No one knows, no one can predict what the future holds for Egypt. Known, tried and true ideas and plans are well-documented, but solutions as to how to implement applicable ones through national strategies, policies and actions are going to be hard to come. Simply put, Egypt is in the midst of an ongoing revolution, trying real hard to find its path toward modern times.
However, one should heed the words of F. Scott Fitzgerald:
"One should be able to see that things are hopeless and yet be determined to make them otherwise."
Below I share with you four (4) commentaries in regards the Egyptian people's yearning for a life marked by freedom, education and women's empowerment.
Hussein
------------------------------
1.
Kissinger: Against Our Interest to Cut Aid to Egypt Now
Kissinger labels
the Muslim Brotherhood
as dictatorial
and
authoritarian regime
,
dedicated to imposing
Shari'a law
, therefore it cannot by nature be democratic even if it let itself get elected democratically, because it cannot possibly accept that the Islamic aspects can be changed..... He adds that it is totally against
the U
S
interests to cut aid to Egypt, that the US
should
see if a secular-oriented government can be created, and understand that this is not our job to do....
See the 6:00-minute interview in below link:
2.
Egypt’s Ongoing Revolution
Ismail Serageldin
06 July 2013
Amazing developments:
Egypt is once more doing things its own unique way. After millions of people went into the streets and in 18 days that shook the world succeeded in toppling the regime of Hosny Mubarak after 30 years of rule, they came back again in their millions into the streets and squares of Egypt and toppled Mohamed Morsi after one year of rule.
Dr. Mohamed Morsi was Egypt’s first elected civilian president, in free and fair elections organized by the post-Mubarak military rulers after 18 months of transitional governance. The people rejoiced in the election and the handover of power from the military to Dr. Morsi on July 1st , 2012. They backed him in his bid to assert civilian leadership over the military. But soon, through a series of ill-advised actions, the Morsi government seemed to most Egyptians more intent on serving the interests of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) than in bringing the country together. The MB and the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) they created alienated all political factions in Egypt, even the Islamists in the Salafi movement who largely share their vision of an Islamic Egypt.
Feeling blocked in their desire to change course, and some even feeling betrayed by the narrow agenda of the ruling MB and FJP elite, the people felt obliged to resort to this democratic and largely peaceful tactic of collecting signatures and coming out in peaceful protest. Despite the spurts of violence and the likely continuation of some strife in the short term, we all hope that we will move on to create a real, inclusive and properly functioning democracy and open a new era for Egypt and its people.
A historical precedent:
About a hundred years ago in late 1918 Egyptian nationalist leaders led by Saad Zaghloul wanted to present Egypt’s case for independence from British occupation to the Versailles conference at the end of World War I. They proved to the British their legitimacy by getting hundreds of thousands individually signed statements deputizing them to represent Egypt. Egypt’s people had spoken clearly and democratically. The British ignored this mandate and exiled Saad Zaghloul and his colleagues to Malta. The public took to the streets, followed by widespread civil disobedience and ultimately the British had to back down. They brought back Zaghloul and his colleagues, recognized Egypt’s independence in 1922 and Egypt started its 30 years of liberal multi-party democracy with the 1923 constitution.
The Revolution gets its second wind:
The revolution of 25 January 2011, was beautiful and peaceful. But to many who participated in it the events following the revolution did not deliver on its promises. This time they were determined to have a “mid-course correction” and give the revolutionary spirit its second wind.
Despite efforts at intimidation by the Islamists, including their big demonstrations on the 28th of June, and their blaring TV channels warning that anyone who opposed President Morsi would be an apostate and should be killed and other such tactics, the people stayed on course and came out in their millions for these days, that were not “days of rage” but very largely “days of peaceful protest” where the nation came together and showed a certain moral grandeur.
Incidentally, the Morsi-appointed Islamist Minister of Culture was waging an all-out war on the artists and intellectuals, who retaliated by blockading his office and holding performances in the street from street theater to poetry readings, as the Opera was closed, ballet was banned and the heads of the national library and archives, the conservatory of music and the High Council for Culture were all dismissed, and their staffs went on strike (against the minister). The Library of Alexandria was probably the only public cultural institution to remain open and functioning more or less normally, without any interference. And again, even without any human chains around it, no one threw a stone at it.
Actually this time, no police or public buildings were targeted. Over the last few months, the targets were the HQ of the MB and the HQs of its political party, the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP). Many were attacked and burned by a number of rioters. Later on the police found stashes of weapons in a some of those party HQ and the MB’s own central HQ, which they claimed were for self-defense.
The Army after having asked the president several times to seriously search for common ground, and getting only a “no compromise” and “I am the boss” speech and seeing the will of the people expressed in individual signed statements by ordinary citizens and the enormous crowds estimated at somewhere upwards of 20 million in all of Egypt, rejected the “no compromise” line of the President and working with all the leaders of these national groups deposed him. But they did not do that alone. The Head of the Constitutional Court of Egypt, the Pope and Shaikh Al Azhar, The Al-Nour Salafi Party, El-Baradei, and representatives of other movements, drafted the communiqué together with the Army leaders, and they were all there in reading the communiqué, and they spoke immediately after the reading of the communiqué on TV.
