too early to judge historical overcome of the Arab Spring. After 30 years from now Arab countries might possibly turn into Western style democracy. It will be exactly "Inshallah (if God wills)."

 

(To be continued ----)

 

 

Areha Kazuya

(From an ordinary citizen in the cloud)