In her column in the London daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, Sawsan Al-Abtah stressed the Internet's role in the protests in Egypt and Tunisia, and noted that the foundation for the protests in Egypt was laid on Facebook some time before they actually took place.
She also noted that while past protests in the Arab world had focused on Israel, today's protestors were fighting for freedom, social justice, and democracy.
Comparing these protests to Lebanon's 2005 Cedar Revolution, which broke out following the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Al-Hariri, she expressed her hope that the youth of the Arab world was better prepared to realize their dreams than the Lebanese youth, which she said had ultimately preferred sectarian to national considerations.
Following are excerpts from her column: [1]
"We Are At An Historic Turning Point"
"We are at an historic turning point. For the first time, the Arabs are angry and rising up to demand democracy and social justice. The demonstrators in Tunisia and Cairo didn't burn Israeli flags, and didn't shout sweeping slogans about 'Arabness.' They refused to be told that their revolution is against poverty and for bread. They insisted that their [revolution] was a cry for freedom and honor.
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"This is refreshing language coming from the heart, which makes the dinosaurs, the arrogant oppositionists [of the past], ashamed of their own slogans... 'It seems like we come from another era,' said one veteran leftist. 'We must renew ourselves in order to attract the young people'..."
"23 Million Egyptians Use the Internet"
"23 million Egyptians use the Internet – one quarter of the [Egyptian] people, and several times [the number] that took to the streets. A comprehensive blocking of the media outlets, the first in the history of the Internet, did not block the revolution – it [merely] disrupted it and extended the life of the regime by a few hours.
"The blogs and Facebook pages are witness to the fact that the Egyptian revolution was ready in the virtual [world] long before it became reality... A different world emerged in cyberspace, parallel [to the real world] that the regime thought it had by the throat... The young people had everything planned prior to the protests: they made maps, circulated instructions, shared scenarios. They knew what they wanted. On the second day of the demonstrations, as the discussion among the politicians and the commentators centered on the reforms that the protestors were demanding, the well-known blogger Nawara Negm came out and stated resolutely: 'It is clear that they do not understand us. Our aim is not to harass the regime... We will continue until we hear the words 'We understand you.' This is our ultimate demand, and we will not lower the bar of this demand.' [This] leader of the Facebook rebels was referring to the final words of the deposed Tunisian president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali [to the demonstrators in Tunisia], a few weeks ago."
Facebook Founder Mark Zuckerberg "Surely Never Imagined the Impact It Would Have in Societies Without Freedoms"
"Just a few days ago, Nawara's words seemed surreal, without context – but I see that [the result of] this Internet planning has surpassed the imagination even of Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook himself. He wanted his website to be a virtual world, simulating reality... but in his American paradise, he surely never imagined the impact it would have in societies without freedoms and with fraud in the voting booth.
"Regardless of the ramifications of the current protests and regardless of who will reap the fruits and how they will do so, the rules of the political game in the Arab world have changed. The genie is out of the bottle of the electronic appliances – a peaceful genie who flexes his strong muscles only to resolutely press keys and shout from the throat. This genie is persistent, and it advances towards its target like an arrow.
"It should be noted that Lebanon's 2005 Cedar Revolution was no different from what we have seen in Tunisia and in Egypt with regard to its youthful spirit, its compelling style, and its demand for freedom and democracy... But the Cedar Revolution was plucked from the hands of the youth because they lost their direction; they rallied around the leader instead of around principle, and preferred sectarianism to the homeland.
"Thus, it can be said that while Lebanon fell out of [the pages of] history, the Arabs decided to go down [in history], in hopes that the dreams of the youth of Egypt and Tunisia are riper than the consciousness of the sons of the Cedar Revolution, that was so maliciously nipped in the bud..."
Endnotes:
[1] Al-Sharq Al-Awsat (London), February 3, 2011.
