Fulfilling the Needs of the Egyptian People
The Needs of Egypt
"It has been a difficult, very difficult year, and I think the coming years will also be difficult. But I hope that I will all the time be doing my best to fulfill the needs of the Egyptian people."Egyptian President Mohammad Morsi; interview with The Guardian
Clearly, President Morsi remains unaware, despite that those antagonistic to his continued rule have been able to exert enough public influence to ensure that millions of Egyptians have committed to converging into the streets night after night to rally support for his opponents, just how parlous a condition his continued government position is. He has obviously not, in the year he has been in office, fulfilled the needs of the Egyptian people.
The Muslim Brotherhood and Mohammad Morsi in particular felt confident that they had the organizational and governmental skills required to bring stability back to Egypt. They planned to re-write the constitution of the country and reword and remake it in a clear reflection of their own Islamist roots. They campaigned under the banner of democratic order under an Islamist flag, and enough Egyptians believed the two might be compatible to vote them into a majority government.
Egyptians had chafed under the now-seeming benevolence of the Mubarak tyranny. Former President Hosni Mubarak too respected democracy as the magic word that would entrance his subjects into believing that their vote meant something. Democratic elections under President Mubarak gave him a surprising 80+ share of the vote. That kind of hypocritical corruption meant to hoodwink people who knew better would not be repeated by the Muslim Brotherhood.
And though it's entirely likely that the MB had no need to descend to such tactics, they used democracy in their own unethical way, to lull Egyptians into believing that the process of the licit democratic ballot box would lead to the reliability of a democratic government. If Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan could manage that kind of transition for Turkey, why not Egypt, after all?
Just as democracy-wishful, secular-oriented Turks have awakened to the autocracy of Erdogan's Justice & Development party, Egypt too is spurning the falsity of its very own Muslim Brotherhood Freedom and Justice party.
Egyptians hoped and believed that their new president would set aside his party's ambitions for the time being at least, to focus emphatically on the obvious ills of Egypt's fragile economy, its divided people, its high unemployment and growing poverty rates, its soaring out-of-control violent crime situation, and the many other concerning fault-lines within the country's advance into the future in a geography that is being increasingly wracked by sectarian unrest.
The vast crowds of protesters, many more opposing Dr. Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood, than the Islamists who are determined to support his government, have managed as yet to avoid catastrophic clashes. Should they occur there will be far more deaths than the handful that have so far occurred, and infinitely greater numbers of Egyptians suffering injury than the mere hundreds that have been counted. Egyptian police, once detested by the general populace, have redeemed themselves.
At least in the opinion of the protesters. There have been few police interfering in the activities of the vast crowds of protesting Egyptians. The potential of disastrous clashes between the polarities, however, weigh heavily on the minds of Egypt's military elite. A clear warning from the military has been issued; 48 hours given for the government and the opposition to reach some kind of settlement before matters get completely out of hand, and the military feels forced to step in.
Five government ministers have so far resigned their positions. A clear enough sign that the solidarity of the Muslim Brotherhood is dissolving under the extreme weight of public rejection. An attempt to call Egyptians to order, to recall their duty to their country has been invoked by Sheik Yusuf Qaradawi, the Muslim celebrity-cleric from Al Jazeera television, urging patience with the Muslim Brotherhood government.
"If we waited during the Mubarak regime for 30 years, and another 30 years before him during the [time of the] oppressors, why can't we be patient with Morsi?" Perhaps the very fact that Sheik Qaradawi -- backed by Qatar's ruling family and funded by them just as they fund the Muslim Brotherhood -- is a life-long member of the Muslim Brotherhood will serve to diminish the impact of his plea.
"My eyes drip with tears when I see the divisions in Egypt."
Labels: Conflict, Controversy, Egypt, Muslim Brotherhood, Social Failures
posted by Pieface @ Tuesday, July 02, 2013
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