The Egyptian Revolution, one year later
by André Azzam
Here is a stepbystep rundown of the ‘Arab spring’ that brought down the “last of the pharaohs” with its long list of violent acts by the military and Salafists as well as the gains and future perspectives of young demonstrators. An expert delivers his analysis.
Cairo (AsiaNews) – It is the 25th of January 2012. One year after everything fell and toppled in Egypt. One year full of hope, prospects, aspirations, but also misery, death, terrible wounds and injuries, moral offences, human rights violations, anarchy, insecurity, precariousness, economic collapse, terrible inflation, disorder, violence; all the qualities and flaws blamed on the revolutionaries Today, Egypt has moved forward in many ways, but big steps are still ahead. As the slogan goes, “AsSawra mustamerra’’ (The Revolution is lasting, persistent, unbroken, running, etc).
On the 25th of January 1952, the British troops stationed on the Suez Canal fired at pointblank range against rows of Egyptian police officers, killing and wounding many. Since then, this has been the annual day for the Egyptian police, the same police that has become a force of repression used by successive totalitarian regimes that ruled the land of the Pharaohs in the past sixty years.
The Mubarak era has been particularly repressive. When the ousted president decided in 2010 to make the 25th of January an official national holiday, Egyptian society perceived it badly.
For the last ten years, events have unfolded and movements risen against the oppression of the established system, which Mubarak has sought to preserve for his family.
First came the “Kefaya” or “That’s enough” movement, which succeeded in voicing its grievances. Textile factories in the Delta region were the scene of strikes in. In 6 April 2008, a movement was launched, calling for a general strike that was severely punished. In 2010, multiple strikes and sitins were held over long weeks and months in front of the People’s Assembly (parliament), the Senate, and the cabinet’s office, not far from Midan al Tahrir (Liberation Square).
Later Nobel Peace Prize winner Mohammad al Baradei came back to Egypt, after he ended his mandate as the head of the International Agency for Atomic Energy. His opinions against the lack of democracy and the corruption in the country were well known. He was welcomed at Cairo Airport by a crowd of more than 3,000 wellwishers, and eventually emerged as a catalyst for the youth movement.
Electronic networks helped to spread and propagate the protest movement until the 6 June 2010, when a young blogger and activist, Khaled Said, was savagely attacked and killed by two police officers in Alexandria.
This killing was a harbinger of what was to come, the selfimmolation by fire of Mohammad Bou Azizi, in Tunisia, which was the straw that broke the camel’s back. It unwound the mechanism that led to Egypt’s spring revolution, which began in winter.
The death was officially described as a suicide by drug user. His autopsy was highly doctored. Nobody was fooled. Later, the famous computer scientist and blogger Wael Ghoneim published immediately a page on Facebook titled, “We are all Khaled Saïd.” In the summer of 2010, a call was launched for a mass demonstration against police violence on National Police Day. We all know what happened next, namely the events that led to the fall of the last pharaoh and dictator, as well as the forceful reaction of the regime and its supporters.
Mubarak’s fall
The day when Mubarak was overthrown by the strength of the revolutionary movement, he had decided to call on the army to impose order; however, the Interior Ministry withdrew his troops and opened the prisons releasing about 40,000 prisoners, mostly common criminals who seized the weapons they found in prison. At the same moment, 19 police stations in Cairo were burned. The prisoners held there sneaked off taking with them all the weapons and ammunitions they found. In Alexandria, protesters attacked the offices of the hated governor, while in Suez the population was took a waitandsee attitude.
Demonstrations broke out all around the country, bringing millions of people together, united by one desire: put an end to an unbearable and insufferable situation. The movement led by young educated students using mobiles, laptops, Facebook and Twitter was immediately joined by a other groups of the population, women and men of all ages and socioeconomic levels, educated and illiterate, liberals and fundamentalists, all of them galvanized by the aim of achieving “bread, social justice, democracy and liberty”. At the same time, the armed forces refused to attack the demonstrators. Instead, they were triumphantly welcomed by the crowds occupying the famous Tahrir Square. Later on, the army left the counter demonstrators into the square in what has come to be known as the “Camels battle”.
