Arab Leaders Worried As Fruit Seller Sets off Revolution in Tunisia

On January 14, 2011, the world, especially the Arabs, witnessed an unexpected development in Tunisia, as the 23 years of iron-fisted rule of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in Tunisia was toppled by violent mass protests because of the increasing rates of unemployment and corruption in the North African country.

According to reports, the protests were supposedly sparked when Mohamed Bouazizi, a university graduate but jobless 26-year old Tunisian who was trying to make a living out of selling vegetables, set himself on fire last December 17 because the police arrested him and confiscated his stock due to a lack of permit to sell vegetables. He died last January 4 due to burns he had acquired during his protest.

His death had awakened the anger of the Tunisian people, leading to many mass protests which rocked the region both in the streets and in the social networking sites of Facebook and Twitter. They mourned the death of the fruit seller but at the root of it all, the Tunisian people sent a message to their leaders: that they were already sick of a soaring unemployment rate for the youth, rising prices of commodities, and long-standing corruption perpetuated by their leaders.

It is however early to say whether The Jasmine Revolution will go beyond Tunisia borders although there are reports of several copy-cat suicide attempts across the borders in Egypt, Algeria and Mauritania. In Egypt, one protester has already died from wounds suffered after he set himself on fire protesting against the price of food.

This is not the first time a small incident has set off a chain of events that has had global ramifications.

This was especially true for the First World War. History records that it was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, the heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, on June 28, 1914 that had triggered off a chain of events that eventually led to First World War.

Of course, there were long-term causes to the war, but this small event catalyzed the conflict. The assassination by a Yugoslav nationalist resulted in a Habsburg ultimatum against the Kingdom of Serbia. With the several alliances already forged over the past decade, the major powers were at war within weeks; and through their respective colonies and allies, the conflict spread fast around the world.

In these modern times, the historic turn of events in Tunisia has sent shockwaves throughout the Arab world. The Middle East had not been a witness to such an event ever since Iran’s ousting of a US-backed Shah in 1979. Now, Arab leaders are worried over what has happened in Tunisia and they have a reason to do so.

The Tunisia ‘revolution’ has broken a psychological barrier in other countries marked with the same conditions as Tunisia: Years of authoritarian regimes, political repression, and lack of jobs and opportunities, even for the well-educated. The Tunisians has shown the whole Arab world that the youth in the region are restless and angry.

They have definitely high-lighted the fact that they are not afraid of the bullets of the government anymore if only to change their country. Whether it is for the better is yet to be seen.

There have been reports that an apparent imitation of the self-immolation by Bouazizi had occurred in Algeria due to the same reasons as in Bouazizi case. And in Jordan there have been food protests albeit on a smaller scale. A restaurant owner and father of four from the city of Ismailia, east of the Egyptian capital, Cairo set himself on fire outside the parliament building.
He shouted anti-government slogans before pouring fuel on his clothes and setting himself alight, witnesses said.

Policemen nearby managed to put out the flames, and the man is now in a stable health condition in hospital, officials said. The action echoes that of the Tunisian whose self-immolation sparked a wave of protest in the country that brought down the government.

The man in Cairo has been identified as Abdu Abdel-Monaim Kamal, a 50-year-old. The website of Egypt’s leading Al-Ahram daily said he had repeatedly held heated arguments with local officials over the price of bread and other food commodities.
An Egyptian health ministry spokesman said the man Mr Abdel-Monaim would most likely be released within 48 hours, after being treated for superficial burns, mostly to his chest, neck, hands and legs.

For most of the Arab countries, the fuel for public unrest had been there for the longest time. But no one dared create a spark until recently. Now, the fire is already raging. The question remains: What will this mean for the region and their leaders?