There is a world of difference between Egypt's people's power uprising and the ongoing Syrian revolt.
In Egypt, there were specific local developments that in combination with the overthrow by popular action of Tunisia's President Zine Al Abidine Ben Ali prompted millions of Egyptians to raise the standard of rebellion. The first was the public murder by police officers of Alexandrian businessman Khaled Said in June 2010, the second was the unprecedented rigging of the parliamentary election in November.
The killing of the businessman prompted blogger Wael Ghoneim to create his Facebook page: "We are all Khaled Said", with the aim of pointing out to Egyptians that they were all vulnerable to violent attack by police officers who, during the 30-year reign of ousted president Hosni Mubarak acted with impunity. The entire election process was so clumsily manipulated and the result so skewed that it had no credibility with the majority of Egyptians; only 5-10 per cent of whom bothered to vote. The regime was, therefore, seen as both brutal and lacking popular support.
Although several Egyptians followed the example of Tunisian vegetable vendor Mohammad Bouazizi, who sparked his country's uprising by setting himself alight in protest against police harassment, subsequent Egyptian self-immolations were not a major cause of Egypt's largely peaceful mass uprising.
The spark that lit the fire of revolt in Syria was the arrest in mid-March of 15 teenagers who spray painted on walls in the southern city of Daraa the provocative slogan from Egypt's uprising: "The people want the end of the regime". The boys, who were imitating Egyptian youth, almost certainly did not understand the significance of what they wrote. When their relatives protested their detention, the provincial governor came down hard, launching the cycle of violence that has characterised the Syrian unrest.
The square before Al Omari Mosque in the southern Syrian city of Daraa is not Cairo's iconic Tahrir Square. Daraa, a city of 75,000, is a provincial backwater in the poor, neglected Houran region of Syria. Cairo, which has a population of 18 million, was until recently the political and cultural capital of the Arab world. The Cairo square, originally named Ismailiya Square by the Khedive Ismail in the late 19th century, became known as Tahrir (Liberation) Square after the revolution of 1919. The name was formally conferred on the site by the army officers led by Colonel Gamal Abdel Nasser who took power from the British-backed king in 1952, an event that shook the entire Arab world.
While the Egyptian uprising was launched by young educated Egyptians connected to one another by the Internet, their initial demonstrations surprised them by attracting tens of thousands of Egyptians alerted by mobile phones and by word-of-mouth on a face-to-face rather than Faceook basis. They were from all walks of life and all classes: professionals, civil servants, academics, artists, taxi drivers, workers in defence industries and textile mills.
They hailed from most of the towns and provinces of the country - Alexandria, Suez, Port Said, Tanta and Luxor - but the rural and urban poor were not heavily represented.
Although foreign journalists have not been able to access Syrian demonstrations to assess the social composition of the protesters, it appears that most come from marginalised, impoverished rural and urban communities like the people of Daraa and neighbouring towns. There have been small rallies at universities and in Damascus and Aleppo, the country's two largest cities, but the middle class does not seem to be strongly involved.
From the outset, Egyptians demanded an end to the Mubarak regime and stuck to this demand until he fell. Then, they called for the release of prisoners, the cancellation of the 1981 emergency law, the dissolution of the state security apparatus and the ruling National Democratic Party, free elections, multiparty democracy and a new constitution.
The people of Daraa initially pressed for the freeing of the detained teens. When the authorities cracked down killing people, protesters put forward a series of fresh demands: release of all political prisoners, an end to repression, investigation of violence against protesters, and an end to corruption and mismanagement. These were demands participants could understand.
Outside organisers operating on the Internet added more sophisticated demands, similar to those of the Egyptians.
In Egypt, the democracy movement has been dominated by secular activists. At first, the Muslim Brotherhood, the largest and most organised opposition organisation, boycotted protests. But after a few days, it reluctantly permitted members to take part. Since Mubarak's ouster, the Brotherhood has tried to both play the game of the generals, who assumed presidential powers, and court the democracy movement, which remains suspicious of its intentions.
In Syria, mosques have played a major role in activating and organising protests. The administrator of the most influential Syrian webpage "Syrian Revolution 2011", Fida Ad Din Tariif As Sayed Isa, is reported to be Syrian Muslim Brotherhood member who lives in Sweden and has contact with Egyptian counterparts. In his "Syria Comment" blog, US expert Joshua Landis says the Isa website has "over 130,000 members and is a major source of news and YouTube videos" about the uprising.
The underground Syrian Brotherhood is the only opposition group capable of organising the rural and urban poor who have been sidelined by the country's economic reforms, which have benefitted the country's large middle and upper classes. Thousands of Syrian farm families, including those in the Daraa area, have been forced off the land and into city slums by years of drought. Urban unemployment has soared, exacerbating resentment against the government. The needy have turned to religion and social conservatism, making them particularly vulnerable to Brotherhood organisers.
In Egypt, the army was not used to put down the protests. Mubarak had relied on the despised and discredited internal security forces which killed, wounded, arrested and abused protesters.
He also attempted to intimidate those in Tahrir Square by ordering helicopters and, occasionally, warplanes to overfly the site. But more than two weeks of rising unrest cost Mubarak the backing of the army high command - which feared defections from middle-ranking officers - and he was ordered to resign. His ouster involved a military coup rather than toppling by people's power.
In Syria, both plainclothes security agents and the armed forces have been involved in suppressing the protests. The deployment on the weekend of tanks and troops in Daraa and the Damascus suburb of Douma was meant to send a message to the country that the armed forces stand behind the regime.
Finally, independent media played a major role in the Egyptian uprising by informing the world of developments as they unfolded.
Electrifying media coverage from Tahrir Square forced the Egyptian authorities to withdraw police commandos from the streets on January 28 and to rein in interior ministry elements.
The exclusion of foreign media from Syria has given the authorities more freedom to crack down on protesters. Amateur video smuggled out of the country and images posted on the Internet by opponents of the regime have not made up for the absence of serious professionals reporting from the field. This has led to opposition exaggerations and condemnation of the government, which has failed to counter hyped reports.
Syrian exiles not involved in the protests are confused about the situation and concerned about the future of their country.
© Jordan Times 2011
