Is
Kyrgyzstan's "pink" revolution a harbinger of change for
Central Asia's entrenched dictatorships? This is the foremost
question in much of the analysis and media coverage of the popular
uprising that has dislodged President Askar Akayev, sending him
scurrying from power, and allegedly into the arms of his Russian
patrons.
Central
Asia has long been a wasteland of human rights and religious
freedom; the fledgling states that emerged from the demise of the
Soviet Union were in no rush to discard the brutality and repression
that characterized the Soviet system and its vassal republics.
Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan;
all feature prominently in the annals of human rights abuse,
torture, and the repression of Islamic opposition, peaceful or
otherwise. These were regimes who did not need a September 11 to
justify wide-scale repression and brutality.
The
Ukrainian and Georgian experiences seem to have inaugurated an age
of transformation in the long-stagnant political lives of many
countries, though not necessarily always successful or for the
better.
Little
is known about the forces shaping the tide of change that has swept
Kyrgyzstan in the past few days, and it remains to be seen how
fundamentally different the new government will, and how much
distance it will put between itself and Akayev's entrenched
cronyism, nepotism and corruption. Much remains to be done in
Kyrgyzstan, and much hope rides on the success of the Kyrgyz
revolution.
Many
questions have yet to be answered: Has the time finally come for
Central Asia's tyrants and despots to be swept aside, the horrors of
their illegitimate regimes finally laid bare? What role if any, will
Islamic revivalism and reform play in this epic struggle to uproot
the brutal legacy of these governments and their Russian backers?
Are we witnessing the birth of an "age of revolution"? If
change should come to these benighted lands, will it be peaceful, or
will the regimes, increasingly threatened by imminent change, react
with their characteristic belligerence, spilling blood to maintain
their grip on power? And finally, will the Islamic heritage common
to most of these countries remerge, casting off the former
colonizer's alien legacy—the hatred and distrust of Islam that has
caused untold suffering among many devout believers in these
countries?
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