By Abdelkader Zerougui
A new order is in the making in the Arab lands. So far Zine Eddine Ben Ali of Tunisia and Honsi Mubarak of Egypt ― two notorious dictators have fallen, and the rest of the authoritarian regimes are on their way to doomsday. The youth spontaneously went to the streets, bear hands, and calling for "freedom," and "dictators out."
These slogans have resonated in the streets of Libya, Yemen, Bahrain and Morocco. The last dictators and medieval monarchs are cornered. They are running out of options and out of steam. The people want freedom, justice and the rule of law. Concessions that will make their shaky castles crumble to the ground.
What is remarkable is that these popular movements were ahead of every political and religious movement. The politicians, the nomenclature and Arab intellectual elites were unable to absorb or comprehend the speed and the spontaneity of this social upheaval.
Even the local Arab media could not cope with the flow of information and digest its enormity. Arab regimes that are still relatively immune to the coming anger have suddenly opened their safe deposit boxes to shower the masses with pay increases, debt relief, jobs and housing, hoping that these carrots will postpone their inevitable demise.
Edward Said's thesis about Orientalism can now be empirically corrected. Eurocentrism and its narratives are now face-to-face with the Arab masses who are claiming their destiny and their heritage. To understand what is happening in the Arab world and its present transformations, we need to reverse Said's critique of Orientalism.
The process of rewriting the past can now be achieved by espousing humanity's universal values of freedom and the rule of law, values that remained alien to the Arab regimes for the past 60 years.
The end of the dictatorship is a leap into the future, and the defeat of the old order that crippled the Arab potential and served as the incubator of all forms of radicalism, terrorism and religious fanaticism.
The West never excluded the Arab and Islamic world as it was often portrayed by Said. The Arab world through its medieval regimes was responsible for its own political ghettos, and its own isolation from world civilization.
Arab dictators and medieval monarchs ― with no vision, no societal projects, and no class ― have engaged for decades in the darkest and most heinous crimes against their own populations.
The so-called Eurocentrism can now be corrected by these courageous youths. A correction of history is taking place fostered by these people who are dying in the streets. They are not standing against a mythical enemy called 'imperialism," but they are here today to claim their heritage that was robbed from them by post-colonial thugs.
These youths dying in the streets of Benghazi, Manama and Sanaa are doing so that their countries will join the civilized world and adhere to the universal values of freedom and the rule of law.
History is now vindicating the universality of democracy and liberal values. Reaganism has triumphed over George W. Bush’s neo-conservatism. The demise of the Soviet Union and now the crumbling regimes of the Arab world are taking place without bullets.
Abdelkader Zerougui, Ph.D., is an adjunct professor of sociology at American University in Washington, D.C. He can be reached at Zerouguiabdelkader@yahoo.com.