In times of trouble, people power wins

Published : 5 March 2011, 06:50 PM
Updated : 5 March 2011, 06:50 PM

The Middle East and northern Africa have been in the news for a while now. First it was Egypt, with the uprising focussing on Tahrir Square, a long and patient demonstration with enough power shown by the people to unseat Hosni Mubarak and bring in a change. Now it is Libya, with The masses clamouring for the elimination of Muammar Gaddafi, the man who has ruled with the proverbial iron fist, hammering his people into the ground, for so many years.

In both places, and in more nations in the region already feeling the rumblings of discontent and the demands for a different kind of life, it is the people who have made the change happen. And, in the mess, it is those who do not really belong, those who are there for reasons beyond local politics, those who are not directly involved, who could be most affected. And these people need to get away from the trouble spots, be transferred to locations where life can go on as normal, without strife, without fear, without danger.

In Egypt, it was primarily the tourist who needed to be rescued. In Libya, where the risks are much higher, the threats lethal, ordinary citizens who are there to earn a living, who have made a life, who are not part of the problem, who are unwittingly, unknowingly, unwillingly in the target zone who need to be taken out of there.

And it is the folk back home who suffers the most in these times of trouble. For a couple of weeks now, especially in Libya, the tensions have been fast escalating, now at a point where lawlessness rules and safety cannot be guaranteed under international law and conventions of the preservation of human rights. There is open looting on the streets, of people, violations of and against citizens and visitors, killings, rapes, molestations, robbery, violence, everything that should not be in the civilised world.

Those who are there, suffering through it all, either belong there by being locals, or have been living there for work, or have moved there in search of a better life. Right now, it is no life at all, in many more ways than the obvious, as people who have managed to get out are saying. Their families back home, wherever home may be, are the ones who need to wait, watch, pray, plead and use any effort possible to try and get their relatives, friends and anyone else they may know of, away from the country where chaos rules and a dictator is at the controls.

India has been outspoken about the state of affairs and has done much that is within its power without violation international diplomatic norms to get its citizens out of Libya – and out of Egypt before that. Ships and planes have been sent to fly Indians out of there. These rescued people have been arriving back in Mumbai and elsewhere with stories that could be directly out of the pages of a horror story. There is death on the streets, one woman told the news reporters gathered at the airport. They are killing to rob and will grab passports and money even from the old and infirm, another said.

The world over, horrified governments are imposing sanctions on Libya, condemning Gaddafi for his actions, all albeit cautiously, since Libya is an oil-rich country and fuel is a prized necessity in a time of depleting natural resources. But is that enough? Should nations do more to stop the carnage, to prevent more innocents dying, to make the beleaguered land realise the consequences of the actions of a few deluded people in positions of power with no qualms about causing harm to this degree?

More interesting to think about is the way governments are going about rescuing their own people. India, as I said, has been fairly efficient, or so it seems. Bangladesh, according to a recent news headline, has managed to pull many of its own out of the troubled nation and back to safety. But before that happened, there was panic at home. Relatives blocked the main road between Dhaka and Sylhet at Bhairab with demands that the government take steps to ensure the safety of those trapped in the danger zone.

Over 1,000 people, it is reported, set up a blockade on the highway, backing traffic up for miles, until the police finally cleared the road a few hours later. The demonstrators insisted that the about 1,000 people from the district who were employed in Libya had no way of getting back home without government help and that the government was showing no signs of doing anything useful for them. How true and how valid these accusations are not clear to someone who is not there to verify the claims, but from the point of view of political apathy, it is possible, anywhere in the world.

Can public opinion change the situation? Of course. But how effective it will be and how fast is a matter of conjecture right now. When the people of Bangladesh, India, and elsewhere are back in their home nations, safe from the trouble in Libya and anywhere else that there may be strife of this kind, then it will be time to debate the point.

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Ramya Sarma is a Mumbai-based writer-editor.