After years of supporting the regime of Zein Al-Abidine Bin Ali, the West's belated support for the Tunisian uprising smacks of double standards, says Mohamed El-Mokhtar Sidi Haiba* Tunisia is a compelling case study for the Arab world. Here was a repressive "secular" police state imposed, with the flagrant complicity of the West, upon one of the most economically dynamic and culturally vibrant Arab societies. Despite its well-educated and entrepreneurial middle-class, this open and modern country was heavy-handedly ruled with an iron- fist by an autocratic ruler, and it turns out a very corrupt and cruel one too, for more than two decades. During this time, the country remained politically isolated from the outside world and its many democratic changes, class struggles and search for freedom. The main reason for this desolate state of affairs and undeserved longevity lies with the following scam: that the regime of former Tunisian president Zein Al-Abidine bin Ali cunningly portrayed himself as a shining beacon of secularism and an indispensable bulwark against religious extremism and Islamist terrorism in an otherwise unruly and turbulent region. This was a marketing strategy that worked so well for so long that the French foreign minister, Michèle Alliot-Marie, unashamedly suggested, just a few days before the fall and disgraceful escape of the hated dictator, to the French National Assembly in Paris that France send riot police to help the Tunisian security forces quell the popular unrest and keep the situation under control. However, the desire for change and the tide of anger in the streets of Tunisia were a lot stronger than anything the French Quai d'Orsay, or the Elysée, could ever have expected, or even remotely envisioned. Not only will there now be no French special forces on Tunisian soil, but Bin Ali and his entourage are all of a sudden being told that they are not only unwelcome in France, but that their bank accounts and numerous other undisclosed assets will be frozen until further notice. After all, France is the birthplace of human rights and democracy, isn't it? What is the real reason behind this hasty change of heart on the part of the French government: simple realpolitik or a bout of genuine made-in- France hypocrisy? One can only guess. This is just another example of the West's habitual policy of double standards cynically at play once again in the region. When it comes to democracy and the Arabs, Europe and America hold views that are diametrically opposed to their standard attitude on this subject and with regard to, let's say, Iran or Sub- Saharan Africa. To get a better sense of this, one can ponder the following examples. The West loudly supported the so-called Iranian "Green Movement" and insidiously encouraged political unrest in Tehran even though the opposition had, by all accounts, lost the elections. It also shed an ocean of (crocodile) tears about the plight of the people of Darfur and the predicament of the southern Sudanese by underscoring the importance of their struggle for democracy and yearning for freedom, while at the same time turning its back on the atrocities committed by the West's puppet allies in Ethiopia and Uganda. Even worse, the West has gone as far as to encourage sectarian tensions and divisions, under the preposterous banner of international law and at the risk of potentially endangering the future of an already fragile nation, in order to achieve some unfulfilled imperialist design in Lebanon. Can anyone, I mean any decent or reasonable person, sincerely believe in the obsession shown for the rule of law and the primacy of justice for the sake of a single dead man, Rafik Al-Hariri, by the Western powers? That would be a preposterous belief, when the world knows very well that one and a half million living human beings, for the most part refugees, the bulk of whom are poor women and children, are being at the same time slowly squeezed to death and starved into submission in Gaza by virtue of a collective punishment that is in complete contravention of the most basic principles of international law. This latter act is being carried out by a state that has been blatantly assisted and abetted in this dreadful mission by the very Western powers that are vying with each other to obtain justice, apparently by any means, for al-Hariri, even if this means destroying Lebanon and setting the entire region ablaze. I hope that the "Jasmine Revolution" encompasses more than just Tunisia and that it will include, among other countries, Egypt. As long as the latter Arab country is secluded from the winds of change, the impact of this supposed shock wave will be at best minimal. Egypt is undoubtedly the heart of the Arab world. It is the single most important state in geostrategic terms, and its people are the most demographically significant. It also has a ruler who has disregarded the long-term interests of the region in general and the Arabs in particular. The WikiLeaks documents dispatched from Cairo by US Ambassador Margaret Scobey show that President Hosni Mubarak seems to have had his own interests and those of his foreign sponsors in the West more at heart than those of his own people. The documents reveal the complicity of the regime in depriving the Gaza Strip of such things as basic commodities and construction materials. A secret report from April 2009 citing a conversation between Omar Suleiman, head of the Egyptian General Intelligence, and US Admiral Michael Mullen, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, confirmed the shared goals of the US, Israel and Egypt in this regard. Will it be long before the wave of change started in Tunisia reaches Egyptian shores? * The writer is a political analyst.
