the well-known academician and colleague, saad ben tefl ah, has written that what was agreed to be called in the media ‘the arab spring’ is a historical lesson for all of us to reconsider and review the nature of our understanding of freedom as an absolute value for man.
freedom falls under various categories, such as freedom of opinion, expression, writing, reading, publishing, research, worship, belief, personal freedoms, freedom of information and freedom of choice. these include freedom of democracy, which gives people the right to choose those who shape their country’s politics and future and manage their affairs.
confusion sets in when freedom and democracy in the minds of some bring out their ignorance. democracy means managing people. it consists of two parts, ‘demo’, meaning people or citizens, and ‘crazy’ meaning management.
those who advocate politicizing religion have translated ‘democracy’ as ‘the rule of the people’. they said: it is blatant infidelity while the rule is only for god. it is more correct to say that it is ‘managing the people’, and has nothing to do with disbelief or faith.
many were taken by surprise during the arab spring. at the onset of the ‘spring’, they were very happy because they believed they would finally get the taste of freedom and because those who partook in the ‘spring’ rose up against oppression, injustice, poverty, and backwardness. however, later it was proved that these genuine springs were often fighting oppression and poverty and not freedom because the essence of the spirit of freedom and faith was the missing link among the revolutionaries and the leaders of these revolutions because these were non-existent.
the arab mindset is totally different because they only dream of democracy and freedom because no one yet fully knows what freedom really means. first of all, because each one of us looks at democracy from an individual angle from the cultural and religious point of view and the heritage it accompanies, or as defined by religious references after they voluntarily give up their rights to define and draw the limits of their freedoms.
the colleague sees that the social oppression in all arab countries is harsher and fiercer than the suppression of arab dictatorships. dictatorships do not often confiscate your social freedoms, while those who draw up the boundaries of freedoms, social and political freedom, and dictatorships are concerned only with your political opinion.
those who politicize religion confiscate the political and social rights of citizens more often than not use the whip to control the behaviors of the people and that is why these dictatorial regimes bring them closer to control the life of people at the least cost.
freedom comes before democracy which many politicians lack. almost all of us in this nation are or at least behave like politicians. each one of us has own opinion, own principles and attitudes and to what extent things can be controlled. this applies to almost everyone without exception: the illiterate, the educated, the intellectual and the ignorant (including the writer of these lines).
we all demand democracy and claim to believe in freedom with ‘controls and limits’, and each of us has own controls and limits different from the other. one might say: what about the politicians in developed democratic nations? the answer is that they were politicized amidst an atmosphere of freedom as an uncontrolled value. there is no confusion here between freedom as a value that these advanced peoples are saturated with (the rules of laws) that were enacted in democratic ways, following the realization of freedom and belief in it.
there is a big difference between them and those individuals, who control and limit the freedoms of others in the society as inherited controls without review or discussion because for them discussion is taboo. more often than not who dare to review or question them will fall in trouble.
therefore, freedom is one thing, democracy is another, and the advocates of democracy among us do not believe in freedom, but they seek democracy to reach power, which they use as a tool to reject others, impose controls and limit on them as they please then return to square one.
i write all this on the occasion of what is happening in lebanon today, and in iraq to a large extent. all we see will disappear once every demonstrator returns to his home. the deafening silence will be the rule of the day, no matter for how long, but what is certain is the demonstrators will return to their religious roots and doctrines and things will return to square one once again.