A down-trodden region is finally getting a taste of freedom.

This will eventually inspire Arab societies to implement social and political reforms and it must be remembered that no society or people can be held and/or kept in total bondage forever. Ultimately the people of the Middle East must determine their own destiny.

Any establishment that's repressive, dictatorial, corrupt, brutal and which tortures political prisoners must eventually fall. While the Middle East uprising has made westerners temporarily nervous but the changes will affirm values that the western world lives by.

Authoritarianism, autocracy and dictatorships will find it difficult to handle change because the structure of power they have set up cannot respond to the new dynamic demands. Alexis de Tecqueville once observed that "the most dangerous moment for a bad government is when it begins to reform itself".

While President Zine el Abidine Ben Ali of Tunisia was ousted after 23 years in power, President Hosni Mubarak is presently tottering and the others like Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen (32 years in power), Omar Hassan Al-Bashir of Sudan (21 years in power) and Muammar Gaddafi of Libya (41 years in power) are all vulnerable leaders still clinging on to power, but for how long?

It is a universal truth that economic progress produces inequalities and uncertainties, and ultimately will spur protest. Additionally, such progress will create newer expectations and demands which has proved far too much for the region to stomach.

For instance, after weeks of protests in Algeria the government was forced to cut taxes on sugar and cooking oil. Libya, on the other hand, abolished taxes on some food items after protests, and similar protests in Yemen effectively forced President Ali Abdullah Saleh not to seek re-election in 2013.

I'm confident if democracy reins in the Middle East, the region will be able to improve its standing globally.

The writer is a former ISA detainee.