generalspeaking

It Was A Popular/Populist Revolt

A Populist Revolt...And Then?

A revolt, indeed of unprecedented proportions. And unimaginable power. How could any regime, no matter how well managed -- sustain day after day of ongoing protests, of citizens from every religious and political persuasion, every social strata, a vast variety of employment, from academics to street vendors -- remain defiant of millions marching for freedom from the yoke of oppression? After all, the Muslim Brotherhood-led, Mohammed Morsi government was to have been the longed-for antidote to decades of brutal military-backed rule.

Egyptians discovered to their dismay and unmitigated disgust, that they had simply exchanged, in their hopeful naivete, a dictator for a tyrant. They had shuffled about in their 80-million-strong numbers, accepting thirty years of dictatorship which, though it presented itself with a veneer of democracy, was anything but, yet still managed to begin advancing the country's future, while struggling with the implacable issues facing any large country with limited resources.

Under Hosni Mubarak, tourism remained one of the reliable economic mainstays of the country, and a stable political situation encouraged foreign investment in upgrading factory production. The government subsidized basic foods; bread, flour and cooking oil for the population. Law and order prevailed to a large degree, through force and fear. There was no free press, and bloggers critical of the president were arrested and jailed. But Egypt was no longer a society closed to outside pressures.

With the advent of television, however much it was controlled by the state, and the freedom of communication through the Internet, Egyptians began to realize how deprived they were, how bereft of freedoms and human rights taken for granted elsewhere. Let alone economic advancement. But it was the rising price of basic commodities that began the revolt that became its Arab Spring bringing young idealists yearning for democracy onto the streets and into Tahrir Square, causing the Mubarak government to fall.

Now, with even larger, more determinedly emphatic protests against the government of President Mohammed Morsi, whose attention was fatally fixated on hauling Egypt backward into the pure shining days of original Islam, Sharia, and the Caliphate, poverty, crime and unemployment soared, while tourism, production and public safety plummeted. And having an Islamist constitution and an Islamist government of party faithful thrust upon them simply represented that straw the camel balked at.

"Don't ask me if I am happy. Just look around you at all those people, young and old. They are all happy. For the first time, people have really won their liberty", shouted Mohammed Nageh, in Tahrir Square. Twenty-two million signatures on a petition demanding that the government withdraw was an effective and telling negation of the Muslim Brotherhood agenda. And the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, the defender of the Egyptian street, saluted the Egyptian flag.

Egyptian television broadcast a huge Muslim Brotherhood-support rally not far from Tahrir Square. The stunned, disbelievingly ashen faces of the crowd turned the opposition's chants back at them: Down, Down, Down with Military Rule", they chanted, along with "Victory or Martyrdom". And this is yet the choice that many may make. The Egyptian president's office Twitter account quoted former President Morsi, terming the military measure "a full coup".

In response, military troops and armoured vehicles were arrayed everywhere in Cairo, Alexandria and other cities where the triumph of the protest was being countered by the rage of the Islamists. Brotherhood supporters opened fire on police in several cities. Mohammed Morsi was held behind barbed wire at the Presidential Guard headquarters, incommunicado. "We're still discussing options but there is not much we can do against the military at the end of the day", mourned Gehad El-Haddad, spokesman for the Brotherhood, on CNN.

"It wasn't a coup. It was the people choosing democracy and the military supporting their choice. You will see that everything going forward is going to be done democratically", Ibrahim Ismail claimed with complete confidence, revelling in Tahrir Square.  "We still don't know what the Brotherhood will do. They are strong people and they do not want to go back in jail, as they did for so many years when the military ruled. They say they'll never give up, so we will have to see", said Ahmed Abdul Fattah.

Muslim Brotherhood television networks have been shut down. The military issued arrest warrants for roughly 300 members of the Muslim Brotherhood. Possibly to put a halt to any thought of the Brotherhood organizing to counter their reversal in fortunes. Even the spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood and his clerical cohorts are now under arrest. There are rumours of Hamas entering the fray, executing bombing forays to express their defiance of the Brotherhood ousting.

The military will ensure that the new President, Chief Justice of the Supreme constitutional Court and his collaborating partners representative of all of Egypt's social, religious and civil/political interests will rule in a temporary manner until new elections and a new constitution can be arranged. And then that proverbial $64-million question will raise its head.

What if the unthinkable re-occurs; that by some peculiar circumstance the Muslim Brotherhood manages once again to convince a large proportion of Egyptians to re-elect them...?

Labels: Conflict, Egypt, Islamism, Muslim Brotherhood, Revolution

posted by Pieface @ Friday, July 05, 2013