2011’s Arab Spring may witness a more severe version after Morocco’s protest

Just one man was responsible for the much-required change in the Arab nations in 2011. A common man, merely doing his job, was capable of bringing such a change that differentiated the politics of the region and the history lives by to tell the tale. But do you think everything is alright now? Have all the sufferings ended in the region? People definitely don’t seem to feel so. 

An incident that took place earlier this week gave a glimpse of what Arab Spring 2.0 would look like in 2021. This was when Yassine Lekhmidi, a 25-year-old man in the city of Sidi Bennour, died by burning himself after witnessing local police officials not cooperating.

It so happened that Lekhmidi was protesting against Covid-19 and the police caught him without a mask driving a food cart. They confiscated the cart because of him not wearing the mask but despite paying the fine, they did not return him the cart. 

Fed up with their behavior and tension about him not being able to provide for his family, led him to take this huge step. It was an extremely important source of income for him and his family but the officials did not understand this. The 25-year-old suffered third-degree burns on July 28 and despite initially showing some recovery signs, died on August 6. 

Following the incident, locals of the area gathered in hundreds to protest against the authorities, who they alleged were responsible for Lekhmidi ending his life. They are demanding justice for him. This incident reminds me of the self-immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi which led to mass-scale demonstrations on the streets. 

The situation was so severe that it led to a collapse of the government in Tunisia and in no time, its neighboring country Egypt also came across a similar fate. Owing to coronavirus regulation, people significantly reduced the scale of protests in the country but that does not change the situation which is tilting towards a possible Arab Spring-like situation. 

For a country like Morocco, it is all the more difficult to handle such a protest as the approval rating of the government is as it is going down. The last few months saw many such protests due to repeated incidents of human rights violations and authorities overpowering the common people but the government has conveniently brushed off the cases. 

Moroccans are desperately demanding change. Their fight is not a new one, rather it has been going on since 2012. But to take a more recent example, in 2017 there were huge-scale protests after two brothers trapped in an abandoned coal mine died and no one came to help. These men were trying to earn bread for their families after being employed for a very long time. 

Even a year before the death of these two brothers, an incident involving a fishmonger had shaken up the entire nation. Mouhcine Fikri had come back from a coastal town with several tons of swordfish but the local police confiscated it. He was so desperate to get back those fish that he jumped into the garbage truck those fishes were thrown in. 

The reports then revealed that the local authorities asked the truck driver to ‘grind hi’ and he was crushed to death while the officials had just stood by doing nothing. Incidents like these have added a lot of pressure on people to speak up and fight back. The problem however is that the country is in a constitutional monarchy, which means that it is very limited with the power it gives to its citizens. 

Even the demonstrations or protests are quickly silenced as the authorities fear reputation damage. Having said that, building up pressure on them will only lead to a larger blast. The residents will eventually give in and fight back violently, just like it happened during.