When the Arab Spring gave a promise to the people and the process stumbled, the cry of many, many Arabs was: Where is the Mandela of the Arabs? It was a question full of yearning, born of agony.

Nelson Mandela was a close friend of the late professor Edward Said and also of Lakhdar Brahimi, today’s UN special envoy to Syria. They both drew from him important lessons, and Said sought to instill his values and liberation narrative into the struggle of the Palestinian people.

Mandela, in prison and in power, remained a source of inspiration. Resistance to the racist apartheid regime helped to liberate not only the people of South Africa, but also those who suppressed national and human rights through the apartheid regime they administered. This explains why Mandela, upon his release from prison and his election to the presidency of South Africa, brought on as his deputy the former president of apartheid regime, Frederik Willem de Klerk. Despite the profound bitterness that Mandela must have felt along with his anger after 27 years of detention, he took a breath and made the decision that South Africa liberation must transcend anger and hatred and make the oppressors equal citizens with the black population that he led, inspired and empowered.

Thus, power for Mandela was a commitment to empower the people, even his adversaries. This was his opportunity to promote the values of human rights and equality into the forefront of human endeavors and good governance.