Reflections on Justice and the Arab Spring

We are witnesses to the beginning of trials for those leaders who controlled the despotic regimes targeted by freedom fighters in the Arab Spring.

First, Ben Ali of Tunisia was before the bar of justice, in absentia since he is being sheltered in Saudi Arabia. He was tried and found guilty of misuse of public funds, illegal possession and sale of drugs and illegal possession of firearms. The misuse of funds was fairly clear since the money was found in a safe in his home. The drugs were also found, but there was little evidence of his selling them. As for the illegal possession of firearms, his lawyer said most were gifts of state on display. We do not know the truth because the 2 trials were held quickly and the decisions arrived several hours after deliberation began. Future trials concerning the murder of marchers will take longer and we are promised more witnesses and better proof.

This week, we saw Hosni Mubarak being wheeled into court on a hospital bed to be present at his trial. He has pleaded not guilty to ordering the murder of marchers and of corruption. We do not know the outcome of this trial. But, from every corner of the Arab world, we have heard that there is satisfaction with the trial and the sight of Mubarak before the bar of justice.

More trials will follow - of presidents deposed, of their friends and supporters, of police and military who kept them in power.

I think it is time to reflect on Justice.

President Barak Obama said in Cairo that “America and Islam are not exclusive and need not be in competition. Instead, they overlap, and share common principles of justice and progress, tolerance and the dignity of all human beings.”

Obama’s definition of Justice is Anglo-Saxon, that is, a well-organized and historically accepted system of laws and legal procedures.  
Senator Edward “Ted” Kennedy articulated the same idea, “For all my years in public life, I have believed that America must sail toward the shores of liberty and justice for all. There is no end to that journey, only the next great voyage. We know the future will outlast all of us, but I believe that all of us will live on in the future we make.”

In the western tradition, Justice is easily defined, if not so easily arrived at. Eleanor Roosevelt, who was a great advocate for Justice for American minorities, said “Justice cannot be for one side alone, but must be for both.”  And President Eisenhower warned that “Though force can protect in emergency, only justice, fairness, consideration and cooperation can finally lead men to the dawn of eternal peace.”  This connection between Justice and peace has been made by many, including Pope Paul VI, who said, “If you want peace work for justice.”

None of these dedicated men and women were vindictive. They did not demand oppressive measures as punishment, but rather reasonable punishment meted out by courts with well-established systems of law balanced by mercy. For as Shakespeare said in speaking of Justice versus forgiveness, “The quality of mercy is not strained; it drops as the gentle rain from heaven.” It was Racine, the great French thinker, who wrote, “Justice in the extreme is often unjust.”

These concepts are difficult, especially for those in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and other countries touched by despotism and regime violence of the most horrible kinds. The idea of “an eye for an eye” is always present in the hearts of those who have been oppressed beyond their capacity to endure.  As long ago as ancient Greece, Aeschylus understood this dilemma: “For there is no defense for a man who, in the excess of his wealth, has kicked the great altar of Justice out of sight.”

This is where we are today in the world of the Arab Spring.

But defense there must be. The people on trial are clearly responsible for enormous crimes against their people. They deserve to be punished. But, they deserve Justice, not vengeance. They deserve the rights that their people were so long denied. They deserve not mercy, but they do deserve Justice. A Justice that will not tarnish the citizens who are now in power by its arbitrariness or unreasonable severity or lack of due process. 

The great French philosopher, Pascal, said “Justice and power must be brought together, so that whatever is just may be powerful, and whatever is powerful may be just.”
“Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe.”

These words could easily be applied to the Arab Spring countries, but they were spoken byFrederick Douglass, the great American champion of civil rights, who argued against slavery and debated Abraham Lincoln several times in what have become centerpieces in the slavery issue that led to the American Civil War.

It ought to be everyone’s fervent desire that the new governments in the Arab Spring nations will be Just. That they will be honorable. That they will not inflict on their tormenters the severe lack of Justice that they bore. That they will not destroy their own values by becoming like the despots they have overturned.

Thomas Paine, an American Revolutionary hero, said, “I believe in the equality of man; and I believe that religious duties consist in doing justice, loving mercy, and endeavoring to make our fellow-creatures happy.”
A happy Ben Ali or Mubarak? No. Yet, subject not to vengeance but to Justice, as all of us would like to be in this imperfect world.