Has anything changed in the Middle East ?
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This topic was discussed on World Have Your Say on 1 March 2011. Listen to the programme.
"Nothing has changed. Our demand was the fall of the regime - not just Mubarak - and this has not happened yet," says Khaled Ibrahim, one of the Egyptian .
New rulers are in place in Egypt, Tunisia and parts of Libya. But how new are they?
Half of the new Egyptian cabinet were ministers under Mubarak. Tunisians just got rid of the second prime minister in two months because he was a remnant of the old regime. And the new interim government in Benghazi is headed up by Gaddafi's former Justice Minister, Mustafa Abdel Jalil, who only resigned from the Gaddafi government a week ago. (Time magazine looks at who's in charge ).
In Egypt, protesters have returned to Tahrir Square to demand the resignation of the new Prime Minister Ahmad Shafiq. writes that the new Egyptian cabinet "is not a new interim cabinet but rather a ministerial reshuffle."ÌýÌý
The Egyptian writer Tarek Osman told Al Jazeera: "The revolution has not achieved its aims yet because the new political players have not really emerged yet ...we have not seen any new, structured narratives being put forward, if we have elections in six to twelve months then the same political parties will continue to dominate."
But in the post-revolution Middle East, newÌýrulers may still need the people with experience and know-how, and that means the old bureacracy. The Los Angeles Times where the ruling order has collapsed.
"Even with Qaddafi gone, the country may face a continued contest between the forces of a free Libya and the regime's die-hard elements" says Frederic Wehrey Ìý"The National Oil Corporation, the Libyan Arab Foreign Investment Company, and the various popular committees may be arms of the Qaddafi-run state, but they are also reservoirs of technocratic, administrative, and economic expertise."
One of the protesters back in Tahrir Square this week, tellsÌýjournalists: "It seems that many are not taking this revolution seriously." Will new cabinets full of old ministers cut it for those who fought for change ?
TonightÌýwe'll be asking what's really changed in the Middle East. Post your comments here.
