the forgotten change

8/3/2019 The Forgotten Change

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The Forgotten ChangeRevolution that could spiral out of hand

2/24/2011Saifs Denwww.saifsden.blogspot.com | www.facebook.com/saifsden


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www.saifsden.blogspot.com | www.facebook.com/saifsden

Page 1 of4 A publication of Saifs Den | February 2011

The Forgotten Change

Grab the change by the scruff of its neck, or else it would grab you.

In the midst of all the changes, revolutions and upstages that the North Africa and Middle Eastis going through, and we being mere spectator to it, I was instantly recalled of something thattook place not in much distant past. It was interesting that it happened, because not a lot dowe hear from those countries that have been a part of the former Soviet Union for such a longtime. The country that went through turmoil, tumultuous times in 2010 for a change wasKyrgyzstan.

Now for a change that I used in the previous paragraph might have two meanings and theyare meant for the exact purpose. The point being, a change against tyrant rulers, corruptleaders or incapable handlers is always a change that can happen anytime and anywhere, andthat's exactly what happened in Kyrgyzstan. The case of Kyrgyzstan was that the sittingPresident, Kurmanbek Saliyevich Bakiyev, was elected as the President winning by a hugemargin in the presidential election held on 23 July 2009. However, there were numerous callsfrom several quarters, no less than from the main opposition candidate, Almazbek Atambayev,who later withdrew from the elections, citing fraud being used extensively, thus holding theentire election process as illegitimate. This got the backing from The Organisation for Securityand Co-operation in Europe which stated that Kurmanbek Bakiyev had an unfair advantage ofsuperior media coverage of the campaign and vote rigging. Thus, this allowed KurmanbekBakiyev to win the elections by over 70% majority over his rivals.

After assuming the power as the President of Kyrgyzstan, Kurmanbek Bakiyev had to deal witha number of issues during the winter of 2009-10 with the country in constant rolling blackoutdue to power shortage. Furthermore, the prices of the energy rose during the period also. Soto address the issue of power shortage, in January 2010, a delegation, headed by Kurmanbek'sson, was sent to China to discuss improved economic relationship, and a contract of $342million was signed between Kyrgyzstan national electric company Natsionalnayaelectricheskaya syet and the Chinese Tebian Electric to build the Datka-Kemin powertransmission line. Though the steps taken, in February, it didnt curb the rising prices of energytariffs heating cost increased by 400% and electricity by 170%. There was also a growingfrustration and agitation in Kyrgyzstan where there were numerous reports suggesting tocorruption and cronyism in Kurmanbek's adminstration. Add to that, the economic situationof the country further deteriorated over the period, resulting in choatic protests in thecountry.

During the month of April 2010, there were several protests against the governement,Kurmanbek's administration and the sluggish economy. These protests witnessed numerousclashes between the people and the police, resulting in injuries as well as deaths. With theevents unfolding quickly during the month, on April 15, the President Kurmanbek Bakiyevrendered his resignation from the office and fleeing the country into exile to Belarus. As allthese events unfolded in April, the opposition leaders had selected Roza Otunbayeva as thehead of the interim government and later on July 3, 2010, she was sworn into the office as the

acting President.


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It was interesting to happen in Kyrgyzstan, being a Muslim country, for a number of reasons asthe country's head was accused of massive corruption, the economy being damp, the risingprices of energy and the relationship between Kyrgyzstan and United States, especially thepresence of a US military base in the country, all resulting in frustration among the masses ofthe country. Thus it has been extremely intriguing to keep a track of the events taking place inNorth Africa and Middle East.

The countries that make up of the region have seen massive protests in the past couple ofmonths, with the likes of Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Algeria, Yemen, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Omanand many others in the regions. In fact, Tunisia and Egypt have experienced revolution on14th January and 11th February, respectively, when the demonstrators against theirrespective regimes were successful in ousting their sitting presidents. Tunisia's formerPresident, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, had ruled the country for 24 years while Hosni Mubarakhad been the ruler of Egypt for 32 years. The upstaging of these near-constant rulers was led

due to the same reasons as it had been the case in Kyrgyzstan. Though there had been otherreasons pertaining to its own country but the basic reasons had been the same that isunemployment, lack of freedom, democracy, and corruption of Presidents and of theiradministration.

With such an uprising in the Muslims countries, this does beg a question to all the leaders ofthese countries, have they been honest to their people? More to it, have all Muslims leaderslearnt their lessons well? As far as personal opinion is concerned, Kyrgyzstan's case was thebest example for all the leaders to have straightened their backs and rectified their mistakes.But I am afraid, atleast the sitting Presidents of Tunisia, Egypt and, as events are taking place,Libya hadn't learnt from what happened in Kyrgyzstan. If these so-called leaders assume thatthe people are weak and can be ordered as they wish to have them, then they have found it totheir own disadvantage the bitter reality of this world.

