(Japanese Version)
(Arabic Version)
Chapter 6: Genealogy of Islamic terrorism
6-6(49) Kefaya ! People
bored with long dictatorship
The Middle East and North Africa region is collectively called MENA. It may
sound strange to say that MENA region hardly had radical political change
before so-called "Arab Spring" in 2011. But from Ramadan War (Yom
Kippur War) in 1973 to Arab Spring in 2011, most of Arab countries had no
experience of the political change for nearly 40 years because the dictatorship
continued so long in most of Middle Eastern countries. The long-dictatorship was
not only by secular military power in Egypt, Syria but also by monarchic regime
by the Gulf countries.
Most of the MENA countries are ethnically Arabs except Turkey, Iran and
Israel. And Muslim occupies a majority religious group including Turkey and
Iran. It is difficult to answer that whether the long-dictatorship regime is due
to the ethnicity of Arabs or the religion of Islam. It might be said that both
of them brought about the long-term dictatorship. Ethnicity and religion are
inevitable two facts of Middle Eastern dictatorship. Anyhow it could be the
right answer that the political stability had been maintained by dictatorship.
In addition, it can also be pointed out that the political stability in
MENA countries could not bring about the progress of science and technology and
the economic prosperity of every countries except the Gulf countries which achieved
economic prosperity by oil. Despite being a similar authoritarian politics,
Southeast Asian countries such as Thailand and Indonesia had in reverse enjoyed
progress of industries and economic prosperity during the same period.
Colonel Gaddafi of Libya was the first secular dictator in the MENA region.
As mentioned in Chapter 4, he deposed the King Idris I by means of the coup and
became the supreme leader in 1969 when he was only 27 years old. He held that
position for 42 years then ended the life of 69 during the civil war in 2011.
Following Colonel
Gaddafi the second secular dictator in the MENA region was Hafiz al-Assad of Syria. He was born from a minority tribe of the Alawi
group in northern Syria, of which religious faction was Shiite. He revealed himself
within the Baath party after serving as the Air Force officer. Hafiz was
elected to the president in 1971 and established a strong regime. He appointed his
second son, Bashar al-Assad as the successor. Bashar al-Assad is the present President
of Syria after surviving the long civil war. Reign of father and son of al-Assad
has been continuing nearly half a century.
In addition to the above, there were several dictators in MENA. Former Yemeni
president Ali Abdullah Saleh was general commander of the army. He was
appointed president of North Yemen in 1978 when he was 36 years old. He kept the
presidential post after the reunification of the South and the North Yemen. He was
defeated in the Arab Spring in 2011. The term of his presidency was 33 years. After
dismissal in 2011, he formed a coalition forces with Houthi group and occupied
the capital Sana'a. Saleh himself was assassinated in 2017.
Former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein was an executive officer of Baath
Party and became president of Iraq in 1979. He survived in Iran-Iraq War from
1980 to 1988 and the Gulf War in 1991. But in 2003 Hussein regime fell down by
Iraq War. Hussein was arrested and executed by a trial. The period of his
presidency was 24 years.
In North African countries, not only in Libya but also in Egypt, Tunisia
and Sudan had a long-term dictatorship. In Egypt Hosni Mubarak climbed up to vice
president from an air force officer through four wars with Israel. He was elected
to the president in 1981 when Anwar Sadat was assassinated. Since then he had
been the Egyptian president until the end of the Arab Spring in 2011.
Ben Ali became Tunisian president in 1987. He was the first victim of the Arab
Spring. He resigned and exiled to Saudi Arabia (He died there in 2019). The seventh
dictator in MENA region was Omar al-Bashir of Sudan. After graduating from the
cadet in Cairo, Egypt, al-Bashir was promoted in the army and grabbed the power
by the coup in 1989. His presidency has been 30 years until he retired in 2019.
All seven dictators started from the lower class in the society and climbed
up to the top. But in the Middle East there is another type of powerful
dictator. They are the ruling family of the Gulf monarchy such as Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia is an autocratic country ruled by the Saud family. GCC (Gulf
Cooperation Organization) countries consisting of Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait,
Oman, Qatar and Bahrain have been the hereditary monarchy for more than one
hundred years.
For young people born in the 1970s and 1980s, they were reigned by a
dictator at the start of their life. They had the same dictator when they
entered school, graduated university and even got married. Their society was
wrapped up with stagnation. They unanimously shouted; “We are bored!”, which
meant in Arabic “Kefaya!”
"Kefaya" spread in the early 2000s as a slogan of the movement to
protest the Mubarak regime in Egypt. Through the SNS of Internet this word spread
in many MENA countries and deeply affected young people. It was the "Arab
Spring" in 2011 that the word turned into an actual revolutionary
movement.
(To
be continued ----)
By Areha Kazuya
E-mail: areha_kazuya@jcom.home.ne.jp
Home Page:
OCIN INITIATIVE
(Table of contents)