A good organization was spontaneously set up with amazingly efficient logistics. Medical teams put up field hospitals, fast food restaurants allowed protesters to sue their facilities, food donated by a generous population was shared in a general atmosphere of respect, especially towards women.
Tahrir Square for everyone
The demonstrators numbered in the millions. Some reports indicated that nearly one quarter of Egypt’s total population was involved in the movement around the country. For writers like Alaa al Asswany and others who were involved in what was happening, this number justified calling the movement a real “revolution”.
After 18 days and almost 1,000 “martyrs” (840 is the official number), Mubarak was forced to quit. However, he refused to leave Egypt asserting that he intended to stay until the end and die on this land. He went with his family to the Sharm al Sheikh seaside station, to which he had largely developed, and where he had held many international meetings and congresses.
The attitude of young Egyptian revolutionaries earned them admiration all over the world. They were seen cleaning Tahrir square and moving into other areas, suburbs and towns to collect the piled up garbage and clean squares and streets, painting the sidewalk borders, organizing the traffic in lieu of the absent police forces. Let us quote some reactions. Barack Obama stated, “We must educate our children to become like young Egyptian people’’. Britain’s Prime Minister said, “We must consider teaching the Egyptian revolution in schools.” CNN reported, “For the first time, we see people make a revolution and clean the streets afterwards’’. The Italian Prime Minister noted, “There is nothing new in Egypt. Egyptians are making history as usual’’. Norway’s Prime Minister said, “Today we are all Egyptians’’. Austria’s President said, “The people of Egypt are the greatest people on earth and they deserve a Nobel Prize for Peace.”
Of course, this euphoric atmosphere did not last for long. The armed forces and the police forced demonstrators to leave the square. In spite of this, a million people demonstration was held every Friday. Over the following months, thousands of demonstrators were arrested and tried by military courts, where there is no appeal possible.
A few days ago the Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF) decided to free 2,000 imprisoned demonstrators, among them Michael Nabil, who is famous for allegedly insulting the armed forces, when he posted a video on his Facebook page showing the scandalous attack in March 2011 against young women in Tahrir Square, forced to undergo virginity tests.
In March, the prime minister appointed by the SCAF was forced to resign after he publicly squared off with writer Alaa al Asswany on prime time TV. A new prime minister was appointed whose first move was to go to Tahrir Square to seek the demonstrators’ blessing. This gave people a lot of hope. Unfortunately, he apparently was not been allowed to do things the way he wanted.
In March, the country also voted on a referendum to amend some of the articles in the constitution. The prime minister and demonstrators wanted instead to write a completely new constitution before holding any elections. At this moment, a kind of tacit agreement appeared between the SCAF and the Muslim Brotherhood who strongly supported the referendum. They were able to convince humble Egyptians, who constitute the majority of the population, to vote yes in order to gain a place in the Garden of Eden and avoid a place in hell, if they vote no.
Violence against Christians and civilians
A succession of sad events happened all along the year, with confessional clashes in the village of Sol, near Cairo, where a church was burned and destroyed in March. The SCAF decided to rebuilt it immediately for Easter celebrations in April. After that, two churches were burnt in Imbaba, on the western side of the Nile River in Cairo. This area was nicknamed a few years ago “the Islamic Republic of Imbaba”, because a huge number of extremist Salafists live there and constantly attack the Christian population.
Later, Christian residents in a village near Aswan, southern Egypt, were attacked and their church destroyed, which provoked demonstrations in Cairo. On 9 October, the infamous Maspero massacre took place in front of the Egyptian TV building on the Nile River, where about twenty young people were crashed or shot dead.
In November, the armed forces and police attacked the relatives of martyrs who had gathered in Tahrir square, provoking huge demonstrations and a few days of terrible scenes where people died, or lost one or two eyes, where toxic gases were used.
In December, the newly appointed Prime Minister, 79yearold Kamal al Ganzoury (who served as prime minister in the late 90s) openly stated that he would never attack demonstrators or carry out actions to scatter demonstrators blocking the access to the offices of the Cabinet and the parliament building that might kill and wound people again.
Elections
From the end of November until midJanuary, the parliamentary elections were held. An amazing huge participation prevailed and for the first time a pretty good clean atmosphere free of cheating, in spite of many irregularities noted here and there.
