Egypt under military boots
THE Egyptian Spring went into coma on July 3 with the overthrow of the country's first elected government of Mohamed Morsi by the military. And with the August 14 massacre of civilians who were protesting through sit-in demonstration against the ouster of Morsi, the military has cut off the life support to the comatose democracy in its death throes.
The US, the mentor of the Egyptian military and of dictators like Hosni Mubarak that it (the military) had been serving over the past many decades, chose to look away when Egypt's fledgling democracy was being thus smothered to death.
President Obama, however, has been routinely exhorting the Egyptian military, or the interim government it backs, against using excessive force to dislodge protestors from their camps. But the Egyptian army, which depends crucially on the $1.3 billion-worth annual military aid to sustain itself, seems to be giving a damn about American persuasions! And what is America's response to this recalcitrance on the part of the Egypt's interim government? Nothing like stopping or suspending the military aid. The Obama administration has only cancelled the joint military exercise with Egypt scheduled for next month! What a reaction from the helpless (!) Obama administration!
The secret of the Egyptian interim government's arrogance lies exactly here. The Egyptian military was never a friend of the much-hyped Egyptian Spring or revolution of January 2011. The Tahrir Square phenomenon only made them wary of the looming uncertainties over Egypt's political horizon in the wake of the social upheavals across North Africa and Middle East -- the Arab Spring.
The Egyptian military was quick to realise that Hosni Mubarak was a dead horse. So they simply chose to sit on the fence, allowed the regime of Hosni Mubarak to crumble and gave the impression of taking sides in favour of the people. In this way they could cleverly pull the wool over the eyes of the Egyptian people and emerge as the saviour of the Egyptian revolution. The Egyptian people were fooled. The military did not really deserve the respect they commanded from the masses as their saviour and as the symbol of national unity and stability.
The military waited with patience knowing that the crowd assembled in the Tahrir Square was a hodgepodge of diverse political views and once the main focus of their resentment, Mubarak, was taken out of the view, this short-lived bonhomie would be over. So, they allowed the election to be held in June and let the most organised of the shouting lot at the Square, the Muslim Brotherhood, sweep the board.
But it did not take more than a year for the Tahrir Square camaraderie to fall apart. Winning the election, Mohamed Morsi pushed ahead with his own political agenda, which was only natural in a party-led democracy. But since it was an Islamist agenda of the Muslim Brotherhood, it was a cause for disillusionment for others -- liberals, minorities, seculars and the like, who did not belong to the Brotherhood.
But amid this non-Brotherhood crowd were also the vested quarters, especially cronies who thrived on the favours shelled out by despotic Hosni Mubarak. Needless to say, they were the greatest losers in the events unfolding since January 25 of 2011.
Morsi was neither able to address the economy, which was already in a shambles, nor initiate a process of political consensus among the major stakeholders in Egyptian politics. Morsi or any other politician in his place would have faced a similar situation, since this was Egypt's first experiment with democracy.
The disillusioned public again gathered in the Tahrir Square and chanted against Morsi. This was also not unnatural in a democracy. But, not unlike the manner that nascent democracies were not allowed to flourish in many third world nations in the past on the excuse that they were messy, it was not too late before the apologists of despotism struck back at Egypt's first attempt at democracy in the name of stability and order. And the military bulldozers, armoured personnel carriers, tanks and helicopters bought with Egyptian people's money are being used indiscriminately against civilians demanding restoration of democracy. Hundreds have already perished under military boots on the US's and all other Western democracies' watch!
Unfortunately, fear of the Islamist agenda of Morsi and his party, Muslim Brotherhood, has blinded the liberals, secularists and minorities to the cunning of the military, which has skillfully driven a wedge into the democracy-loving Egyptian people's unity and is playing one group against the other to its (army's) own advantage. They are now planning to ban the Muslim Brotherhood, which to the present ruling clique is nothing but a bunch of terrorists. Now it is Muslim Brotherhood, but the day may not be too far away when the liberals and secularists would also become equally bad to the military-backed regime. Realising his mistake, the liberal Mohamed ElBaradei has resigned from the interim government. The sooner other liberals and secularists understand this, the better for Egypt's democratic future.
Who are the liberals' and secularists' worst enemy? Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood, or the phantoms of the old dictatorial regime? The Egyptian people will have to decide this first, if they want to save their revolution and democracy.
The writer is Editor Science & Life, The Daily Star.
E-mail: [email protected]
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