4 - 10 January 2001
Issue No.515
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Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 4 - 10 January 2001 Issue No.515 |
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People of the year
If one had to choose a person of the year for 2000 from the Arab world, or the Middle East at large, the obvious choice would be those of the region's peoples that managed to impose their will on governments, forcing them to respond to popular demands and thereby actively contributing to shaping their countries' history. For the first time in the modern era, it is clear that the peoples of this part of the world are neither anaesthetised nor unconscious, forever waiting for a military elite to effect a revolution and lead them into the future.
Who would have thought that the illusion of American-mediated peace with which 2000 began would amount to nothing? The Arab peoples initially had faith in the advent of peace and began preparing for a new epoch of understanding, stability and cooperation. The thinly veiled calamity was indeed on the point of happening at Camp David, when the Palestinian Authority and the Arab states appeared to be on the verge of an agreement that not only would deprive the Palestinians of their rights but would make Jerusalem off limits to Muslims and Christians everywhere.
If not for the Intifada, that peace might have been implemented. Yet popular outrage at the dark future to which the PA was about to acquiesce could not be quelled. Martyrs are still being gunned down every day. If not for this heroism, the will of the Palestinian people would have been crushed, the efforts of the opposition obliterated and the status of Palestine ultimately reduced to that of a canton under Israeli "protection."
It is the will of the Palestinians, and the sacrifices they have made, that sabotaged their political leadership's plans to give in. Similarly, the will of the Lebanese people and Hizbullah's heroic resistance liberated southern Lebanon by bringing about Israel's withdrawal from territories it had occupied for decades. In neither case did governments play a significant role. The people took resistance into their own hands, and have paid dearly for the choices they made.
At another crossroads in the history of the popular struggle for democracy, freedom and human rights, the Egyptian people scored a triumph that could be considered limited by international standards but remains a step forward nonetheless. For the first time since the middle of the century that has just drawn to a close, general elections were held under judicial supervision with some degree of integrity. The results effected a perceptible change on the map of political life, whose principal characteristics for many years were rigidity and stagnation. This opened the door to new currents of change and pluralism, which will inject political life with a significant degree of vitality. The Egyptian people will enjoy once again the right to assess the performance of its leaders.
But perhaps the most genuine struggle for democracy and freedom is the one put up by the Iranian people against both their excessively religious leaders (a struggle that has taken many unprecedented forms -- a truly popular struggle involving university students, intellectuals, artists and enlightened men of religion) and against international attacks on the state itself.
In these three instances, with the Palestinian Intifada topping the list, people are engaged in daily battles, of which they bear the burden alone. The price is paid by simple people, ordinary citizens whose pictures are not published, who are never in the limelight and to whom the media pays little attention. These are the real heroes of 2000, and perhaps of future years too.
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