What does it take to start a revolution?
Three weeks ago, I did a posting about the revolutions currently convulsing the Arab world. I wrote:
“The underlying causes of this Arab Awakening include dictatorial regimes in power for decades, growing nepotism and corruption, increases in those obtaining higher education, substantial youth unemployment, rising food prices and falling living standards, the ability to communicate and organise provided by social media on the Internet, and the confidence taken from experience in other countries as shown on satellite television. But what was it that actually set off this incredible chain of events? It was the self-immolation of a desperate man in Tunisia.”
It was believed that Mohamed Bouazizi had deliberately set himself alight because he had been humiliated with a slap in the face by a female official called Fedia Hamdi. Except now we have this article which suggests that he was not slapped in face and may not have intended to commit suicide.
Many observers – including me – have compared the successive revolts in neighbouring Arab countries with the successive revolutions which brought down communist regimes in Central & Eastern Europe in late 1989. The first of these was the ‘Velvet Revolution’ in what was then Czechoslovakia. The spark for this revolution was a particular demonstration when it was reported that a young protester had been killed – except that later we found that there was no such death (it was a secret police agent pretending to be dead).
Does it matter? I have argued in this essay why truth matters intellectually. But, in terms of impacting fast-moving political events, it is the perception of truth that matters. So Mohamed Bouazizi will still be remembered as the man whose death kick-started the Arab revolutions. Of course, we still have no idea how genuine and long-lasting and extensive these revolutions will be.