Rethinking Revolution

By Kawa Hassan:

How to make sense of the popular protests in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), started on December 17, 2010 in Tunisia?

To begin with, these protests are not a Spring as they are portrayed by most commentators. The Spring is superficial, a passive phenomenon, referring to a brief or limited transitional moment that soon gives way to the next season of summer and therefore it is misleading. It doesn’t reflect the real essence of democratic struggle by empowered citizens and groups that confront and bring down entrenched authoritarian regimes, against all odds. So, if it is not a Spring, what is it? In other words, which R of the three Rs – i.e. revolution, revolt or refo-lution  – reflects its reality? And is this simply a semantic issue?

Revolution refers to pre-planned protests that lead to fundamental and institutional changes in power relations; revolt – or uprising – is a refusal to obey or disorder; while ‘refo-lution’ represents the paradoxical combination of revolution and reform in a process that aims at structural changes but through the overhaul of existing structures, in short revolution through reform.

These protests are revolutions, but not in the traditional sense of the word. The structural, socio-economic and political developments over the past five decades paved the path for an invisible, triple revolution that consists of educational, gender and political revolutions.

In their attempts to modernize societies, authoritarian (secular) autocrats like Bourguiba invested in higher education and improvements of women rights. Higher education led to an increase in political awareness, high expectations and demands of the youth for job opportunities and political freedom. But the post-colonial state failed to meet these demands. As a result, the region reached a political and social deadlock for decades wherein feelings of incapacity, helplessness and incapacitation proliferated. Yet, against this background, it was the self-immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi in Tunisia that triggered mass protests and transformed the region. By his self-immolation Bouazizi captured and symbolised the deep sense of dispossession of the peoples of the region. That is why the word ‘dignity’ has become the meta-narrative of these revolutions – one that is shared, produced and propagated by all political and social groups, secular and Islamist alike. Indeed, the sense of collective dispossession and the joint embracement of dignified citizenship allowed these revolutions to be largely leaderless.

It is therefore high time to rethink the concept of revolution as we know it. Indeed it is high time for a paradigm shift since the French, Russian and Chinese revolutions – among others – are apparently still our key reference points. Particularly this applies to Western orientalists who argued for decades that MENA societies were incapable of revolting against oppressive regimes because of their ‘undemocratic culture’ and Islam. But it also applies to Talabani -and his comrades-in-arms like Maliki, Assad and Hassan Nasrallah of Hezbollah, to name a few – who argue that this is not a revolution since it is leaderless. Such a paradigm shift would reflect the diversity of revolution models by realizing and recognizing that a revolution does not always need to be pre-planned, with the involvement of a distinct and identified leadership, but rather it may be the cumulative result of the gradual emergence of loose, leaderless networks.

In addition, the dignity revolutions lay to rest two paradigms that have shaped the thinking about MENA – both in the region and beyond – namely the ‘passive Arab subject’ and ‘Arab Exceptionalism’.  These have to be replaced by the new paradigm of ‘Tahrir Square Republic’ that symbolises Arab citizens’ determination to bring down dictators, unity between Muslims and Christians and womens’ empowerment and participation – secular and Islamist alike – in square politics and deep democracy alongside and with men.

References:

Hassan, Kawa, Regional Perspectives on the ‘Diginity Revolutions’: How Middle Eastren Activists Perceive Popular Protest, Policy Paper 3, Knowledge Programme Civil Society in West Asia , November 2011.

Khouri, Rami, ‘Arab Spring or Revolutions’,  www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/opinion/arab-spring-or-revolution/article2132994/ accessed, 1 May 2012.

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