Do dictators think?

Former Tunisian president Zine Al Abidine Ben Ali has just been sentenced to life in absentia by a Tunisian military court, for the fourth time in the last two years, mostly for complicity in the murder of protesters in the 2011 revolution that led to his quick ouster.

Ben Ali had been previously sentenced for a total of 66 years of imprisonment on charges ranging from embezzlement to drug trafficking.

His wife was also sentenced for 35 years for the unlawful possession of jewellery and money.

Neither this life sentence nor the previous ones are likely to change much of Ben Ali’s current situation, who is in exile in Saudi Arabia. 

Whether in an actual jail, or simply where he now is, he seems to be destined to spend the rest of his time in lifeless confinement, deprived of all the luxuries he enjoyed as a ruthless dictator who allowed himself and his immediate family to suck the blood of his people and senselessly loot his country’s resources.

The so-called Arab Spring has understandably disappointed the majority of the Arab peoples for not fulfilling the hopes it had generated at the end of 2010, when the Tunisian people decided to rebel against a government that was a ruthless, despotic and deeply corrupt oligarchy.

In most Arab countries, and certainly beyond, many believed that the determination demonstrated by the Tunisians, then the Egyptians, followed by the Libyans, the Yemenis and later the Syrians, marked the beginning of a new era of Arab awakening, after years of deadly slumber, that would eventually lead to two major achievements: the toppling of the Arab dictators and the replacement of the stagnant archaic regimes with modern, non-corrupt competent democracies.

The Arab hopes were only partly realised by the toppling of some Arab dictators, and although in no Arab country was the revolution able to install better governments so far, hopefully the toppling of the Tunisian, Egyptian, Libyan and Yemeni tyrants was by no means a small Arab Spring achievement.

The overthrowing of the former Iraqi dictator, who needed two major wars to defeat 10 years earlier, brings the total of removed despots to five.

The intriguing question is how do dictators think and what kind of isolated world do they create for themselves?

Most likely, their behaviour is controlled by their instincts, rather than by sanity, otherwise they would probably have heeded the salient lessons of history and acted differently.

When Ben Ali was forced to flee his country in shame and fear in mid-January 2011, under the pressure of massive popular demand, he had completed 23 years as a sole dictator of an advanced country known for its rich tradition, enlightened population, glorious past and outstanding accomplishments.

He flew secretly in the darkness of the night, seeking refuge in Saudi Arabia where he still lives. He left behind the wealth he stole from his people and his country.

Soon after his escape, we were shown videos of vaults in some of his palaces where he and his wife had hid jewellery, diamonds, gold and huge amounts of cash in all currencies one can think of.

They left all their booty behind. But even if Ben Ali still has access to the billions he hoarded during his rule, what would he do with the money in his virtual Saudi Arabian prison? 

He could not even walk to a nearby café for a cup of tea.

What a contemptible end.

Undoubtedly, Ben Ali, who must have believed that he would not only rule unchallenged forever, without anyone of his people ever daring question his conduct, must have also believed that he would live forever too, in extravagance.

Why did he need to accumulate so much wealth at the expense of his people’s rights and livelihood, when he could have indulged in his luxurious debauchery with a very tiny fraction of what he stole, leaving some for his impoverished country.

In varying ways, dictators think and act alike. They are either totally blind or totally inhuman, or both. 

Blind to the extent that they never recognise the realities around them, and inhuman in the sense that they develop the conviction that they are immune demigods, and that everything that ends under their control, human, land or national resources, is created for their weird whims and their lavish conveniences.

None of them imagines that what befell one dictator would happen to him. Each thinks of himself as an exception.

The late Iraqi dictator believed that he legitimately and completely possessed Iraq and owned its people’s rights.

Everything the country produced was his. He alone was to decide what to take and what to leave for the people. And he alone decided how to treat his people, how to punish and how to reward. 

He did not restrain himself from any cruelty.

The former Iraqi dictator was not deposed by the people, as those who followed were. 

The reign of terror he presided over left the people no chance to express other than total obedience and fake loyalty. His country was twice invaded before his end came.

What an end!

He spent months in hiding in a grave-like ditch. He was captured, humiliated, brought to a mock trial and publicly executed. He did indeed hand his head over to his executioner bravely, but his end was no less dignified.

His two children, reputed to have been worse than their father in terms of corruption and limitless atrocities routinely committed against innocent Iraqis, were also caught while on the run. 

They met their inevitable fate, riddled with machinegun bullets by their chasers.

None of the dictators that survived Saddam Hussein ever considered that kind of disastrous imperative end for every wrong.

Ben Ali did not consider it until it was his turn, but then it was too late. Libyan Muammar Qadhafi did not consider any of the lessons from Iraq or Tunisia until it was his turn, and it was too late for him, too.

Qadhafi must have believed that he was superhuman, if not a God in his own way.

Shocking revelations about his weird behaviour keep coming. 

He ruled over his people for more than four decades, bringing only misery and devastation to his country. He also looted the country and let his children loose on the noble people of Libya.

Their end was the same. He was caught hiding, killed and his body was put on display. Some of his children were murdered and others are awaiting trial.

What did the wealth they deprived the great Libyan people of do to them?

If not murdered, the humiliation other Arab dictators have been subjected to is perhaps worse.

These are just some recent examples from our region. Indeed, they do not seem to be different from countless examples in history.

But we are not in the past any more and it is time our dictators learnt that there is no room for this kind of rule anymore.

The time when the emperor used to appear before the cheering crowds without clothes and everyone pretended not seeing him naked is over.