generalspeaking

The Truth, and Nothing But The Truth

"You had officers and individuals who were working under a specific policy that was against Islamic extremists and Islamists in general. Then all of a sudden the regime flips and there is an Islamic regime ruling. They could never psychologically accept that."
Ihab Youssef, retired Egyptian police officer

The Egyptian police were feared and loathed generally throughout Egypt. They kept order, but brutally. Egyptians were well advised to behave themselves. Police presence seemed to dissolve mysteriously when former president, Hosni Mubarak though, was removed from office. The presence of police on the streets of Egypt was no longer a given. During the mass protests that brought Mr. Mubarak out of office, there was a huge prison break. Thugs, thousands of them, were loose and the police nowhere to be found.

Those thugs were never tracked down, never detained, never taken back to prison. But the crime rate went up, steeply. And still the police were nowhere to be seen. The military brought order to bear. And an election took place, and the Muslim Brotherhood became the number one favourite for election during a 'democratic' process that brought Brotherhood stalwart Mohammed Morsi to the presidency.

The military stood behind Mr. Morsi; clearly they had no stomach to become the government, and in any event, although the people of Egypt trusted them to a degree, they had no wish to have full military rule by the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces. Law and order were never re-established; the violent crime rate simply accelerated. The police were not terribly concerned, it seemed, nor cooperative with the government.

As it happened, nor was the bureaucracy, the judiciary, and actually, the military. The military was there, in the background, its elite officers part of the government under President Morsi, but Mr. Morsi did not practise taking advice from them. His government continued to be at loggerheads with the judiciary with the bureaucracy. And the ills that had assailed Egypt became progressively more burdensome. The Egyptian pound sank in value as inflation and the cost of living soared.

While they soared employment plummeted. The Sinai became a troublesome hot-spot with Islamists attacking the Egyptian police posts stationed there, and the military coming under fire as well. Egyptian gas pipelines were bombed, interrupting the flow of energy sold to Jordan and to Israel. The violence convinced tourists they weren't all that interested in the fabled pyramids after all. Foreign investment dried up. There were ongoing energy blackouts, infuriating people.

What drove them to distraction, though was the growing shortages of gas to fuel vehicles, and the irritation quotient of long line-ups. Now, Mohammed Morsi has been deposed by popular demand. An interim government has been put in place. Suddenly the police have appeared to restore order, though molestation of Egyptian women at protest sites like Tahrir Square continues. And no more fuel line-ups; plenty of gas available after all.

A conspiracy theory has arisen. The old guard from the Mubarak era -- not that long ago, after all -- shared a non-cooperation policy. To let the Islamic extremists hang themselves through their incompetence. While President Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood were so busy immersing themselves in the priorities for Egypt, like firmly establishing Sharia and Brotherhood members appointed to vital posts, the economy kept shrivelling and drying up.

The poor got poorer and more numerous, even though they were the demographic most wedded to the idea of Brotherhood rule. And now that Morsi is under close confinement pending the decision of whether or not to charge him with anything useful to further discredit the Brotherhood, Qatar is being sidelined while Saudi Arabia and the Emirates are suddenly finding oodles of loose billions to lavish on restoring economic stability to Egypt.

And remember that prison break? Well, as it happens, Mohammed Morsi evidently was one of those escapees. It has been rumoured that Hamas, the Brotherhood knock-off terror group, arranged for a prison break. Where Mr. Morsi and 30 other Brotherhood leading types exited the prison and entered public life.  Officially, it seems, prosecutors plan to investigate allegations that the 2011 prison break during the revolution hugely and personally benefited the former president.

No, claimed Mr. Morsi - local residents aided in his escape. Hamas had nothing to do with it. Does it make much real difference, actually?

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

posted by Pieface @ Saturday, July 13, 2013