How Peoples movements are deepening democracies the world over!
As the guns fall silent and the sirens stop wailing, as the dust starts to settle and the slogans seem distant, I, a citizen, stand among the chaos and confusion of a people’s movement. Be it Tahrir Square in Egypt, the Ramlila Maidan in India or the Gezi Park in Turkey, the interplay between people’s movements and democracy have become the story of the world in the last couple of years.
The general view on the issue has been very pessimistic where the public uprisings across the world have been seen as a descent into chaos. Ironically, I have been part of endless discussions where interestingly, these people’s movements are seen as a threat to both democracies as well as dictatorships. While dictators see the people as rebels, the democracies see them as anarchists; I see them agents of true democracy!
Let us take a step back and examine what democracy means? The term originates from the Greek dēmokratía, meaning "rule of the people". This strikes me as odd, as none of the places where the above mentioned people’s movements took place, had “rule of the people” and that was precisely the trigger for these uprisings. The protests helped to overthrow autocratic regimes and sought to establish the rule of the people. For example, the Tunisian Revolution which arguably was the starting place for the current round of agitations was an intensive campaign of civil resistance, including a series of street demonstrations taking place in Tunisia. The events began on 18 December 2010 and led to the ousting of longtime President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in January 2011 eventually, leading to a thorough democratization of the country and to free and democratic elections.
Similarly as part of these uprisings, governments have been overthrown in three other countries. In Egypt, President Hosni Mubarak resigned on 11 February 2011 after 18 days of massive protests, ending his 30-year presidency. The Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi was overthrown on 23 August 2011, after the National Transitional Council (NTC) took control of Bab al-Azizia. Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh signed the GCC power-transfer deal in which a presidential election was held, resulting in his successor Abd al-Rab Mansur al-Hadi formally replacing him as the president of Yemen on 27 February 2012, in exchange for immunity from prosecution.
Looking at these examples, I see these movements as a deepening of democracy with people reasserting the “will of the people” and consequently the “rule of the people”. It does not matter how the “rule of the people” is subverted, through unresponsive governance in democracies or through autocratic regimes in dictatorships, wherever popular will has been subverted beyond a point, people have arisen to demand their rights in what we term as movements, uprisings or revolutions. History supports these claims as major progress in societal evolution have been made through people’s movements, be it Martin Luther king proclaiming “I have a dream” or Nelson Madela stitching together a rainbow coalition to end apartheid.
It is indeed true that most of these movements are not pretty and they indeed bring chaos and confusion in the short term, but most importantly they affect “Change”, change that people want! They forge a way forward where people have a voice and true democracy as defined by “Rule of people”, is reasserted. It is true that in the short run, this leads to loss of property, which is truly regrettable and even more so, loss of life which is invaluable but undeniably so, many major human evolutions as a society have entailed some degree of violence. As I see the human tendency towards resolving conflicts with violence and loss has been decreasing over the centuries but it may take a long time before we resolve all conflicts through dialogues and there is no loss of life or property. We as human beings should aspire to be so. As was famously said by Winston Churchill, writing in some of the worst eras of human conflict and loss, quote, “It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried.”
As the guns fall silent and the sirens stop wailing, as the dust starts to settle and the slogans seem distant, I, a citizen of this world, can see dim figures walking through the haze. As they draw near, I can see a Gandhi and I remember “Non-violence”, I see Martin Luther King and I remember “liberty”, I see John F Kennedy and I see “Courage” and lastly I see Malala Yousafzai and I see “Promise”. A promise that the will of the people will always persevere, it might be repressed, and it might be suppressed but it will find the courage to arise though these movements. No matter what the instrument of oppression is, a democracy or dictatorship, the only true democracy is one which seeks to establish the “rule of the people” and all movements which seek to establish just that, are as democratic as an expression of will can ever be.
As the guns fall silent and the sirens stop wailing, as the dust starts to settle and the slogans seem distant, I, a citizen, stand among the chaos and confusion of a people’s movement. Be it Tahrir Square in Egypt, the Ramlila Maidan in India or the Gezi Park in Turkey, the interplay between people’s movements and democracy have become the story of the world in the last couple of years.
The general view on the issue has been very pessimistic where the public uprisings across the world have been seen as a descent into chaos. Ironically, I have been part of endless discussions where interestingly, these people’s movements are seen as a threat to both democracies as well as dictatorships. While dictators see the people as rebels, the democracies see them as anarchists; I see them agents of true democracy!
Let us take a step back and examine what democracy means? The term originates from the Greek dēmokratía, meaning "rule of the people". This strikes me as odd, as none of the places where the above mentioned people’s movements took place, had “rule of the people” and that was precisely the trigger for these uprisings. The protests helped to overthrow autocratic regimes and sought to establish the rule of the people. For example, the Tunisian Revolution which arguably was the starting place for the current round of agitations was an intensive campaign of civil resistance, including a series of street demonstrations taking place in Tunisia. The events began on 18 December 2010 and led to the ousting of longtime President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in January 2011 eventually, leading to a thorough democratization of the country and to free and democratic elections.
Similarly as part of these uprisings, governments have been overthrown in three other countries. In Egypt, President Hosni Mubarak resigned on 11 February 2011 after 18 days of massive protests, ending his 30-year presidency. The Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi was overthrown on 23 August 2011, after the National Transitional Council (NTC) took control of Bab al-Azizia. Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh signed the GCC power-transfer deal in which a presidential election was held, resulting in his successor Abd al-Rab Mansur al-Hadi formally replacing him as the president of Yemen on 27 February 2012, in exchange for immunity from prosecution.
Looking at these examples, I see these movements as a deepening of democracy with people reasserting the “will of the people” and consequently the “rule of the people”. It does not matter how the “rule of the people” is subverted, through unresponsive governance in democracies or through autocratic regimes in dictatorships, wherever popular will has been subverted beyond a point, people have arisen to demand their rights in what we term as movements, uprisings or revolutions. History supports these claims as major progress in societal evolution have been made through people’s movements, be it Martin Luther king proclaiming “I have a dream” or Nelson Madela stitching together a rainbow coalition to end apartheid.
It is indeed true that most of these movements are not pretty and they indeed bring chaos and confusion in the short term, but most importantly they affect “Change”, change that people want! They forge a way forward where people have a voice and true democracy as defined by “Rule of people”, is reasserted. It is true that in the short run, this leads to loss of property, which is truly regrettable and even more so, loss of life which is invaluable but undeniably so, many major human evolutions as a society have entailed some degree of violence. As I see the human tendency towards resolving conflicts with violence and loss has been decreasing over the centuries but it may take a long time before we resolve all conflicts through dialogues and there is no loss of life or property. We as human beings should aspire to be so. As was famously said by Winston Churchill, writing in some of the worst eras of human conflict and loss, quote, “It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried.”
As the guns fall silent and the sirens stop wailing, as the dust starts to settle and the slogans seem distant, I, a citizen of this world, can see dim figures walking through the haze. As they draw near, I can see a Gandhi and I remember “Non-violence”, I see Martin Luther King and I remember “liberty”, I see John F Kennedy and I see “Courage” and lastly I see Malala Yousafzai and I see “Promise”. A promise that the will of the people will always persevere, it might be repressed, and it might be suppressed but it will find the courage to arise though these movements. No matter what the instrument of oppression is, a democracy or dictatorship, the only true democracy is one which seeks to establish the “rule of the people” and all movements which seek to establish just that, are as democratic as an expression of will can ever be.
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