The newly elected Parliament held on the 23d of January its first meeting. The Justice and Liberty party, i.e. the Muslim Brothers, gathered 47 per cent of the seats, the Salafist parties altogether won unexpectedly 24 per cent of the seats, while the liberal parties like the Wafd had a score or 9 per cent and the Egyptian Block (among which stands the Egyptian Liberal party) won only 7 per cent. Marshall Tantawi, acting head of state appointed, as it was the usual prerogative of the different presidents in Egypt, ten additional members to the Parliament, among whom four Christians, one out of them being a woman.
This Parliament, called in Egypt, People’s Council elected a president, out of the Justice and Liberty party. He addressed a moderate opening speech thanking the SCAF to have maintained the elections and for its performance since last January and asserting the equality of all Egyptians (meaning equality for Muslims and Christians) and putting as a first duty for the Parliament to discuss the status of the “martyrs” families, and of the many wounded people, with the aim to organize a fair distribution of compensation pensions, a good medical treatment for the wounded, and work opportunities for invalidated people among them.
Observers think that the Muslim Bothers seek an agreement with the liberal parties instead of an alliance with the Salafist extremist party.
Changes and remembrance
Everybody is staring at what can happen on the first anniversary of the revolution. The SCAF has decided to carve a medal of the revolution and offering it to the “martyrs” and wounded people, who refused firmly this offer. Then, the head of the SCAF, Marshall Tantawi is going to award it to all the officers and members of the armed forces who “protected” the revolution. The SCAF and the government decided to organize big musical celebrations in Tahrir Square, in the Cairo Stadium and in other points belonging to the army. The youth movements of revolutionaries refuse to celebrate and to feast, when many of the revolution goals are still not achieved. Al Azhar Great Imam, Sheikh Ahmad al Tayyib announced that the 25th of January is not proper for festivities, but should be dedicated to commemorate the dead ‘‘martyrs’’ and the huge number of wounded.
On top of all this, Marshall Tantawi announced late at the eve of the revolution anniversary that starting from the 25th of January, the state of emergency, or martial law effective in Egypt for more than thirty years will be abolished all over the Egyptian territory except for crimes. This was accounted by observers as a precious and expensive gift offered to the Egyptian people on the anniversary of its revolution. Marshall Tantawi added that Egypt would be faithful to all international treaties settled and ratified beforehand.
Since the beginning of January, the revolutionaries have circulated a critical video presenting all the flaws of last year, criticizing : the management of national affairs; the killing of peaceful protestors; the torture of demonstrators; the virginity tests on female protesters; military trials for civilians; the cancellation of any lawsuit against the ex-first lady; hiring thugs to spark violence and justify the use of toxic gases, cartridges and bullets; media campaigns to mislead the Egyptian people; threats to independent media; smear campaigns against pro-democracy movements; crushing of citizens demanding their rights; sparking sectarian strife among Muslims and Christians; empowering Islamist forces to threaten the West and remind them that the army is the only regional guarantor worthy of its financial and political support; accusing youth movements of intelligence with the enemy; humiliating and torturing of martyr’s families; dragging a martyr’s body through the garbage; dragging, beating and humiliating a female citizen; corruption of justice (because Mubarak’s minister of Interior greeted in court); cooperating with groups that promote appalling views and theories; acquitting policemen accused of murdering protestors; cracking down on human rights NGOs. In spite of all this, the video said that ‘‘revolutionaries will be back on 25 January 2012.”
Future challenges
The new Minister of Interior stated ten days ago his plan to control the situation on the revolution anniversary if any excesses would happen during demonstrations, starting with beating through cudgels, then splashing with a coloured liquid that does not dim before six months, and then shoot on the legs with real bullets… giving thus a good indication of the police intentions.
On the other side, people are concerned with Mubarak’s trial and all his followers. The prosecution asked for death penalty, but it seems that the Egyptian legislation does not achieve it on people over 80 years old. Then the public was terribly upset by the defence lawyer who pleaded for many days asserting in final, that Mubarak is still president, because he did not sign his resignation, and there were no elections at the end of his mandate last September, and that the court judging him is unconstitutional… The judgement is postponed to the end of this month and there is a general feeling he is going to be absolved…
During February will stand the Senate elections, after which the two Chambers should appoint two hundred people to write a new Constitution and finally a presidential election will take place.
