The New Generation

I was arguing once with my parents about how bad things are, in general, in arab countries and how corrupt governments were.
I was arguing that governments are meant to serve people and that the governments should be afraid of the people and not the people afraid of the government, what is a government after all?
Of course since they were my parents and they knew it all obviously since they are older than me, they defended the actions of the governments and said that "if that wasn't the case there would have been a coup every now and then and that people would be fighting each other all the time that's why we need strong governments that rule with an iron fist". After the argument was done i heard them mumbling "this new generation, so influenced by western ideas".... ??!!?!?!

I think both arguments are right, we just need the right balance between the two. Having Emergency laws for the past 45 years is just ridiculous. After all for people to prosper they need their freedom, and feeling that they are safe and not that the government is safe.