Why Saudi Meddling Is No Longer Tenable
Why India is no villain
Israel No Longer Concerned About Egyptian Anti-Semitism
No Longer Youngest Dad At Thirteen!
No longer loneliness for Mumbai white tigers
Saudi Religious Police Say No To Red & Valentine's Day
After the Tunisian revolutionary many Tunisians may have worried that Arab authoritarian states would seek to sabotage the revolution for fear that a successful transition to democracy and a free society in the Arab world, an actual one that delivers peace and prosperity unlike the free but sectarian and unstable counter-examples of Lebanon and Iraq, would set a precedent and increase great pressure for liberalization among their people and many may seek to emulate the Tunisian revolution.
I greatly underestimated the restlessness of the Arab people in not foreseeing how quickly Tunisia's revolution would spill over into the rest of the region. The toppling of an Arab tyrant was so dramatic and so long over due, and due in such inspiring people power, that Arabs in other police states could not wait any longer.
Prior to the Egyptian revolution and the current uprising in Libya, Algeria, Morocco, Jordan, Yemen, Bahrain and now Oman; many Arab regimes had the luxury of attention to devote to Tunisia and perhaps seek to support Islamist elements (like, say, Saudi Arabia and Qatar) due to their aversion to a secular revolution or do whatever (buying politicians) in order to undermine Tunisian democracy so that their people will not much longer find the Tunisian example appeal and settle for the devil they know.
That was then. But with Egypt now in its own upheaval and with the Saudis surrounded by revolutions and exhausting tens of billions to appease their reform-minded people, these regimes have been either overthrown and the remenets are consumed with a transition or fearful of such a fate that they ware not too busy with their own internal affairs to meddle in the doings of others. The Saudis can longer afford the era of seeking to manage several countries is now they seek to manage with great anxiety their own nation which may soon rebel.
Tunisians should count another blessing. Now they can plan their revolution away from foreign hands and do so in a better peace. Now, if only the Tunisian people could start working on the necessary compromise amongst them.