Among the many possible candidates, Mohammad al Baradei decided to withdraw from presidential candidacy because ‘‘there is no real democracy yet’’ as he stated. He considers that though the regime has been decapitated, it is still vivid and active, “The ship Captains are still sailing on the same waters as before, as if the revolution never happened’’. He affirmed to the youth movements that he would be in the front of the demonstrations on the 25th of January. Observers are all considering that he is starting to act as a real catalyst for the youth movement, who lacks a kind of organizing leadership, and needs unification.
People are also concerned about safety in general. Recently, a catholic nun was assaulted by men on a couple of motorcycles in front of her convent, in the peaceful and residential area of Heliopolis (a town founded in 1905 by Belgian industrialist Édouard Louis Joseph, Baron Empain) as she was coming back from university. She was grabbed by the neck and her veil drawn up. The man wanted to force her to pronounce the ‘Shahada’ (the Muslim statement of belief) and as she refused, he slashed her right cheek with a cutter and threatened her to strip her off. The passing of cars forced the motorcyclists to run away taking hold of her bag and her veil. A few days later, her bag was thrown in the convent’s courtyard, with all its contents, and with the veil completely torn into shreds. The nuns reported the incident to the police, and refused to receive any media representative or to make any statement.
This is one of many safety accidents happening, mainly stealing actions, and spreading a general feeling of lack of safety. On the other hand, there is a general feeling that the present government, appointed temporary, is acting as if it should last for a long time: contracting loans from the IMF, dismissing state structures (i.e. Population Council, or Women’s Council), seeming to settle for good instead of being ready to convey the responsibility to a new formation.
In the midst of all that, one good sign is the eternal sense of humour of the Egyptian people. As a cold snap hit Egypt in the last two weeks, jokes have been making the rounds. One says, “We have Europe’s weather and Somalia’s standard of living. This weather is a conspiracy against Egypt organized by the enemies!”
Every time the general situation becomes harder, Egyptian people, known as a peaceful and open people, escape in ‘‘nokat’’ (jokes) quite proper to Egypt and this sense of humour is helping in sustaining the moral high. This smiling glimpse gives a sense to a general feeling of optimism in the long run even if everybody is ready to stand hard moments for a short term.
Let us conclude with two slogans cherished by Alaa al Asswany: ‘‘Democracy is the solution’’ and by the youth demonstrators: ‘‘Revolution is continuing’’
On the 25th of January 1952, the British troops stationed on the Suez Canal fired at pointblank range against rows of Egyptian police officers, killing and wounding many. Since then, this has been the annual day for the Egyptian police, the same police that has become a force of repression used by successive totalitarian regimes that ruled the land of the Pharaohs in the past sixty years.
The Mubarak era has been particularly repressive. When the ousted president decided in 2010 to make the 25th of January an official national holiday, Egyptian society perceived it badly.
For the last ten years, events have unfolded and movements risen against the oppression of the established system, which Mubarak has sought to preserve for his family.
First came the “Kefaya” or “That’s enough” movement, which succeeded in voicing its grievances. Textile factories in the Delta region were the scene of strikes in. In 6 April 2008, a movement was launched, calling for a general strike that was severely punished. In 2010, multiple strikes and sitins were held over long weeks and months in front of the People’s Assembly (parliament), the Senate, and the cabinet’s office, not far from Midan al Tahrir (Liberation Square).
Later Nobel Peace Prize winner Mohammad al Baradei came back to Egypt, after he ended his mandate as the head of the International Agency for Atomic Energy. His opinions against the lack of democracy and the corruption in the country were well known. He was welcomed at Cairo Airport by a crowd of more than 3,000 wellwishers, and eventually emerged as a catalyst for the youth movement.
Electronic networks helped to spread and propagate the protest movement until the 6 June 2010, when a young blogger and activist, Khaled Said, was savagely attacked and killed by two police officers in Alexandria.
This killing was a harbinger of what was to come, the selfimmolation by fire of Mohammad Bou Azizi, in Tunisia, which was the straw that broke the camel’s back. It unwound the mechanism that led to Egypt’s spring revolution, which began in winter.
