What’s Next for the Arab Spring? Look to the Youth Bulge
This is the second in a two part series about how the youth bulge in the Arab world precipitated the regional uprisings
Young Arabs’ most important contribution today is not in cinema, literature, business, philanthropy or social work. It is in forging their own futures - their own attempts at escaping the failures they have not contributed to and yet are living the consequences of on a daily basis.
In philanthropy and social investment, a new generation of Arabs has established a large number of NGOs working amidst their societies’ poor and needy, on projects aiming to alleviate poverty, promote vocational assistance, and improve educational facilities in some of the most deprived areas of the Middle East and North Africa. Social work and enterprise extended to general social and environmental problems, such as efforts of independent activists to raise awareness of climate change, and solve problems such as rubbish collection in the poor neighbourhoods of mega cities such as Cairo, Damascus and Khartoum. The youths’ philanthropy groups also confronted some of the region’s deep-seated social problems; for example very admirable and courageous work was undertaken by volunteer groups in some of the poorest regions in southern Egypt to curb female genital mutilation.
Political activists in Egypt, Syria, Tunisia, and certain parts of the Gulf drew attention to these countries regimes’ severe violations of human rights; organized demonstrations to protest against these abuses; and in a number of cases – most notably Egypt – stirred dynamism that quickly gained momentum and evolved into society-wide demonstrations that succeeded in toppling a 30-years old corrupt administration. Such activism, clearly, yielded tangible results and made momentous differences within their societies. They have an opportunity to go further.
The rise of internet penetration across the whole of the Arab world; the widespread adoption of digital social networking as a medium of sharing, testing, debating, and disseminating ideas; and the potential that these new media have shown in the cases of the Tunisian, Egyptian, and Syrian revolutions mean that the new socio-political and cultural narratives that young Arabs’ dynamism is likely to give rise to will emerge in these new public spaces. Political parties, traditional media, universities, professional syndicates, and labour organisations will remain vital to presenting new ideas, stirring public debate, and lending legitimacy to new political movements. But the new digital space is increasingly the medium of choice of the most active groupings within the demographically dominant sector: young Arabs. It will witness the battle of ideas that is certain to emerge between different ideological groups in the Arab world over the coming few years.
International observers need not try to influence these clashes of ideas. They should foster the media (the platforms) through which these ideas are presented. For decades, oppressive Arab regimes have tried to contain the youths’ energy by denying them any chance to peacefully express their views. That was one of the fundamental reasons why the Arab world witnessed a rise in radicalism, secularism, and rejectionist postures. That mistake should not happen again.
Young Arabs should have an open, public, tolerant space, in which intellectual competitiveness is a function of the strength of the argument, power of persuasion, charisma, and ability to reach out to large sections of the society.
An open bottom-up dialogue, free from impositions from the top, is the best guarantee that young people’s energy will give rise to innovative, refreshing narratives that can transform Arab societies.
Tarek Osman is an Egyptian writer. He is the author of “Egypt on the Brink: From Nasser to Mubarak” (Yale University Press, 2010).