This was no Coup!
President Morsi’s followers claimed that what happened was a coup d’état by the military against an elected civilian leader, and called on outsiders to respond accordingly. But this was no coup. There was no small group of conspirators. There was no secrecy. The army simply aligned itself with the will of the overwhelming majority of the people, who refused to be intimidated by the threats of the MB and the FJP and came out into the streets on the appointed day of 30th of June.
Here is the definition of a Coup d' Etat :
A sudden decisive exercise of force in politics; especially: the violent overthrow or alteration of an existing government by a small group-- Merriam Webster
(French: “stroke of state”) Sudden overthrow, often violent, of an existing government by a group of conspirators. … Their success depends on surprise and speed.-- Concise encyclopedia
In what way does this even remotely describe what happened in Egypt? Starting several months ago with a public campaign by youthful activists under the slogan “Tamarud” (rebellion), tens of millions of people have been saying that they want the current rulers to step down and that they would express themselves peacefully by collecting signatures (some 22 million signatures) of individual Egyptians to say so, and they will be coming into the public spaces of Egypt (not just Tahrir Square) on the 30th of June to prove their point. And come they did. In their millions.
A can of tuna…
I was discussing with one of the demonstrators, and asked him about what he thought of the fact that Dr. Morsi became President through legal and fair elections and still had time on his term. And in one of those simple, direct expressions of powerful folk wisdom he said to me: “So I bought a can of tuna. I opened it and the tuna was rotten. Do you think I should eat it?”. Another said to me: “They have done enough damage in one year, and I am not going to wait to see how much more damage they can cause in three more years”. A third (an intellectual) said to me: “So what? Hitler came with free elections. If the Germans had deposed him and his Nazis after one year, the world would have been a much better place”. A fourth said that “We are the ones who voted him in, and now we are telling him to step down”. A fifth, also an intellectual, said to me “By definition, the legitimacy of the ruler is based on the consent of the governed. Periodic elections are a means to ensure that consent is regularly expressed. He has lost the consent of the governed. They have overwhelmingly expressed their will. He should just go”. A sixth said: “yes elections, but not one man, one vote, and only one time”.
The message of the protesters was clear, and I think that the “can of tuna” sums it up best!
Overview:
This was a spectacular revolution that no one, repeat no one, has seen the likes of. Bigger and larger than the crowds that ended the Mubarak regime, this movement, organized (again!) by unknown youthful leaders, mobilized all of Egypt… The movement drew its legitimacy from individual papers signed by millions and millions of individual citizens (estimated at 22 million individual signatures). And on the date of the rendezvous, 30 June, the crowds were in every city, and the Muslim Brotherhood and their supporters could only marshal two (relatively) small crowds in two squares in Cairo after busing their followers from all the provinces. This was an unprecedented display of “people power” in largely peaceful demonstrations, holding up national flags and demands for freedom and democracy, and today, no one can say any more – as they tried to say after the Mubarak ouster – that the huge crowds were only due to the Islamists joining the revolution.
This was no “coup”. The judges and lawyers, the army, the police, the religious leaders, including both the Pope (Coptic Christians) and the Shaikh Al-Azhar (Sunni Muslims) the civil society and most of the parties except the party of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB), as well as the artists and intellectuals, and the vast majority of journalists in the media simply rejected the Islamists and their plans for an Islamic Republic, and the people of Egypt refused to wait another three years to say so.
Once more, the army refused to fire on the people, and this time refused to allow any private militias to do it either. This was no coup. This was the Egyptian revolution getting its second wind, correcting its path and ensuring a new birth of freedom on this ancient land.
We can only hope that this time, we all take the time to draft a proper constitution first and then proceed to new elections in the light of that constitution, rather than rushing to new elections while still contesting the current constitution and the way it was “rammed through”. We can only hope that the supporters of the deposed president do not resort to violence to try to turn back the clock. It is also time that all, repeat all, Egyptians come together in national reconciliation and work together for a better future. But whatever happens, it is clear that having taken matters in to their own hands twice, the Egyptian people are not willing to let anyone ignore their wishes anymore… and the actions of every Egyptian in these crowds today exemplify the words of Henley’s Invictus:
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
Amazing developments:
Egypt is once more doing things its own unique way. After millions of people went into the streets and in 18 days that shook the world succeeded in toppling the regime of Hosny Mubarak after 30 years of rule, they came back again in their millions into the streets and squares of Egypt and toppled Mohamed Morsi after one year of rule.
