Opinion Editorials, November 2003, www.aljazeerah.info
Human Price of the Israeli Occupation of Palestine
Israeli daily aggression on the Palestinian people
Mission and meaning of Al-Jazeerah
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Revolution in Georgia
Arab News
25 November 2003
The revolution in Georgia has been remarkable, not least because it made dramatic television. Rarely has the world been able to see revolution live on TV — the storming of parliament, President Eduard Shevardnadze hustled out as protesters flooded in, opposition leader Mikhail Saakashvili addressing tens of thousands of triumphant demonstrators and, a day after it started, Shevardnadze’s resignation — and all without a single shot being fired. It has been a real velvet revolution, even more dramatic than the original one in Prague in 1989.
The most remarkable element about it is the man who has been ousted. Knowing full well that events could easily turn violent, Shevardnadze resigned rather than be the cause of bloodshed. It was an act of statesmanship. Even Saakashvili, now certain to be elected president when new elections are held, was full of praise for him, describing his resignation as a “courageous act” and saying that “history will judge him kindly”. How many other revolutions in the world have been so civilized?
Even though Shevardnadze brought his downfall upon himself by rigging the Nov. 2 elections, history will certainly treat him kindly — and not merely for the manner of his going. He, along with Mikhail Gorbachev, is a hero in the story of the fall of Soviet communism. As the last Soviet foreign minister he saw the winds of change blowing the Soviet system away and did not stand in the way. He will be treated kindly too by Georgian historians. In his 11 years in office, he brought Georgia international recognition and publicity and a degree of stability and normality, which given the severe economic hardship, the rampant corruption and the still unresolved secessions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, was quite astounding.
What the future will bring is another matter. Today Georgia has the goodwill of the world, but it remains fundamentally unstable, dangerous and lawless. It could so easily descend into the chaos and bloodshed that for the moment it has managed to avoid. It has been united against Shevardnadze, but even its physical unity cannot be assured. This revolution will probably reignite the Abkhaz and South Ossetian issues, and any attempt to reassert central control will fuel separatist tendencies in Ajaria, the Muslim autonomous province on the Turkish border. There are also serious questions about Saakashvili himself. For all his rousing rhetoric about corruption and democracy, he did nothing to sweep away the rampant corruption in the capital Tbilisi when last year, after resigning from the government on the issue and forming his Nationalist party, he was elected head of the city’s council. He has ridden a wave of popular discontent against Shevardnadze, but will he be any different? Is he a nationalist demagogue or a democrat in a country with scant experience of democracy? The road ahead is full of uncertainties.
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| Earth, a planet hungry for peace |
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| The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03). |
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| The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers in the West Bank, like a Python. (Alquds,10/25/03). |
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