generalspeaking

The New Egypt

There is not yet much in the way of democracy in the new Egypt. There is the arrest of some key government ministers charged with corruption, however. And the family of Hosni Mubarak is being detained and questioned, including Mrs. Mubarak. Claims that the Mubarak family siphoned off huge sums of money belonging to the state treasury must be investigated.

They will likely prove to be vastly inflated, if not entirely false.

The firm hand which President Mubarak relied upon to ensure that his population was a law-abiding one that respected tradition and the rule of law - aside, of course, from repression in an autocracy - is being maintained to some degree by the military. Which assured the protesters in Tahrir Square some months ago that a new Constitution was being developed and a civil government would take effect in several weeks' time.

Since that time there have been some changes. No new Constitution has yet been presented. No new civil authority has yet been created. The economic advances that Egypt had made under President Mubarak have been somewhat halted in their progress. As a result of civil disorder, largely and the reluctance of foreign investment to return too speedily to a country not yet capable of disciplining itself.

The revolution is over, certainly, but what has resulted is an interregnum, a neither-here-nor-there situation. The hatred of the populace for their feared national police was well expressed during the protests. And then the police made themselves scarce, and there were some prison break-outs, and crime soared, and people asked where the police had gone to.

They returned to their posts, with fewer police stations since some had been torched. But there are no new recruits and the police who had once flaunted their authority with arrogant violent force are now uncertain and demoralized. Not all the criminals that had escaped incarceration during the demonstrations were returned to jail. And many high-placed law officials are themselves jailed.

Neighbourhoods that were once safe to walk in are now beset with crime, the residents fearful. Businessmen, politicians and human rights activists view the mounting civil disorder, sectarian strife, soccer riots, as hindrances to economic advancement of the country. Attempted and sometimes successful jailbreaks continue to fester.

Muslim-Christian riots resulting in the torching of Coptic Churches, the deaths of Christians attempting to defend their churches and their homes, make for a most unsettling and dangerous environment. Police are often present during these mob scenes, but stand by as bystanders without effectively making an effort to control the situation; sobered by the accusations of malign hostility brought against them.

"Things are actually going from bad to worse", Mohamed El Baradei, formerly head of the IAEA, who aspired to take the presidency of the country, moaned. "Where have the police and military gone?" The military council still governing the country doesn't quite seem to know how to serve the country whose responsibility to serve it is theirs, having persuaded President Mubarak to depart.

The new interim Egyptian Prime Minister appears incapable of exerting authority along with the conviction that he is responsible for the well-being of the country. Might it be possible that in their deepest thoughts they rue the day they persuaded the assured and firm hand of a benign dictator to depart the scene?

Is this perhaps precisely what Egypt requires?

Labels: Political RealitiesPeaceMiddle East

posted by Pieface @ Friday, May 13, 2011