The death was officially described as a suicide by drug user. His autopsy was highly doctored. Nobody was fooled. Later, the famous computer scientist and blogger Wael Ghoneim published immediately a page on Facebook titled, “We are all Khaled Saïd.” In the summer of 2010, a call was launched for a mass demonstration against police violence on National Police Day. We all know what happened next, namely the events that led to the fall of the last pharaoh and dictator, as well as the forceful reaction of the regime and its supporters.
Mubarak’s fall
The day when Mubarak was overthrown by the strength of the revolutionary movement, he had decided to call on the army to impose order; however, the Interior Ministry withdrew his troops and opened the prisons releasing about 40,000 prisoners, mostly common criminals who seized the weapons they found in prison. At the same moment, 19 police stations in Cairo were burned. The prisoners held there sneaked off taking with them all the weapons and ammunitions they found. In Alexandria, protesters attacked the offices of the hated governor, while in Suez the population was took a waitandsee attitude.
Demonstrations broke out all around the country, bringing millions of people together, united by one desire: put an end to an unbearable and insufferable situation. The movement led by young educated students using mobiles, laptops, Facebook and Twitter was immediately joined by a other groups of the population, women and men of all ages and socioeconomic levels, educated and illiterate, liberals and fundamentalists, all of them galvanized by the aim of achieving “bread, social justice, democracy and liberty”. At the same time, the armed forces refused to attack the demonstrators. Instead, they were triumphantly welcomed by the crowds occupying the famous Tahrir Square. Later on, the army left the counter demonstrators into the square in what has come to be known as the “Camels battle”.
A good organization was spontaneously set up with amazingly efficient logistics. Medical teams put up field hospitals, fast food restaurants allowed protesters to sue their facilities, food donated by a generous population was shared in a general atmosphere of respect, especially towards women.
Tahrir Square for everyone
The demonstrators numbered in the millions. Some reports indicated that nearly one quarter of Egypt’s total population was involved in the movement around the country. For writers like Alaa al Asswany and others who were involved in what was happening, this number justified calling the movement a real “revolution”.
After 18 days and almost 1,000 “martyrs” (840 is the official number), Mubarak was forced to quit. However, he refused to leave Egypt asserting that he intended to stay until the end and die on this land. He went with his family to the Sharm al Sheikh seaside station, to which he had largely developed, and where he had held many international meetings and congresses.
The attitude of young Egyptian revolutionaries earned them admiration all over the world. They were seen cleaning Tahrir square and moving into other areas, suburbs and towns to collect the piled up garbage and clean squares and streets, painting the sidewalk borders, organizing the traffic in lieu of the absent police forces. Let us quote some reactions. Barack Obama stated, “We must educate our children to become like young Egyptian people’’. Britain’s Prime Minister said, “We must consider teaching the Egyptian revolution in schools.” CNN reported, “For the first time, we see people make a revolution and clean the streets afterwards’’. The Italian Prime Minister noted, “There is nothing new in Egypt. Egyptians are making history as usual’’. Norway’s Prime Minister said, “Today we are all Egyptians’’. Austria’s President said, “The people of Egypt are the greatest people on earth and they deserve a Nobel Prize for Peace.”
Of course, this euphoric atmosphere did not last for long. The armed forces and the police forced demonstrators to leave the square. In spite of this, a million people demonstration was held every Friday. Over the following months, thousands of demonstrators were arrested and tried by military courts, where there is no appeal possible.
A few days ago the Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF) decided to free 2,000 imprisoned demonstrators, among them Michael Nabil, who is famous for allegedly insulting the armed forces, when he posted a video on his Facebook page showing the scandalous attack in March 2011 against young women in Tahrir Square, forced to undergo virginity tests.
In March, the prime minister appointed by the SCAF was forced to resign after he publicly squared off with writer Alaa al Asswany on prime time TV. A new prime minister was appointed whose first move was to go to Tahrir Square to seek the demonstrators’ blessing. This gave people a lot of hope. Unfortunately, he apparently was not been allowed to do things the way he wanted.
