Domino democracy won’t come easy

A domino democracy seems to be occurring in the Middle Eastern states, a move that is reminiscent of the spread of communism in the 1940s and ’50s. The times appear to be ripe for change.

The people of the Middle East are growing increasingly restless and resentful of what they know to be tyrannical or puppet regimes, and with the advancement of communication and information technologies, the world has become a smaller place.

In the Middle East, youth unemployment is said to be at a high of 25 percent. The populations of these collected countries want to enjoy the freedoms given in other modern countries: they seek employment, equality and do not want their lives to be decided by the whim of dictators who live in palaces while claiming to be working in the people’s best interests.

Even though Tunisia and Egypt had their uprisings go relatively smoothly and peacefully, this should not be expected for every country.

Countries that face regimes like these know to expect brutality for their dissension, and understand any peaceful negotiation is difficult if not impossible. If this revolutionary trend continues, it is inevitable that for some nations change won’t be signaled by open dissension and peaceful protest, but the firing of rifles and the smell of gun smoke.

If domino democracy in the Middle East is a reality, then the question must be asked: How will a democratic Middle East affect regional and national stability? New governments don’t immediately erase old grievances, and could even cause them to swell. How many countries will look to the US for support, and the support of their neighbors? How many will be resentful of America’s support of the dictatorships they worked so hard to topple?

It’s clear that numerous regimes with unhappy subjects are fearful of such uprisings occurring in their own nations, and have since taken preemptive steps to ease the population. In Kuwait and Bahrain, monetary bonuses were tacked on to salaries. Algeria promises to lift emergency rule, and the proposed constitutional amendment that would increase the presidential term in Yemen has been suspended.

But if we can take President Mubarak’s denied proposal of waiting until the next election to step down to quell the Egyptian uprising as evidence, these protests aren’t changing anything fast.