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Jan 01, 2012 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon
There is a particular image of 2011 that will remain with me for the rest of my life. It is a photograph of a rebel-fighter shooting back at Gaddafi loyalists during a street battle. He was wearing a pair of rubber slippers. It showed this man’s phenomenal sacrifice for his country.
How could someone engage in modern warfare in the open streets with state-of-the-art machine guns and wear a pair of slippers? I looked at that picture several times and I thought to myself that there must be others like him in Libya among the revolutionary groups. They symbolize the courage humans embody when they fight for freedom.
I don’t believe in the death penalty. If I have to vote in a referendum for its abolition, I would do so. But I couldn’t lie to myself; I was glad that Saddam Hussein was hanged. He was a diabolical monster that killed untold numbers. I had the identical feeling about Gaddafi.
It is funny how history repeats itself. Hussein was found like a rat living in an underground hole. Gaddafi was detected hiding in a sewage pipe. Both men found it extraordinarily easy to extinguish the lives of innocent people but loved their own lives to the point where self-humiliation was readily accepted in order save their own lives.
The year that has just ended can be likened to the historical periods of the Renaissance and the Enlightenment. This may be more than a slight exaggeration, but I will stick with my description, because the Arab Spring in 2011 has instructed mankind that one day, civilization will free itself of evil leaders.
It is a law of society and it will happen no matter how long it takes. In Tunisia, a market vendor torched himself over his mistreatment and sparked a revolution. But the world felt a huge touch of optimism about life and the future when Mubarak in Egypt and Gaddafi in Libya were overthrown.
Populism is a type of political economy that has at its centre-piece the institution of benevolent dictatorship. In populism, the maximum leader is invincible alright, but he is known to be considerate and moderately oppressive. His preoccupation is with development and poverty alleviation.
It is said that Nasser in Egypt, Tito in Yugoslavia, Sukarno in Indonesia and Peron in Argentina, fit the description of populist dictators. Mubarak and Gaddafi failed to qualify. Both men were ruthless and corrupt.
As we write, another Arab autocracy seems to be heading for the domino effect. Syria may fall, but not before its president would have killed thousands who have protested against his aged, tyrannical reign. From the Arab Spring has sprung new hope that around the world, totalitarian dictators who rule by violent willingness will soon be toppled.
If any year has been one in which the human mind can be assured that the torch of freedom will always burn, it was 2011.
Across the globe, waves of protest inspired people to believe that a just society with equal rights are values to be fought for, even in the most enduring democracies. While the Arab Spring dominated global headlines, brave citizens were confronting their insensitive governments in what we have come to accept as the democratic West.
In Greece, countless numbers refused to accept conservative fiscal policies that would hurt the poor and powerless. They almost succeeded in burning down Athens. Their energies led to a national government that will have to pay attention to the well-being of the lower classes.
In the US, the protest movement Occupy Wall Street has spread to other Western, democratic states like the UK and Canada. These protest movements have perhaps changed the face of capitalism forever.
If any year has been an instructive one for the defenders of Western-style capitalism it was 2011. While one may argue that socialism is hardly an alternative, the West (particularly the US) simply can no longer ignore the inherent weakness and fundamental flaws in the type of economic system that it has come to accept as gospel.
Capitalism in 2011 showed that it was not working. There has been a canopy of gloom over the economy of all of Europe and the US last year. Simply put – western capitalism cannot go on to be the unbridled system that it is.
Finally, in Russia, where Vladimir Putin openly rigged the parliamentary elections, the Russian people have found their voices. In 2011, Putin was exposed for what he is – an anachronistic throw back to communist savagery.
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