In March, the country also voted on a referendum to amend some of the articles in the constitution. The prime minister and demonstrators wanted instead to write a completely new constitution before holding any elections. At this moment, a kind of tacit agreement appeared between the SCAF and the Muslim Brotherhood who strongly supported the referendum. They were able to convince humble Egyptians, who constitute the majority of the population, to vote yes in order to gain a place in the Garden of Eden and avoid a place in hell, if they vote no.
Violence against Christians and civilians
A succession of sad events happened all along the year, with confessional clashes in the village of Sol, near Cairo, where a church was burned and destroyed in March. The SCAF decided to rebuilt it immediately for Easter celebrations in April. After that, two churches were burnt in Imbaba, on the western side of the Nile River in Cairo. This area was nicknamed a few years ago “the Islamic Republic of Imbaba”, because a huge number of extremist Salafists live there and constantly attack the Christian population.
Later, Christian residents in a village near Aswan, southern Egypt, were attacked and their church destroyed, which provoked demonstrations in Cairo. On 9 October, the infamous Maspero massacre took place in front of the Egyptian TV building on the Nile River, where about twenty young people were crashed or shot dead.
In November, the armed forces and police attacked the relatives of martyrs who had gathered in Tahrir square, provoking huge demonstrations and a few days of terrible scenes where people died, or lost one or two eyes, where toxic gases were used.
In December, the newly appointed Prime Minister, 79yearold Kamal al Ganzoury (who served as prime minister in the late 90s) openly stated that he would never attack demonstrators or carry out actions to scatter demonstrators blocking the access to the offices of the Cabinet and the parliament building that might kill and wound people again.
Elections
From the end of November until midJanuary, the parliamentary elections were held. An amazing huge participation prevailed and for the first time a pretty good clean atmosphere free of cheating, in spite of many irregularities noted here and there.
The newly elected Parliament held on the 23d of January its first meeting. The Justice and Liberty party, i.e. the Muslim Brothers, gathered 47 per cent of the seats, the Salafist parties altogether won unexpectedly 24 per cent of the seats, while the liberal parties like the Wafd had a score or 9 per cent and the Egyptian Block (among which stands the Egyptian Liberal party) won only 7 per cent. Marshall Tantawi, acting head of state appointed, as it was the usual prerogative of the different presidents in Egypt, ten additional members to the Parliament, among whom four Christians, one out of them being a woman.
This Parliament, called in Egypt, People’s Council elected a president, out of the Justice and Liberty party. He addressed a moderate opening speech thanking the SCAF to have maintained the elections and for its performance since last January and asserting the equality of all Egyptians (meaning equality for Muslims and Christians) and putting as a first duty for the Parliament to discuss the status of the “martyrs” families, and of the many wounded people, with the aim to organize a fair distribution of compensation pensions, a good medical treatment for the wounded, and work opportunities for invalidated people among them.
Observers think that the Muslim Bothers seek an agreement with the liberal parties instead of an alliance with the Salafist extremist party.
Changes and remembrance
Everybody is staring at what can happen on the first anniversary of the revolution. The SCAF has decided to carve a medal of the revolution and offering it to the “martyrs” and wounded people, who refused firmly this offer. Then, the head of the SCAF, Marshall Tantawi is going to award it to all the officers and members of the armed forces who “protected” the revolution. The SCAF and the government decided to organize big musical celebrations in Tahrir Square, in the Cairo Stadium and in other points belonging to the army. The youth movements of revolutionaries refuse to celebrate and to feast, when many of the revolution goals are still not achieved. Al Azhar Great Imam, Sheikh Ahmad al Tayyib announced that the 25th of January is not proper for festivities, but should be dedicated to commemorate the dead ‘‘martyrs’’ and the huge number of wounded.
On top of all this, Marshall Tantawi announced late at the eve of the revolution anniversary that starting from the 25th of January, the state of emergency, or martial law effective in Egypt for more than thirty years will be abolished all over the Egyptian territory except for crimes. This was accounted by observers as a precious and expensive gift offered to the Egyptian people on the anniversary of its revolution. Marshall Tantawi added that Egypt would be faithful to all international treaties settled and ratified beforehand.
