Now Bahrain

Author: Daily Times

What is happening on the streets of Manama is bearing out the prediction that the virus spread by Tunisia’s revolt will go far and wide in the Middle East. Public protests in Algeria, Jordan, Yemen, Libya, Iran, and now Bahrain to demand democratic rights and the removal of long-time rulers are the symptoms of this spread. Soon after the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak, Egypt-style protests broke out in Bahrain where protesters tried to recreate a Tahrir Square in capital Manama’s Pearl Square. A turnout of 20,000 protesters from a total population of 1.2 million, including expatriates, was an impressive show of strength. Not surprisingly, security forces launched a brutal crackdown and dislodged the protesters, many of them women and children, from Pearl Square in the wee hours of Thursday, where they had stayed for the night after a jubilant protest on Wednesday. Two dead and scores of injured are likely raise sentiments and fuel further protests. Simultaneously, there have been reports of protests from Libya yesterday.

As elsewhere in the Arab world, one family has dominated the country’s power in Bahrain. There is also a sectarian dimension to the problem because a Sunni clique has been ruling over a majority Shia population since the 18th century, keeping a firm control over power by promoting Sunni non-Bahrainis in the security forces. Whatever the outcome of these protests, it is clear that the tide of revolt has jolted Bahrain. Although, like Ben Ali and Mubarak, Bahrain’s monarch has promised reform and a greater measure of political rights to the people in a rare appearance on TV, it is uncertain whether this will pacify the people. History shows that after people’s protest, when autocratic regimes loosen up control, they set up a momentum which makes things more difficult for them rather than improving the situation. It is a moment when autocratic regimes have been overtaken by history. Although the protests are spontaneous and lack clarity of purpose, the demand for civil and political rights has become so strong that ordinary people are thronging to any possibility of change. Many other regimes are shaking in their boots and calculating their own risks. Let us see where this tsunami will stop. *

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