What separates the people of this era from the past decades is that people are more informedabout what's happening around the world. This era is termed as the Era of Information. So it isevident that the leaders of Tunisia and Egypt had taken over their countries about 25-30 yearsago and they had safely assumed that they are ruling the same people whom they havesuppressed all these years. However in the age of Internet, and in a time where a newsspreads like a fire in the bushes, no matter how much the leaders try to contain the news,information and data, they can not completely shut it off from it being accessed by people. The

leaders did every thing in their power to take away the rights of their own people so that theystay loyal to them, but it wasn't to be. The walls started to crack, the walls that people like BenAli and Hosni Mubarak had created to bound their own people had started to shake, especiallywhen a 28 year old person named Khalid Saeed was tortured to death by 2 Egyptian securityofficials in Egypt and the images of his badly beaten corpse had surfaced on a famous socialnetworking website. The outcry and international attention to the issue did create a panicamong the ranks of Egypt which led to the prosecution of the 2 security officials, howeverthings had already started to change in Egypt.

We talk about the change that was brought about by people, who stood up against alladversaties and fought the tyrant rulers to oust them from power. Many hundreds precious


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lives were lost, thousands injured during the uprising but that didnt deter the people fromtheir task. This is to prove that if people have the strenght and courage then anything ispossible. On the contrary where there are good points, there are a few gray areas to be pointedout as well. First of all, 'What next?' is the important question to be asked to the people oftheir countries.

It is worth mentioning here the fact that the countries who have experienced the change andrevolution in their country haven't actually settled down completely. There are on and offincidences of disturbances and disruptions in the cities. I had started off by describing aboutthe case of Kyrgyzstan and I would cite the example of it again to prove a point that suchchanges and revolutions once achieved, do not generally guarantee a complete calm and peacewithin the country.

Following the uprising in Kyrgyzstan in 2010 and the eventual toppling over of thegovernment, in June 2010 with the interim government in power, the south of Kyrgyzstan had

started to burn on fire due to ethnic violences between the Kyrgyz and the, fairly minor,Uzbeks. The riots that had spread to the Southern city of Kyrgyzstan, Osh from Jalal-Abad wasprimarily in the aftermath of the ouster of Kurmanbek Bakiyev. The voilence in the city of Oshhad spread so much by June 9 that the interim government had to declare a state ofemergency on June 12. The result of the clashes was that it had taken lives of more 2000people and had displaced nearly 100,000. The experts had pointed out that the interimgovernment wasn't efficient enough and there was a massive power struggle among the ranksof the politicians. There was several fingers-pointing and talks of possible instigator of theriots in the country between the two ethnicities but the fact remains that there was enoughchaos already in Kyrgyzstan that prevented the country to establish itself from its "revolution."

Looking at the other side of the spectrum, we find ourselves that Tunisia and Egypt have gotrid of their old regimes, but we also find the two countries in a very perilous situation, muchlike Kyrgyzstan. I would be lieing if I claim to know the dynamics of the two countries inquestion, however I can myself relate to the people of Tunisia and Egypt. But what is unfoldingin these 2 countries since the daylight of change is that there have been constant disturbancesin the country. On March 8, there were reports from Cairo, Egypt of tensions, with no less thanthirteen deaths, as a result of sectarian clashes between Muslims and Christians, where thelatter were protesting for better equality. Then last week, we had reports from Tunisia that theprotests haven't yet subsided because people wanted to see the back of the Prime Minister,Mohammed Ghannouchi, citing him to be a close aide of the deposed President Ben-Ali, who

was the interim Prime Minister after the regime had ended in the first place. People in Egypthave yet again taken to the streets, demanding the alleged corrupt ministers to be brought tojustice who under Hosni Mubarak. On the other side, the political confusion that engulfsTunisia has also marred the euphoria that had gripped the country ever since the exodus ofBen-Ali. There have been serious issues with refugee-seekers flooding into neighbouringcountries as the unrest in their countries grows, making lives difficult on either side. The twocountries and its reformist are working hard to arrest control over the issues but the newsand reports keep flooding about the unrest in the countries, thus, now, they have a plateful ofissues to take care in the coming weeks.

It has become extremely important for the reformists of the countries to make sure they don't


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go Kyrgyzstan path, where the interim government failed miserably to give its people for whatthey stood and fought against Kurmanbek Bakiyev, plus the power struggle in the countryresulted in unprecedented ethnical clashes between Kyrgyz and Uzbeks. The reformist alongwith the army of the country should join hands to first bring peace and restore law and orderin the cities of the countries which understandibly had been lost during the days of uprising.Secondly, the interim governments should be put in place to take control of the proceedings asthat would leave an institution to look after the country's resources for the mean time whilethe country's future advances into a transitional period. This transitional period, where theintellectual, political and religious scholars, army personnels and reformists sit down to forma constitution for the country where they lay down the basic structure of the politics as well aslegislative requirements. From there onwards, the care-taker government should hasten theprocess of elections once they have selected a set of patriotic, loyal, fair and educatedcandidates who can run the country and then leave the outcome of the elections upto thepeople who fought for a pro-democracy in the country.

I dare say this, it is a difficult task to stand up against rulers like Ben-Ali and Hosni Mubarak -who have ruled for decades, who had formed their own external allies, who had their ownsecret security personnels and their own parties, who had curbed the rights of their ownpeople but this was just the beginning of a new beginning for the people of Tunisia andEgypt, and for the rest of the people in countries like Libya, Bahrain, Algeria, Yemen and Syriawho are struggling for that new beginning. If they don't tread carefully in this mist of perils,then things can go horribly wrong for themselves and, as a result, for the entire world.

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the forgotten change

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