Mubarak has left the building…
Mubarak has finally stepped down. The VP is not going to take his place. The military will exert temporary control of the government. The people have the fist phase of their demands met. All this and yet so little actually accomplished. In reality they haven’t gone anywhere at all. It is simply a wonderful show where the good guys, the people, oust the dictator.
About the military
I can only hope that they will do their best to prepare the ground work to have open, fair and free elections. This is not so easy a task. The state of emergency needs to be lifted. But lifting this hand of oppression too far will allow other, more radical elements of the population, to cause chaos through intimidation. Perhaps outright violence against other political parties and those seeking office. Don’t lift it up enough and they will be setting the stage to continue the dictatorship under some other “benign” president.
Another aspect is what timetable? If you hold elections too quickly the people will not have the time to firmly establish their different parties. The only groups that would benefit are the ones who are already firmly established. As of this time the main party appears to be “the Muslim Brotherhood.” This particular political entity does not reflect the general values of the Egyptian population. If the military takes too long to hold elections? Most likely nothing will change. It will be status quo. Instead of a president who was a military man you will have a military man with the powers of the president. You will have, in either case, a false political body appointed by the man in power.
What if the military strikes that perfect balance of 1/ Lifting the state of emergency while holding in check the abuses of those who would hijack the electoral process and 2/ Having everything done in a timely manner? Perhaps you would get a fair and representative government. This, however, I believe will be short lived if the people don’t make a stronger stand for freedom… for all. The test? Whether the new government will extend full rights and freedoms to all Egyptians. Will the Christians, and those of other faiths, continue to be marginalized or will they be allowed to have the same freedoms and rights, protected by the state, that Muslims have… or will eventually have.
What started this state of emergency in the first place? President Anwar Sadat made peace with Israel. During a parade the Muslim Brotherhood killed Sadat by spraying the reviewing stand with machine gun fire. To prevent a revolution, a civil war, worse… a state of emergency was declared and the secret police went out to stop the group responsible for the killing of all those people in the stand.
The Muslim Brotherhood is still active today. During Mubarak’s reign they were suppressed. They do have a political wing as many others have. Yet they couldn’t advance, no one could, because the elections were in essence rigged. Now however, the wolf is at the door with the rest of the people. They want to have the doors of political freedom opened. If a fair and just election is held they will gain some power. The problem though is that they have no intention of working toward an inclusive government. From my understanding they set up movements that are dual purposed. One aspect is to help them take care of their own people. The second aspect is to exert physical power to gain (to wrest) control from whatever form of government they are under and place it under Islamic fundamentalist control. They seek to re-establish the Caliphate. This would be the political structure binding all Muslim states into one. Sharia law will become the standard. (Actually, the abuses of various customs, framed as Qur’anic, will be established.) This means that freedom, fairness and equality will be denied those who are not Muslim. That is not what the freedom loving people of Egypt are struggling to attain through their marches and protests. They may get their free elections… but lose the government majority once and they will be back under the heel of a dictatorial regime. It happened in Gaza. In some respects it happened in Turkey, though the military puts limits, as they always have, on the political system. How about Iran?
by hook or by crook
Revolutions have a way of opening the doors to change. When the people of Russia rose up to overthrow their dictator they were seeking freedom from tyranny. Yet within the ranks of the political reformers were those who had no intention of sharing power. They were the communists. They took power “by hook or by crook” They established a governmental dictatorship, an oligarchy, with ten percent of the people forcing everyone else to follow. The Muslim Brotherhood, as far as I can tell, want to achieve the same result. They dictate, you follow… or die.
The same can be said of Hitler and the Nazi party in Germany.
What passes for Islam today, especially the abuses, are not of the Qur’an but tribal customs and interpretations; the addition of the oral stories attributed to Mohammed to that which was written by the hand of Mohammed. The radical extremists and their organizations do harm to the memory of Mohammed and what he established here on the earth. I do not want to see Egypt, and its people filled with good intentions, sidetracked into the darkness by some brotherhood.
The army must preserve the peace. The people need to stand firm. They are traveling a dangerous road. I hope they find what they are looking for.
Mubarak has left the building…
…What is waiting in the wings?
