{"id":62,"date":"2011-07-27T23:59:00","date_gmt":"2011-07-27T23:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/perfectionatic.org\/?p=62"},"modified":"2011-07-27T23:59:00","modified_gmt":"2011-07-27T23:59:00","slug":"politics-vs-protests-the-egyptian-revolution-in-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/perfectionatic.org\/?p=62","title":{"rendered":"Politics vs. Protests: The Egyptian Revolution in Crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
I write this post to try to clarify a few points with regards to the situation in Egypt and process of the democratic transition. \u00a0This has been spurred by requests form my English speaking friends who are trying to keep up with unfolding events in Egypt and my general dissatisfaction with the reporting of current events in Egypt, such as this WJS article<\/a>. <\/p>\n
\n
<\/div>\n
Is the Revolution over?<\/b><\/div>\n
If you were to believe the supreme council of the armed forces (SCAF) and a great many of those who have not been talking to revolutionaries and watching too much state television, it is very much over. We have entered a new phase of democratic transition. Here is what they say has been achieved:<\/div>\n
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    \n
  1. A referendum where SCAF has proposed constitutional amendments that implied some process of handing over power to civilian\u00a0control and some vague process for drafting a new constitution once a new parliament has been elected.\u00a0<\/li>\n
  2. A brand new council of ministers that is headed by a prime minister who was known to have taken part of part in the revolution.\u00a0<\/li>\n
  3. Members of the Coalition of the Youth of the Revolution<\/a>\u00a0acting\u00a0as\u00a0advisers\u00a0of the prime minister.\u00a0<\/li>\n
  4. Parliamentary elections coming up in couple of month.<\/li>\n
  5. SCAF is even giving financial aid to you new parties to cover some of expenses of registration and making the legal mandatory\u00a0newspaper\u00a0announcements.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
    So why\u00a0complain?\u00a0and why take to the street and protest? The logic goes, SCAF is not perfect, but they seem to be doing the best they can. The country needs stability more than anything else. The\u00a0economy\u00a0is in tatters and investor\u00a0confidence\u00a0is low. Protests are\u00a0disruptive and slow down the wheel of production<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
    \n\n\n\n\n
    <\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    The old mechanism of electoral corruption are still in place (by Carlos Latuff<\/a>).<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

    \n<\/div>\n

    \n
    <\/div>\n

    These points is not held by the\u00a0protesters, and here is how they might respond:<\/p><\/div>\n

    \n
      \n
    1. Referendum: there is a great deal of\u00a0confusion as to what is was really about. We thought we voting for a amendment to the existing\u00a0constitution, but SCAF trashed the old constitution\u00a0and gave us a provisional one that gives it unrestricted powers and no\u00a0accountability\u00a0whatsoever. SCAF also sees that the passing of the\u00a0referendum\u00a0means that they people of Egypt gave it a carte blanche to run the country (that was not in any of the amended articles!).\u00a0Interestingly\u00a0enough the\u00a0Islamist see the\u00a0referendum\u00a0as a vote that affirms that the people of Egypt want their future state to be an Islamic one and not secular. Although the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) and the Salafis (Wahabis is more apt description) have very incompatible ideas of what that might mean.\u00a0<\/li>\n
    2. The prime\u00a0minister and the his\u00a0council\u00a0have very limited powers and SCAF calls all the shots via the powers that they have \u00a0granted themselves in the provisional constitution. The prime minster and the council \u00a0act as shock absorbers\u00a0for SCAF, taking the blame whenever it is\u00a0convenient. Such a\u00a0tactic\u00a0has all the hallmarks Mubarak era style of governance. We have a very\u00a0peculiar situation where the prime minster reports of the minster of\u00a0defense\u00a0and not vice versa.\u00a0<\/li>\n
    3. The youth coalition have been castrated since they held offices in power and have been quickly loosing whatever support they held in the ranks of the protesters due to their neutral or their lukewarm\u00a0attitudes on several issues that are key to the\u00a0protesters demands. Their eroding power base and the proliferation of hundreds\u00a0of \u00a0coalitions, many of them from the youth of\u00a0Mubarak’s now banned national\u00a0democratic party,\u00a0\u00a0have made them completely\u00a0ineffective.\u00a0<\/li>\n
    4. The governing laws for the\u00a0parliamentary election have yet be finalized, and there are doubts about whether the elections will be truly fair. SCAF have objected to international observers and the old corrupt police force is what used to turn a blind eyes to fraud during election has not undergone significant reform.\u00a0<\/li>\n
    5. Parties that are hungry for power have been taking a somewhat comprising in there stance \u00a0vis-a-vie SCAF so as not to fall out of\u00a0favor before the ultimate ruler.\u00a0\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n
      Hence presenting the false dichotomy of the politics in direct opposition to the protests, and\u00a0favoring\u00a0the former for the sake of stability will not sell amongst the\u00a0protesters.<\/p>\n

      What about the “backlash” against the protests?<\/b>
      SCAF has\u00a0tightened its grip on the media. We now have a a minster of information (disinformation)\u00a0whose\u00a0sole purpose is mobilize state media to present SCAF message. That message has been one of fear and panic. Fear about the economy and stability, and panic that there are some dark\u00a0foreign\u00a0forces that are now meddling in our affairs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
      <\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
      SCAF hypnotizing the\u00a0populace\u00a0into\u00a0believing that revolutionaries are traitors (by\u00a0Carlos Latuff<\/a>).<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

