Revolution

Gaddafi is dead. But it’s just icing on the cake. The real story is the revolution that happened a few months ago. People held mass rallies and captured one city at a time. Gaddafi held on to power. His men plowed the streets with tanks and Kalashnikovs. But the protests didn’t let up, the country descended into civil war, and lives were lost but victory was won.

We had the same revolution many years before but I was too young then to participate in mass protests. On TV, we saw millions of people came out in the streets in the capital city of Manila. But they sing and held hands. There was no bloodshed. And people were giving out food to soldiers and placing roses on tank nozzles. In its aftermath, we installed a new president and she had her own cabinet in a few days time, and people went about their business, then things kind of return to normal.

Now that Libya is freed after 42 years, what’s next? How’s power turned over? It should learn from Egypt, which also had its own revolution a few months ago. After the successful uprising a holdover military junta became the takeover government, but it wasn’t functioning right and the whole country fell into anarchy, which is a prelude to chaos. And right now there is chaos in Egypt. People fear for their lives. Lawless elements are empowered to loot and steal and destroy property. Crimes are exploding everywhere. Libya seems to be heading in that direction since there is no apparent takeover government.

A few more months before the Egyptian revolution (after 30 years under Hosni Mubarak) Tunisia hugged the headlines when a man burned himself to death following police brutality. It sparked protests (against unemployment, corruption and repression) that culminated in a revolution and triggering what is now called the Arab Spring. Today 23 October 2011, Tunisia is holding its first free elections after 23 years of Totalitarian rule by Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali.

There is agitation in the entire region, and beyond. There are civil uprisings in Algeria, Morocco and Mauritania, major protests in Syria, Yemen and Oman. Ditto with Bahrain, Jordan and Lebanon. Saudi Arabia will suffer the same fate if not for newly installed reforms. A few months ago the right of suffrage was bestowed on women for the first time, and just recently women are now allowed to run for public office. In the recent past, women were considered second-class citizens and constrained to hide behind their burkas in public places. Will the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia be spared from this string of revolutions that gripped North Africa? It now creeps across the Sinai Peninsula towards the Middle East. Like the plague, revolution spreads, fast and furious!