generalspeaking: A Coup By Any Other Name

Wednesday, July 03, 2013

A Coup By Any Other Name

"He will only leave after a catastrophe. Lots of blood. And the military is the only party that can force him out then. This is everybody, not just the educated or the political. They came down because only the Brotherhood gained in the past two years.
"...The people are not going back until he leaves. After what we have seen in the past year, we will not settle for less."
Haitham Farouk, Cairo

"Seeking martyrdom to prevent the ongoing coup is what we can offer as a sign of gratitude to previous martyrs who died in the revolution."
Mohammed el-Beltagy, Brotherhood stalwart

No, not a coup. A necessary re-adjustment. Previous arrangements simply did not work out. And a proud man convinced that he is right and millions are wrong, refused to edge away even minimally from his non-compromise position. He was outraged, and he spoke of his rage that he would be handed a deadline to recognize the demands of the millions who protested in Egypt's squares and cities across the country. It was estimated that fully one-quarter of the population signed a petition urging that he remove himself from public office.

"There is no substitute for legitimacy", thundered Mohammed Morsi. Calling yet again on the vision of democracy, that magical element that everyone who has ever become desperately fed up with living under tyranny believes will rescue them and their cohorts from ongoing servitude to a state that has never engaged in fully serving its people. Electoral and constitutional legitimacy, he warned, "is the only guarantee against violence". He may believe that, while overlooking that he too and the Muslim Brotherhood had an obligation to the electorate who trusted them to deliver constitutional legitimacy.

In Egypt the ballot box was weighed and it was found wanting. In Egypt, a popular uprising trumped the ballot box. In Egypt, a popular uprising had already won release from a military-backed dictatorship. The president who was unseated then after thirty years of what he felt to be benevolent rule because he loved his country and his people and always meant to do the best for them and the country's interests, now has some satisfaction in knowing that the Brotherhood, once outlawed because of its stridently fanatical views has also failed in its tyranny.

The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, of which formally Mohammed Morsi was the government head, has now taken control -- temporarily, Defence Minister Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi hastens to assure -- of the country. Egypt is now under martial law. Now, if the Muslim Brotherhood, whose leaders along with President Morsi have been taken into custody, call for a general uprising of their still-substantial support base, they remain capable of being responsible for large-scale bloodshed. That potential was what led Hosni Mubarak to resign. That prospect was clearly insufficient to lead Mohammed Morsi to do likewise.

Did he not conceive of the possibility that, refusing to heed the call of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces who truly do stand on guard for Egypt's well-being, that action would be taken? Two colossi meeting in challenge of one another; one, incapable of losing face, the other unwilling to lose face. Morsi "doesn't understand. He will take us toward bloodshed and civil war", said a dejected young Cairene, Islam Musbah.

In his 46-minute speech on Tuesday, the president again warned the military against plans to remove him from office. Doing so, he said would "backfire on its perpetrators". The American administration had banked on Mohammad Morsi to make a usefully workable and democratically legitimate transition from dictatorship to Egyptian-style democracy, or something loosely resembling democracy. Though truth to tell, the United States felt no compunction in supporting either version of Egyptian governance.

With six cabinet ministers abandoning their support of the Morsi-Brotherhood government, and the departure of other key government figures, the situation must have appeared desolately isolating to President Morsi. Perhaps he felt just about as deflated and aghast at his turn of fortunes as did those Egyptians who had a governor foisted upon them who had caused the deaths of many Egyptians in an earlier incarnation. The appointment of Adel Mohamed al-Khayat, responsible for the 1997 massacre at a Luxor temple, enraged many in Luxor, exemplifying the oblivious state of the Morsi government.

Now, the army, which it seems was awaiting its opportunity to legitimize a move to remove the Brotherhood, since the beginning of the winter protests that eventually became the huge late-June rallies against the government, will begin the process of drafting a new constitution through an interim administration led by the Supreme Constitutional Court's chief justice. A temporary coalition administration that will be inclusive of all Egypt's factions; the defence minister, political party representatives, youth groups, Al-Azhar Mosque, and the Coptic Church.

Egypt has spoken. There is much at stake. It is time.

Labels: Conflict, Crisis Politics, Egypt, Human Relations, Muslim Brotherhood, Social Failures