The Arab Spring is nearly six months old. It is time to take stock, remember those who lost their lives and continue to fight, and hand out some well-deserved awards to the key players.
The New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, asked the rhetorical question 'What Country Handled Arab Spring The Best? His own answer: Morocco.
But he left the discussion at that. Given that the Arab Spring is just about six months old, alifarabia.com was inspired to take stock of how the various countries have handled a revolution that has smashed Middle East dogmas, broken the will of Arab strongmen and given hopes to millions not just in the Arab World but also around the world.
The Middle East has seen more public participation in politics in the past six months than it has done over the past 50 years. Much to the shock of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, Hosni Mubarak and Moamer Qaddhafi, the people of the Arab World launched a unique coup that they could not have fathom and never saw coming. These strongmen were looking to suppress indigenous Islamic movements, the radicals, Al-Qaeda sympathisers, the socialists, the Shiaas and the sufis. They were looking for tangible forces they could fight, and suppress and imprison and maim - as they had done in the past.
But little did they know the Arab Spring was without form, it had no pre-determined agenda, no manifesto and no leader.
There was no revolutionary firebrand figure like Gamal Abdel Nasser, Kamal Ata Turk or an Ibn Saud leading the people. It was the people that found the way themselves and it is the people that continue to forge a path without the crutch of religious righteousness or an agenda to seize power. The age-old political parties that have come out of hibernation are mere followers of the grassroots movement.
"These revolutions have occurred without leadership, and maybe that is one of the reasons why they've remained very democratic, why they have not, in many cases, been stopped--because there is nobody to stop, it is just a large group of people," says Paul Salem, director of the Carnegie Middle East Center.
This revolution also came in many forms. Whereas the Libyan rebels took up arms, the Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions were peaceful and vastly different.
Tunisia's uprising began in rural areas, where citizens had grown increasingly disgusted with the concentration of wealth and power in the hands of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali's flagrantly corrupt family, says Lisa Andersen, president of the American University of Cairo.
This was in sharp contrast to the urban phenomenon in Egypt. "The sophisticated and tech-savvy activists who organized and sustained mass demonstrations in Tahrir Square were surprised by their own success," says Andersen in an interview to Carnegie Middle East.
The Yemenis got help from elements of Al-Qaeda, while the Bahrainis were left to their own devices - too powerless in the face of a backlash. Meanwhile, the handful of Saudi protestors could not get in a word edgewise.
Analysts are now predicting a rapid so-called 'Arab Winter' - signifying the freezing of reforms, especially in parts of the Gulf, and elsewhere in Libya, Morocco, Syria and Jordan - where change is being resisted through either force, dialogue or reconciliation.
This is a grand generalization, and while no one can predict how events will unfold, the genie of political awakening is well and truly out of the bottle.
As we take stock of nearly six month of the revolutions, the symbolic Arab Spring Awards hope to acknowledge the most deserving. Here are the categories and the nominees. Post your preferences in the comment section below:
Government that handled Arab Spring the best
a) Moroccan Government
b) Omani Government
c) Jordanian Government
Government handled Arab Spring the worst
a) Syrian Government
b) Libyan Government
c) Bahraini Government
Most heroic act of Arab Spring
a) Mohammed Bouzaizi, the brave Tunisian whose singularly desperate act gave rise to the Arab Spring
b) Tunisians who took Mohammed Bouzaizi's cause forward and invoked change
c) Egyptians at Tahrir Square - who took the revolution further.
Least reported Arab Spring-quashing act by a government?
a) Trial of UAE bloggers
b) Atrocities in Syria
c) Atrocities in Libya
Most defiant speech by a ruler
a) Muammer Gadhafi of Libya (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69wBG6ULNzQ)
b) Hosni Mubarak of Egypt (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CS7RBGvKyyM)
c) Bashar Al Assad of Syria (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWXlVYhFb0I)
Most powerful social media channel to broadcast Arab Spring
a) Facebook
b) Twitter
Best tweets of Arab Spring
a) Sultan Al Qassemi (http://twitter.com/#!/SultanAlQassemi)
b) Blake Hounshell (http://twitter.com/#!/blakehounshell)
c) Shadi Hamid (http://twitter.com/#!/shadihamid)
Most expensive way to keep Arab Spring at Bay
a) Saudi Arabia: $130-billion for domestic economy; leading $20-billion GCC fund to help Bahrain and Oman
b) Oman
c) Bahrain
Most damaging impact on the economy
a) Egypt - GDP growth of 1% in 2011
b) Bahrain - GDP growth of 3.1% in 2011
c) Tunisia - GDP growth of 1.3% in 2011
Biggest economic beneficiary of Arab Spring
a) The UAE - tourists, funds diverted towards the safe haven
b) Qatar - tourists, funds diverted towards the safe haven
c) Libyan rebels
Biggest political beneficiary of Arab Spring
a) Muslim Brotherhood (Egypt)
b) Al Qaeda (Yemen)
c) Iran
Country least affected by the Arab Spring
a) Israel
b) Qatar
c) Sudan (it was already in chaos)
Most memorable location or monument of Arab Spring
a) Tahrir Square in Cairo
b) Pearl Roundabout in Manama (demolished)
c) Liberation Square in Homs
Post your preferences in the comments below.
© alifarabia.com 2011
