Saturday’s joyous celebrations all over Tunisia on the first anniversary of last year’s people’s revolution were entirely warranted. Tunisia is where the “Arab Spring” started, almost spontaneously, and it is this country where the transition from brutal dictatorship to democracy has been the most peaceful and successful. The other countries that followed with their own people’s uprisings — Egypt and Libya among them — are still unstable.
Indeed Egypt, in the midst of elections, faces internal strife. Key candidate Mohamed ElBaradei has withdrawn from the presidential race, claiming the Army was still clinging to power. There are also concerns that Islamic organisations, which were the most organised civil society groups during the era of dictatorships, are emerging as the new elected rulers. While most dictators were brutal and ruled with an iron hand, most were resolutely secular and kept radical Islamists under check; now, in a democratic setup, these groups are rising fast.
If such groups do win free and fair elections, that will be the will of the people; and trying to keep them out by unfair means or by armed force will be wrong. But as Tunisia has shown, that needn’t happen. Everyone, from leftists to moderate Islamists, have a share in the power structure as a new constitution is debated. One year is too short to arrive at any lasting conclusions about how the future will turn out; but the Arab peoples have shown that the urge for freedom and dignity can triumph over the worst dictatorships.