Wednesday, February 2, 2011

"VOICES OF THE VOICELESS IN THE AGE OF THE INTERNET AND SOCIAL MEDIA"

The age of  the Internet and the social media have changed the political landscape of the Arab World in particular and the entire world in general in this 21st century. These technologies have empowered the voiceless, marginalized, ordinary and oppressed peoples of the world with political education, political power, information, knowledge, avenues for interactions, unity and mobilization forum to organize themselves toward their desired political goal or a common cause.

This political education is the power that is producing the current political revolution that is sweeping across the Arab World in this 21st century unabated. These leaderless revolutions are powered by common people in the Arab World. The whole world was taken by a big surprise recently with the revolts that started in the social media in the small Arab nation of Tunisia and then became an open political movement supported by the masses of the people, and it then grew larger and larger by the day and finally claimed its first victim from power, Mr. Ben Ali the then President of Tunisia after almost 24 years in office.

These revolution has now reached the biggest Arab country in the Middle East and has shaken the political power that be in Egypt for the last 30 years violently. The outcome is still unpredictable or unknown for now. But no matter what happens in Egypt at the end of the day, it will affect the whole region politically, economically and socially at the end of the day. The impacts of these revolutions in Tunisia and in Egypt have now reached the other Arab nations of Yemen, Jordan and Sudan.

These political developments in Tunisia and also in Egypt have forced the King Abdullah of Jordan to bow to the public protests by ordinary Jordanians calling for political and economic reforms in the country. The King immediately sacked all the members of his entire cabinet and appointed a new Prime Minister Al-Bakhit.

King Abdullah ordered Al-Bakhit to "undertake quick and tangible steps for real political reforms, which reflect our vision for comprehensive modernization and development in Jordan."
"Economic reform is a necessity to provide a better life for our people," the king said in the statement. "But we won't be able to attain that without real political reforms, which must increase popular participation in the decision-making."
Jordan's most powerful opposition group, the Muslim Brotherhood, dismissed the changes as cosmetic.
"We reject the new prime minister and we will continue our protests until our demands are met,"

In Yemen, the sit-tight leader of that troubled and divided nation also bowed down to the political pressures and protests from the opposition groups and protesters. Thousands of Yemenis took to the street all over the country last week and demanded for a change in government. President Ali Abdullah Saleh announced today that he would not seek a re-election in 2013 when his current term would end, and he also said that he will not also transfer the presidential power to his 32 years old son who heads the elite Republican Guard. The opposition politicians and groups in Yemen responded to this announcement from President Ali Abdullah Saleh with skepticism.

Big political protests were also reported in Khartoum, the capital of Sudan by opposition groups calling for a change of government in Sudan. The Sudanese authorities came against these protesters with the state power to suppress it for now. These uprisings may appeared to be dead in Sudan for now, it will soon come back with a bigger force for change. From the accounts of political history, the collective will of the people is always superior, supreme and victorious over the will of any dictator that ruled in history.

If these protests in Egypt succeeded and resulted in the removal of the President Hosni Mubarak from power, then the aftermath consequences will reverberate so much in the corridors of power of the entire Arab World and the Middle East in particular and the world in general. This may also be the biggest game changer of the 21st century in the Arab World that could eventually change the entire political landscape of the whole Middle East for many decades to come.

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