The Rajapaksa regime in its defence is somewhat different from the presidencies of Ben Ali in Tunisia or Mubarak in Egypt or indeed Al Basheer in Sudan. They also had token opposition parties that were no serious political threat to the regime.
The fifth feature was that they had regular elections which the ruler always won by handsome majorities. The fourth feature in these regimes was the neo feudal characteristic of the immediate and extended family of the ruler playing a role that created a ruling family. The third feature is that all the regimes were authoritarian and fairly adept at cracking down on political dissent, harassing their political opponents and generally having a dominant near one party state. The second feature is that these rulers used Arab nationalism and the Palestinian cause to create the rationale and ideological base for their continuous and long term rule. Nonetheless, their regimes faced sudden and complete collapse. The first is that they had long serving rulers, who had consequently built up significant and powerful elite constituencies in support of the status quo. The Ben Ali regime in Tunisia, the Mubarak regime in Egypt and indeed many of the other North African Arab regimes have many features in common.
The political reign of President Hosni Mubarak is over even as the protest leaders organize a million man protest in Cairo, the real issue being whether President Mubarak leaves office immediately or is able to organize a more orderly and democratic transition of power.
The popular uprising in Tunisia has clearly influenced its other North African neighbors and popular protests have erupted across the region must most notably in Egypt. The Middle East, especially Arab North Africa is being governed by long serving rulers, from Hosni Mubarak in Egypt to Mohamed Ghaddafi in Libya. However the social compact in Tunisia was seemingly to trade rising economic growth for political freedoms and while Tunisia had periodic elections which President Ben Ali predictably and convincingly won, as the economic growth benefits stopped flowing down to an increasingly restive younger generation, the end suddenly came. President Ben Ali of Tunisia’s thirty year rule ended late last month, when popular unrest and street protests in that once calm and seemingly idyllic country erupted across the country and brought an unforeseen and abrupt end to a long rule that had provided stability and initially rising prosperity to Tunisia.
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