MY heart goes out to the Egyptian people. They have done something that few people, including Malaysians, thought possible. They brought down an authoritarian regime in a police state. And they did it peacefully. All in 18 days.

It was people power. Makkal sakthi.

They could have lost. Many could have been killed; at least 300 were. The State could have used its firepower to crush the protestors. It did send thugs, riding horses and camels and wielding weapons, to cause havoc. The military could have taken sides and gone against the people. The odds were heavily stacked against the civilian protestors.

But they were not cowed. They did not buckle down. They kept up their pressure on the autocratic president Hosni Mubarak, who had been in power for 30 years, and demanded that he quit. They would not have it any other way. He stubbornly refused, and offered hints of change, but the people would not compromise. They wanted him to go.

Wael GhonimInspired by this, and the sight of activist Wael Ghonim breaking down in a television interview when he talked about his detention for taking part in the protests, more and more protestors joined in. Until it became crystal clear that the only way to end the stand-off was bloodshed. The only way to clear Tahrir Square, where hundreds of thousands were gathered to express their wish, was to shoot the people there – old people, young people, children. And that perhaps was not something the army was prepared to do.

So, on the 18th day, realization must have dawned on Mubarak that his own position was not safe, and perhaps the army would not guarantee it. For all his toughness as a dictator of three decades, he must have recognized his human vulnerability. He gave up.

What a victory it was for the Egyptian people! They inspired the world with their determination. They showed the world that if people came together and spoke with one voice, and stood up against tyranny with moral courage, they could achieve the improbable. They conquered fear. They destroyed the culture of fear that had pervaded their lives for decades. And that was how they managed to get their country back.

“I’m very proud to be Egyptian now,” thousands declared. It was something they could not have said during Mubarak’s oppressive reign that had robbed them of their dignity; that had stolen from the nation, indulged in cronyism and left the people poor, with 40 percent living below the poverty line; that had suppressed freedom and fostered a secret police that brutalized potential dissidents and pro-democracy campaigners. Anyone who spoke against the government could end up in jail. In 2005, Opposition politician Ayman Nour was jailed for five years allegedly for forging petitions, but more likely for standing for the presidency against Mubarak.

The overthrow of the Mubarak regime is seen as the overthrow of a system that is outdated and out-of-touch with the people. It had seen fit to maintain power by denying the people free speech and other freedoms, but the people, especially the young, would not tolerate that any more. So they mobilized to rally against the regime. And they were joined by the older Egyptians who had known the glory of Egypt prior to the 1950s, when the principles of the military-led Revolution of 1952 which overthrew the monarchy and established a republic became gradually betrayed. Things got progressively worse under Mubarak, whom critics call “The Pharaoh”, when he became president in 1981, after the assassination of Anwar Sadat.

Some Malaysians think that what has happened in Egypt could happen in Malaysia – but I very much doubt it. Not now, not in the near future.

Even though there are some similarities between Malaysia and Egypt, the conditions are not the same. We have had our own “Pharaoh” wreaking damage to our institutions and more; we live under a corrupt and cronyistic system; we have numerous laws that throttle our freedom, our mainstream media is controlled, and Opposition politicians have been jailed; we long for the time in the late 1950s and early 1960s when we were relatively more united; we are governed by a coalition that has been in power for 53 years and continues to perpetuate a political culture that is outdated. But we don’t have 40 percent of the population living below the poverty line. We have not reached our economic limits. We still have the semblance of a democracy even though we are effectively, as political scientist Wong Chin Huat reminds us, a one-party state. And we are a divided society kept divided by the ruling regime to keep it in power.

Last week, Prime Minister Najib Razak warned Malaysians against attempting to grab power by taking to the streets, like in Egypt. He need not have bothered. There is certainly no worry of that happening. Malaysians have too much to lose. As long as the prices of food, fuel and other essentials are still reasonable relative to income, and the ringgit does not shrink drastically, Malaysians are comfortable. So, who would want to spend days or weeks camping at Putrajaya to call for the Government to relinquish its power? Who would want to risk getting arrested or shot at or killed?

We should hope that we will never have to go through what the Egyptians did. The economic cost to them of the protests to oust Mubarak has been estimated at about US$300 million a day. On top of that is the severe loss of foreign direct investments. It will take considerable time for Egypt to regain investor confidence and rebuild itself.

To forestall uprisings, governments everywhere should take note that especially in this globally connected world, they have to listen more to their people. The new technology has empowered ordinary citizens in such a significant way that old-fashioned attempts to control thought and information are not as effective any more. The new technology has in fact liberated thought. The Egyptians’ Revolution of 2011 has been said to be the first Internet Revolution. Governments should therefore engage the people through the new technology, take part in a two-way dialogue, break the “us” and “them” divide. Only governments with things to hide would distrust and trammel the new media.

Najib seems to be taking steps in a positive direction through blogging and Facebook, but the recent move by the Home Ministry to consider extending certain Acts like those covering sedition to include blogs and online news websites is totally regressive. Such a recourse to censorship will have grave consequences for the Government.

One would like to think that with the new technology, the era of dictatorships is fading. But much still depends on the people and the levels of their courage and motivation to stand up to the dictators. The Egyptians showed they had the courage and determination to bring about change, but others in a similar situation may not measure up to them.

Nothing moves me more than the strength of the human spirit, especially when it overcomes tremendous odds to emerge victorious. I wept when I watched on television the jubilation of the Egyptians. I wept not just with joy for them and for their hard-fought freedom. I also wept for the triumph of people power, the beauty of makkal sakthi.

 

* The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the writer.