Since the beginning of January, the revolutionaries have circulated a critical video presenting all the flaws of last year, criticizing : the management of national affairs; the killing of peaceful protestors; the torture of demonstrators; the virginity tests on female protesters; military trials for civilians; the cancellation of any lawsuit against the ex-first lady; hiring thugs to spark violence and justify the use of toxic gases, cartridges and bullets; media campaigns to mislead the Egyptian people; threats to independent media; smear campaigns against pro-democracy movements; crushing of citizens demanding their rights; sparking sectarian strife among Muslims and Christians; empowering Islamist forces to threaten the West and remind them that the army is the only regional guarantor worthy of its financial and political support; accusing youth movements of intelligence with the enemy; humiliating and torturing of martyr’s families; dragging a martyr’s body through the garbage; dragging, beating and humiliating a female citizen; corruption of justice (because Mubarak’s minister of Interior greeted in court); cooperating with groups that promote appalling views and theories; acquitting policemen accused of murdering protestors; cracking down on human rights NGOs. In spite of all this, the video said that ‘‘revolutionaries will be back on 25 January 2012.”
Future challenges
The new Minister of Interior stated ten days ago his plan to control the situation on the revolution anniversary if any excesses would happen during demonstrations, starting with beating through cudgels, then splashing with a coloured liquid that does not dim before six months, and then shoot on the legs with real bullets… giving thus a good indication of the police intentions.
On the other side, people are concerned with Mubarak’s trial and all his followers. The prosecution asked for death penalty, but it seems that the Egyptian legislation does not achieve it on people over 80 years old. Then the public was terribly upset by the defence lawyer who pleaded for many days asserting in final, that Mubarak is still president, because he did not sign his resignation, and there were no elections at the end of his mandate last September, and that the court judging him is unconstitutional… The judgement is postponed to the end of this month and there is a general feeling he is going to be absolved…
During February will stand the Senate elections, after which the two Chambers should appoint two hundred people to write a new Constitution and finally a presidential election will take place.
Among the many possible candidates, Mohammad al Baradei decided to withdraw from presidential candidacy because ‘‘there is no real democracy yet’’ as he stated. He considers that though the regime has been decapitated, it is still vivid and active, “The ship Captains are still sailing on the same waters as before, as if the revolution never happened’’. He affirmed to the youth movements that he would be in the front of the demonstrations on the 25th of January. Observers are all considering that he is starting to act as a real catalyst for the youth movement, who lacks a kind of organizing leadership, and needs unification.
People are also concerned about safety in general. Recently, a catholic nun was assaulted by men on a couple of motorcycles in front of her convent, in the peaceful and residential area of Heliopolis (a town founded in 1905 by Belgian industrialist Édouard Louis Joseph, Baron Empain) as she was coming back from university. She was grabbed by the neck and her veil drawn up. The man wanted to force her to pronounce the ‘Shahada’ (the Muslim statement of belief) and as she refused, he slashed her right cheek with a cutter and threatened her to strip her off. The passing of cars forced the motorcyclists to run away taking hold of her bag and her veil. A few days later, her bag was thrown in the convent’s courtyard, with all its contents, and with the veil completely torn into shreds. The nuns reported the incident to the police, and refused to receive any media representative or to make any statement.
This is one of many safety accidents happening, mainly stealing actions, and spreading a general feeling of lack of safety. On the other hand, there is a general feeling that the present government, appointed temporary, is acting as if it should last for a long time: contracting loans from the IMF, dismissing state structures (i.e. Population Council, or Women’s Council), seeming to settle for good instead of being ready to convey the responsibility to a new formation.
In the midst of all that, one good sign is the eternal sense of humour of the Egyptian people. As a cold snap hit Egypt in the last two weeks, jokes have been making the rounds. One says, “We have Europe’s weather and Somalia’s standard of living. This weather is a conspiracy against Egypt organized by the enemies!”
Every time the general situation becomes harder, Egyptian people, known as a peaceful and open people, escape in ‘‘nokat’’ (jokes) quite proper to Egypt and this sense of humour is helping in sustaining the moral high. This smiling glimpse gives a sense to a general feeling of optimism in the long run even if everybody is ready to stand hard moments for a short term.
Let us conclude with two slogans cherished by Alaa al Asswany: ‘‘Democracy is the solution’’ and by the youth demonstrators: ‘‘Revolution is continuing’’
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See also