      <\/p>\n

      <\/div>\n

      Recently SCAF has accused the April 6 Youth\u00a0movement that they are being funded by\u00a0foreign and nefarious powers. The movement has\u00a0played key role in keeping the uprising non-violent and is the largest secular block of all the\u00a0organized movements with the revolution. SCAF seems however to maintain a very good relationship\u00a0with the\u00a0Islamist. Speculation has been rife in the ranks of Tahrir\u00a0protesters\u00a0the\u00a0\u00a0Islamist must have cut a sweet deal with SCAF. The accusation has been made without\u00a0evidence.\u00a0Recently\u00a0 in an TV interview with a SCAF\u00a0representative, the talk show host started to ask few hard questions with regards to\u00a0evidence.\u00a0\u00a0The SCAF man was clearly\u00a0unconformable\u00a0with her “audacious” grilling. She lost her job <\/a>as a result.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
      <\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
      Talk show host Dina Abdel Rahman fired for questioning SCAF (by\u00a0Carlos Latuff<\/a>).<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

      A few days ago protester were met by a violent “backlash” on their\u00a0peaceful\u00a0march to the ministry of defense to press forth their demands. Such a backlash came primarily as the result of SCAF or its agents spreading\u00a0rumors the the\u00a0protesters were on their way to burn down the ministry of defense<\/a> and start up a fight with army. It is telling a few hours prior to the march that\u00a0\u00a0Major General Hassan Al-Ruweiny we on TV hurling\u00a0further\u00a0accusations at the April 6\u00a0movement and condemning the march as the work of saboteurs who care nothing for the greater good of Egypt<\/a>. He also said there could be many how are innocent amongst the marchers who are victims of “disinformation”.\u00a0Interestingly\u00a0he bragged about how used to manipulate the\u00a0protesters\u00a0in \u00a0Tahrir during the first 18 days of the revolution by spreading rumors. One can only wonder if he was behind the rumors in\u00a0Abbaseya where the clash happened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
      <\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
      Cowardly assault on protesters in Abbaseya (by\u00a0Carlos Latuff<\/a>).<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

      <\/p>\n

      <\/a><\/div>\n

      <\/p>\n

      But what do the\u00a0protesters\u00a0want?<\/b><\/div>\n

      There are a number of demands and concerns<\/a>, but the most\u00a0pressing concern has to do with the families of the martyrs of the revolution and the injured.\u00a0The\u00a0families\u00a0have been subject to threats and pressure from the Police to drop their charges levied against their killers. They have been offered blood money, and if they refuse they were subject unbearable\u00a0harassment. Similar pressure was also applied to those who were injured during the revolution.\u00a0<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

      \n\n\n\n\n
      <\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
      The revolution grows forth from the blood of the martyrs (from a mural in Tahrir).<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

      The ministry of interior (MOI) in engaged in\u00a0propaganda\u00a0to project the view that the deaths were either accidental or (preposterously) the work of\u00a0foreign\u00a0snipers. This runs contrary to video\u00a0footage showing the snipers perched on top on the ministry and \u00a0during the early days of the revolution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
      <\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
      “Snipers!!! Where?” the minster of interior\u00a0declares (by Carlos Latuff<\/a>). \u00a0<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

      The families of the martyrs form and core around which\u00a0protesters gather. They want the killers to be put on trial\u00a0immediately\u00a0along those\u00a0\u00a0higher-ups who are gave the orders. The demands that the officers who carried out the shooting, the minster of interior at the time, and Mubarak be put on trial\u00a0immediately. There have been many\u00a0rescheduled sessions already that most protesters are certain that foul play is involved.\u00a0SCAF declares that it is not their fault, the wheels of justice just happen to be slow at times and this is the\u00a0responsibility\u00a0of the judiciary. We know that the judiciary does not enjoy much\u00a0independence there is no clear\u00a0separation\u00a0of powers yet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
      <\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
      SCAF is molesting Lady Justice (by\u00a0Ahmed Nady<\/a>).<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

      Those who are\u00a0protesters will not end their sit-in in Tahrir until they see the wheels of justice turning and they are\u00a0stratified that it is doing so in the right\u00a0direction. There is a very serious concern that if SCAF keeps on ignoring such basic demands for justice that things take a violent turn as the\u00a0ominous\u00a0graffiti below suggests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
      <\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
      We will avenge ourselves SCAF! (photo by Lilian Wady<\/a>)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

      \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      I write this post to try to clarify a few points with regards to the situation in Egypt and process of the democratic transition. \u00a0This has been spurred by requests form my English speaking friends who are trying to keep up with unfolding events in Egypt and my general dissatisfaction with the reporting of current […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44,11,6,25,33,56,10,22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-62","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-corruption","category-counter-revolution","category-egypt","category-jan25","category-jul23","category-jul8","category-scaf","category-tahrir"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/perfectionatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/perfectionatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/perfectionatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perfectionatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perfectionatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=62"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/perfectionatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/perfectionatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=62"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perfectionatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=62"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perfectionatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=62"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}