Monday, July 15, 2013

Interim Egypt

General Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi assured his American visitor that the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces respected the June 2012 election that resulted in the installation of Mohammed Morsi to the presidency, and the Muslim Brotherhood to the rudder of power in the country. The trouble was, most unfortunately, that having won the election neither the Muslim Brotherhood nor their primary candidate, Mohammed Morsi, respected Egypt sufficiently to govern it responsibly.

Millions of Egyptians who had suffered the betrayal of their trust in the Islamist group had declared in no uncertain terms that their patience had run out, and they insisted on the removal of Morsi and the Brotherhood. The experiment that had Egypt so exhilarated in its potential for success was an abject failure. The purpose of government is to look to the needs of the population and the state. Not to engage itself fully and without regard to those needs, to the firm installation of a theocratic rule.

Supporters of deposed Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi protest on the Sixth of October Bridge over the Ramsis square area in central Cairo. (photo by Amr Abdallah Dalsh, Reuters)
There is now no possibility of a restoration of the Brotherhood and Mohammed Morsi to positions they proved more than adequately they were incapable of managing. The economy of the country, the employment of its people, the security and fundamental advances in their livelihoods and the country's industry and tourism required a remedy, or at least the promise of a fix. Helpfully, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States provided bridging cash.

The visit of the U.S. State department's William Burns, to meet with the newly installed interim government and the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces to express the American administration's concern over how they might manage nomenclature to avoid naming what transpired a coup, or merely a re-alignment of government priorities, ensuring that the $1.5-billion the U.S. transferred annually to the Egyptian military was more a concern, it seemed, of the U.S. than of Egypt.

No country likes to feel that it is being flagrantly bought; pride and self-regard should remain intact in any such transactions .He should be under no illusions, General El-Sissi scolded; the matter of governance, suitability and rejection was Egypt's decision alone. It was not a coup, a military putsch, or any derogatory term in a democratic country's arsenal of conjecture and rejection; it was a re-setting of priorities, values and acceptable conduct.

Necessitating that the media controlled by the Brotherhood be put out of business lest they incite to further violence, just as a warrant for the arrest of Mohammed Badie, and the freezing of his assets and those of his circle, have been mounted. The censure and confusion of the international community is their affair; not Egypt's. Egypt will proceed to do what is best for its own future without regard to outside interference.

And for the moment, because tens of thousands of Islamist continue to rally in cities across Egypt, prepared to confront the military and the equally large numbers of those who unambiguously demanded the ouster of the Brotherhood and Mohammed Morsi, the military has its hands full. The Brotherhood has failed in its mission, has failed to mount a greater support in its organized protests among the wider public, and the first order of business is to restore calm.

Egyptian flags outnumber the green Islamic banners. The troops have been advised to maintain a distance from the ultraconservative Islamists. And the Egyptian military and police are battling a vicious series of assaults taking place in the Sinai, with Muslim Brotherhood organizers, Salafist Bedouin and Hamas terrorists all converging in a co-operative effort to bring pain and insecurity to the region.

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