By Faraj Abdul Salam
“Leave means leave!”
Many in the Arab countries are pessimistic about the “Arab Spring” for being accompanied by a great deal of tragedies. It was replaced with the “Arab Autumn” and the revolution became a catastrophe.
As far as I know, this expression emerged in the 1950s during a peaceful uprising led by the Czech politician Alexander Dubcek against the Soviet occupation of his country, which was known as the Prague Spring.
The Kremlin did not delay the suppression of the uprising with force and cruelty. But the uprising did not go in vain, as many see it as the foundation of Eastern Europe’s revolution against the Soviet colonization before the end of the century.
The situation of tyranny and repression in Arab countries was much worse than the Iron Curtain countries. Those who came to power under the pretext of reform and progress proved to be worse than their predecessors.
The Arab peoples were overwhelmed by a gloomy wave of disappointment, until Bouazizi unleashed the Arab anger to reformulate the unjust laws governing the societies.
No one can deny the objective reasons for those revolutions, but “internal forces” infiltrated under the guise of religion to turn the path of spontaneous revolutions into a long nightmare.
What is happening in Algeria and Sudan may be the second version of the Arab Spring, where the miserable regimes have failed to read their peoples’ situations properly and have strengthened their regimes rather than pushing for development in a democratic atmosphere without repression.
What is new in the public movements of Algeria and Sudan is that the regime and the people have learned from the harsh experiences in neighboring countries.
Although the slogan of “Down with the regime” was present strongly, the protesters have certain demands that emphasize their awareness of the importance of preserving and defending the state.
The peoples have been patient with regimes that do not have any plans for a better future for their countries. Therefore, slogans like “Just fall, that is all!” and “leave means leave!” should have been raised, which will be the slogans for the next period. Spring is renewable.
