Country: United States of America Committee: United Nations Security Council Name: Maleakhi Misael Sutanto University: Universitas

Padjadjaran Topic Area: The Role of Information Technology in Reactionary Movements The Arab Spring had successfully gained the international community attention. It was a very curious phenomenon which had forced referendums, overthrown dictators, and united as well as divided the international community, most recently seen on the double veto by the Russian Federation and the People's Republic of China with respect to the situation in the Syrian Arab Republic, less than two years (Barry 2012). Aside from its prominent effects, the Arab Spring also employs peculiar method of protest, which is the use of information and communication technology (hereinafter, ICT) and the media as a tool to proliferate the cause, unite the people, and bring down all of them altogether to act (Miller-McCune 2011). This trend also reached the people outside the Middle East and North Africa, and the United States of America herself faced similar situation, most prominently the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) and the WikiLeaks. It also influenced several states to tighten their censorship over the media for the maintenance of national order. However, with respect to the OWS the United States stands firmly as the champion of democracy and freedom and the United States believes that the people reserves the right to use ICT as they believes fit. Instead of putting ICT as the scapegoat, the United States addresses the real cause of this situation, which is the people's frustration, as President Obama put it, on the situation around them (Memoli 2011). The OWS situation in the United States is not different from the situation in the Middle East and North Africa. The democratic movements do not merely seek for a new regime because they are not all political bureaucrats, but they are the people. And they demand freedom, economic hope, and human dignity, as were enshrined in the very privileged documents we endorsed and wrote; the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the United Nations Charter (Clinton 2012). Thus the United States calls the international community to see the problem properly if it really hopes for effective solutions. The problem is the fulfillment of the people's welfare, freedom, and security, which is actually the government's duty regardless of their means. This fulfillment is fundamental for the growth of the civil society which significantly contributes to the national order. The United States opposes the idea that the national order will be achieved through media containment or censorship. With respect to the WikiLeaks, the United States has proven that the civil society, being educated, will eventually recognize: first, where their government sides, whether it is with or against them; and second, the healthy legal extent of transparency. Even though some individuals "rejoiced" when the WikiLeaks emerged, but eventually they realized that it is harmful without any propaganda from the United States government, and they acknowledged that the WikiLeaks' actions were not legally acceptable.

And the United States is willing to assure that the aforementioned concept of the civil society is not a Western invention. It was, in fact as the Arab Spring had shown, indigenous to any civilization on the face of the Earth, including the Middle East and North Africa (Clinton 2012). Thus, the United States reaffirms that the current situation in the Middle East and North Africa is not caused by the use of ICT. It is undeniably instrumental in the Arab Spring, but it is not the cause. The real cause which demands proper solution is the fulfillment of the people's welfare, freedom, and security, and the solution is the fulfillment for the growth of (educated) civil society. It should be noted that without the initial fulfillment, the insurgencies will not stop. Therefore the United States invites the international community to support and facilitate the use of ICT and further calls the international community to refrain from banning or censoring the use of ICT and the media, especially in the Middle East and North Africa, as the United States herself does in the situation in the Syrian Arab Republic (Rice 2012). The United States also stresses that if the international community keeps running away from the real problems, then the Secretary General's vision of a stronger United Nations will be, in the harshest term, utopic. It is time to make more effective decisions and pass more productive resolutions, as the first steps for the manifestation of that vision.

Works Cited Barry, Anya. Adding Fuel to Syria's Fire. February 13, 2012. http://www.fpif.org/articles/adding_fuel_to_syrias_fire (accessed April 11, 2012). Clinton, Hillary Rodham. Remarks at the United Nations Security Council. March 12, 2012. http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2012/03/185623.htm (accessed April 11, 2012). Memoli, Michael A. Obama news conference: Obama: Occupy Wall Street protests show Americans' frustration. October 6, 2011. http://articles.latimes.com/2011/oct/06/news/la-pn-obama-occupy-wall-street20111006 (accessed April 11, 2012). Miller-McCune. The Arab Spring's Cascading Effects. February 23, 2011. http://www.millermccune.com/politics/the-cascading-effects-of-the-arab-spring-28575/ (accessed April 11, 2012). Rice, Susan E. "President of the Security Council on the programme of work for the month of April 2012." Press Conference. New York: United Nations Webcast, April 3, 2012.