Freedom? From the Frying Pan into the Fire

The Egyptian protesters have won. Sort of. Mubarak has been pushed out of his chair as President of Egypt. The “pro-democracy” protesters have being working towards this for weeks now, and finally it has happened. It’s all tears of joy for them. However, another problem lies in the way. Now the military is in control of the country, which is not really known as a good solution.

Remember Thailand and Pakistan. Both countries were taken over by military uprising. Perhaps in the Egyptian “revolution”, the military is seen as a friend of the people. While I cannot say for sure that they aren’t, they probably are not. If power is not completely handed over to someone else soon, it can be predicted that the military will be running Egypt for some time. It could end worse than Mubarak’s 30 year reign.

This so called “revolution” could spark more similar uprisings in other Middle Eastern nations. Iran has already had it’s uprising a while back, and it was brutally halted. Worse yet, it could give ideas to Asian politicians, like those in Sri Lanka. An uprising against the Sri Lankan government is not a good idea right now. Or any time in the near future.

With so much instability instilled in Egypt, it is clear that their tourism industry will be in tatters for years to come. The way that the journalists were treated means that the country will be viewed in a negative light by people around the world, regardless of whether the trouble dies down now. If such an uprising happens in Sri Lanka, the whole country will go to the dumps and all the progress of the last few years, even though some may believe it was hardly any at all, would be erased in a matter of days. Recovery from such a situation is very difficult. As a country that had barely woken up from its war-induced coma, it is not at all suitable to cause instability in the government.

I don’t believe that the current government is the best for everyone. Of course there are so many improvements that can be done, and so many errors that should be corrected. Many of those problems will never be solved by this government; indeed the government is the cause of quite a number of them. But at least the country is stable. Journalists aren’t as oppressed as much as some say. If you are bothered to tune into at least two television news segments, you can get easily two sides of the story.

The tourism industry in Sri Lanka is booming, and we have to accept that there are indeed some good developments in the country. While these things could have been done by another ruling party, it was done by the current government, and we have to accept it. Just because you don’t like the people running the country does not mean you should blacklist everything they do. As I have said before, politicians do good things on occasion, and we must make the most use of this hidden function of politicians.

Trying to get rid of the current government will only undo all the development and put the country on reverse gear. Introducing another new government with completely different people will mean that the country will stagnate, at least until all the government institutions are purged of all the people who aren’t supportive of the new government. As usual, journalists supporting the non-government parties will be oppressed, which isn’t anything new. Bribery and corruption will continue as usual, albeit with different people doing the dirty work. Perhaps things will be better eventually, but that is a high risk to take, and it will be at a massive cost to the country.

At least be happy that we still have a country. We can travel around without fear of bombs, and even a lot of the army seems to have disappeared from the streets of Colombo. The country is actually running now, perhaps not great. Things look bright if you look at the good stuff that’s happening. If you concentrate on only the negative things, then the country will obviously look to be on the wrong track. But maybe we should just wear our filtered glasses and be optimistic. Don’t go out and make a fuss just yet.

Wait and see what will happen to Egypt. There is always a possibility that they will come out of this better off. But history suggests otherwise. After all, whatever changes you push for, at the end they may not turn out to be what you need, and they will always sound revolting to some segment of the population. You can’t please everyone. Keep in mind that you might be the one who isn’t pleased, and be aware that someone else will feel exactly the same way if there are changes. You probably won’t convince that someone to change his attitude. But you can convince yourself to change your attitude. A revolution is not the best way to deal with the problems in Sri Lanka, but it will be a good way for other countries to destabilize us. Please don’t let that happen.