The Arab Spring is a political term made popular internationally in early January 2011, particularly for the Arab countries. It refers to the downfall of authoritarian regimes in the Arab world, from Tunisian Zein Al-Abidin Ben Ali (Ben Ali), Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Libyan leader Moammar Khadafy, to Yemeni, Bahrain and Syrian leaders.
"The people of Arab call this series of events Al-Arabiyyah, a revolution that will transform the order to an ideal society,” said Ahmad Sahide in UGM Graduate School on Saturday (19/3) when sitting in his open doctoral examination.
According to Ahmad Sahide, the Arab Spring is the start of a political event to end the non-transparent political system in Arab countries that does not limit the authorities of leader (president). This starts the building of a transparent system and order where the power of leaders is limited, giving the right to society to be able to participate politically as well as participate in controlling the government.
"The Arab Spring has opened the door to democracy in the Arab peninsula that has long lived in authoritarian political system,” said Ahmad, activist of Yayasan Indonesia Berkarya (YIB) organisation.
There are challenges, however, coming from the Arab society and governments themselves as well externally. The internal factor is in the form of culture and sociology of Arab people that is built without wide political participation from the public in addition to the low participation from women.
"Arab countries have a low female participation in politics until today,” said Ahmad Sahide, defending dissertation entitled Democratisation in the Era of The Arab Spring in Arab Countries.
Ahmad Sahide concluded that foreign presence in Arab has on one side paved the way for democratisation but on the other side revoked the democratisation itself. The foreign parties, especially the U.S., according to Ahmad, fears to lose its political influence in the Middle East if leaders to take into power turn out to be those elected democratically who are not of the U.S. choice.