The return of rule by intelligence services

There were moments, days and months even, after the start of the Arab revolutions where many people in the region felt as though the security state era had come to an end. Many even felt as though the iron grip that was imposed on these institutions by authoritarian regimes had also come to an end. Somehow, though, we find ourselves trapped in the cage of oppression once again, although this time there is an increase in the blatant disregard for human rights and human lives. Arab intelligence services and authoritarian regimes are behaving like cowardly victors, justifying the injustices of the counter-revolution by claiming that they are part of the “War on Terror”. We have lived a dream and have agreed to live in a nightmare because the security apparatus and whoever is behind it is back in full force and is ready to retaliate in the effort to rebuild the barriers of fear and silence.

The issue at hand goes beyond the question of muting the right to freedom of expression to achieve society’s subservience because the security apparatus is currently barring people from the freedom to demand even their basic rights in any way, shape or form. There are no rights for any workers or poor people because there is currently no recognition of citizenship for citizens themselves. The brutality that is currently being practiced by the security apparatus is currently necessary in order to erase revolutionary slogans from public squares and popular memory so that the presence of fear is prominent and we can continue to thank the tyrants for the fact that we are still alive.

We could speak about the absence of strategies for change within these contexts and how they enabled old regimes to come back to prominence in new guises and names, but that would be to ignore one important fact: the emergence of groups like ISIS which have managed to recruit many potential revolutionaries. I do not want to engage in conspiracy theories but I must highlight another fact: the counter-revolutionary forces are quick to exploit every opportunity in their efforts to re-impose their authority. While it is true that groups like ISIS are appropriating religious ideologies to achieve their aims, we must not be quick to forget that this does not justify the actions of counter-revolutionary forces and their attempts to hijack the Arab revolutions.

What is important to note here is that the so-called “War on Terror” has become the excuse for everything from limiting freedom of expression to passing anti-terrorism laws which gives, in essence, the green light for arrests, torture and fabrication of lies about innocent Arab citizens. Many people have been and will continue to be detained out of the regime’s fear that they will incite the masses against the security apparatus. In Tunisia, we have seen this manifest itself through limits on journalistic freedom, whereas in Egypt, the reality of corruption and oppression has gone beyond one’s imagination. The biggest victim of the return of the security state has been the Egyptian judiciary; although Egypt’s judges did not necessarily enact laws advocating brutality, they have not done everything within their wide-ranging powers to try to eliminate such acts of oppression. In Jordan, the authorities can take action against an individual based simply on a single word that he or she writes on Facebook. Charges can be made on the mere suspicion that someone is working with a terrorist organisation. The same reality applies to regimes that are sponsored by the US; or as they are better described, regimes which believe that all legitimacy stems from Washington. These systems do not care about the people whose voices will not be heard so long as they continue to be strangled.

Translated from Al-Araby Al-Jadid, 28 April, 2015

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