Now, hope is in rare supply across the region. Egypt’s elections yielded new leaders that blindly and illiberally ran the country along strict partisan lines until a military coup publicly reasserted old-regime institutions. Libya’s timid leaders and bold militias have hampered democracy, security and institution building. Syria’s revolution turned into a bloody war and a hellish game for external actors, while Lebanon desperately tries to quarantine itself from the neighboring chaos. Western observers use increasingly desperate euphemisms for Iraq’s escalating civil war. No one dares talk about Bahrain, or perhaps no one cares. Other Gulf countries quietly quarrel amongst themselves through political and economic maneuvering in neighboring proxy countries.The author goes on to speculate about "dark forces" at work to destabilize Tunisia. He points fingers at the media and an unaccountable Interior Ministry. What I think is missing is a deeper understanding of class rule.
By maintaining class rule in Arab societies (or any society), a change of the occupants in political offices offers very little chance of making real change in how those societies are governed. A ruling class, whose power is based on the private ownership of the economy, puts its stamp of interests on every significant sector of that society. That means that this class makes sure that its members are insinuated in every important sector such as education, media, entertainment, and the police and military (the official instruments of violence). And, I have no doubt that the latter are being heavily supported by agents of the Empire to keep Arabs divided and killing each other.
Then there are always the foreign financial organs which can use their weapons to crush any attempt to bring fundamental changes as reported in a piece from CADTM entitled "How the IMF and global finance are trying to block a democratic examination of Tunisia’s debt". Thus, bringing to nominal power a popular individual or individuals will be unable to change anything given these powerful forces already in place.
The only solution is a world-wide revolution to dismantle capitalist class rule where private ownership of socially produced wealth is eliminated in favor of classless, inclusive societies.