Friday, May 20, 2011

The value of peaceful protest

It is amazing how the concept of peaceful protest is eroding in the Arab world. Unfortunately that also means that its effectiveness is fading.

The original Gandhian idea of peaceful protest is to do something that is entirely within the laws of the country - no matter how repressive they are. That way the regime has no excuse for arrests or violence - unless it gives up on its own principles. And even when protests cross the borders of the law as understood by the regime they should restrict themselves to minor transgressions that normally are tolerated or just punished with a small fine.

As we can see in Libya and Syria it is impossible for protesters to win from a well-organized regime. So they shouldn't try. Instead of asking for regime change they should make reasonable demands like less corruption - including the removal of some corrupt officials - and more freedom.

The power of protesters in making a moral point strong enough that the regime feels pressured to give in sooner or later. The more disciplined and moderate the way this point is made the greater its chance for success as one of the main arguments for a dictatorship is always the supposedly undisciplined anarchic character of the masses.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

"So they shouldn't try. Instead of asking for regime change they should make reasonable demands like less corruption - including the removal of some corrupt officials - and more freedom."

Considering that the socialist regime in Tripoli thinks nothing of drowning 600 civilians, the only 'reasonable' demand is the removal of this regime.

Wim Roffel said...

Libya is no longer peaceful and a as a consequence already a lot of people have died. Yet there are considerable doubts whether a rebel victory would really be an improvement. They are a very diverse coalition and nobody knows who will prevail when they win.

As for the 600 drowning: There have been reports of rebels killing black African immigrants. So it is doubtful that they will treat them better.