Dr. Mohamed Morsi was Egypt’s first elected civilian president, in free and fair elections organized by the post-Mubarak military rulers after 18 months of transitional governance. The people rejoiced in the election and the handover of power from the military to Dr. Morsi on July 1st , 2012. They backed him in his bid to assert civilian leadership over the military. But soon, through a series of ill-advised actions, the Morsi government seemed to most Egyptians more intent on serving the interests of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) than in bringing the country together. The MB and the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) they created alienated all political factions in Egypt, even the Islamists in the Salafi movement who largely share their vision of an Islamic Egypt.
Feeling blocked in their desire to change course, and some even feeling betrayed by the narrow agenda of the ruling MB and FJP elite, the people felt obliged to resort to this democratic and largely peaceful tactic of collecting signatures and coming out in peaceful protest. Despite the spurts of violence and the likely continuation of some strife in the short term, we all hope that we will move on to create a real, inclusive and properly functioning democracy and open a new era for Egypt and its people.
A historical precedent:
About a hundred years ago in late 1918 Egyptian nationalist leaders led by Saad Zaghloul wanted to present Egypt’s case for independence from British occupation to the Versailles conference at the end of World War I. They proved to the British their legitimacy by getting hundreds of thousands individually signed statements deputizing them to represent Egypt. Egypt’s people had spoken clearly and democratically. The British ignored this mandate and exiled Saad Zaghloul and his colleagues to Malta. The public took to the streets, followed by widespread civil disobedience and ultimately the British had to back down. They brought back Zaghloul and his colleagues, recognized Egypt’s independence in 1922 and Egypt started its 30 years of liberal multi-party democracy with the 1923 constitution.
The Revolution gets its second wind:
The revolution of 25 January 2011, was beautiful and peaceful. But to many who participated in it the events following the revolution did not deliver on its promises. This time they were determined to have a “mid-course correction” and give the revolutionary spirit its second wind.
Despite efforts at intimidation by the Islamists, including their big demonstrations on the 28th of June, and their blaring TV channels warning that anyone who opposed President Morsi would be an apostate and should be killed and other such tactics, the people stayed on course and came out in their millions for these days, that were not “days of rage” but very largely “days of peaceful protest” where the nation came together and showed a certain moral grandeur.
Incidentally, the Morsi-appointed Islamist Minister of Culture was waging an all-out war on the artists and intellectuals, who retaliated by blockading his office and holding performances in the street from street theater to poetry readings, as the Opera was closed, ballet was banned and the heads of the national library and archives, the conservatory of music and the High Council for Culture were all dismissed, and their staffs went on strike (against the minister). The Library of Alexandria was probably the only public cultural institution to remain open and functioning more or less normally, without any interference. And again, even without any human chains around it, no one threw a stone at it.
Actually this time, no police or public buildings were targeted. Over the last few months, the targets were the HQ of the MB and the HQs of its political party, the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP). Many were attacked and burned by a number of rioters. Later on the police found stashes of weapons in a some of those party HQ and the MB’s own central HQ, which they claimed were for self-defense.
The Army after having asked the president several times to seriously search for common ground, and getting only a “no compromise” and “I am the boss” speech and seeing the will of the people expressed in individual signed statements by ordinary citizens and the enormous crowds estimated at somewhere upwards of 20 million in all of Egypt, rejected the “no compromise” line of the President and working with all the leaders of these national groups deposed him. But they did not do that alone. The Head of the Constitutional Court of Egypt, the Pope and Shaikh Al Azhar, The Al-Nour Salafi Party, El-Baradei, and representatives of other movements, drafted the communiqué together with the Army leaders, and they were all there in reading the communiqué, and they spoke immediately after the reading of the communiqué on TV.
This was no Coup!
President Morsi’s followers claimed that what happened was a coup d’état by the military against an elected civilian leader, and called on outsiders to respond accordingly. But this was no coup. There was no small group of conspirators. There was no secrecy. The army simply aligned itself with the will of the overwhelming majority of the people, who refused to be intimidated by the threats of the MB and the FJP and came out into the streets on the appointed day of 30th of June.
Here is the definition of a Coup d' Etat :
A sudden decisive exercise of force in politics; especially: the violent overthrow or alteration of an existing government by a small group-- Merriam Webster
(French: “stroke of state”) Sudden overthrow, often violent, of an existing government by a group of conspirators. … Their success depends on surprise and speed.-- Concise encyclopedia
In what way does this even remotely describe what happened in Egypt? Starting several months ago with a public campaign by youthful activists under the slogan “Tamarud” (rebellion), tens of millions of people have been saying that they want the current rulers to step down and that they would express themselves peacefully by collecting signatures (some 22 million signatures) of individual Egyptians to say so, and they will be coming into the public spaces of Egypt (not just Tahrir Square) on the 30th of June to prove their point. And come they did. In their millions.
A can of tuna…
I was discussing with one of the demonstrators, and asked him about what he thought of the fact that Dr. Morsi became President through legal and fair elections and still had time on his term. And in one of those simple, direct expressions of powerful folk wisdom he said to me: “So I bought a can of tuna. I opened it and the tuna was rotten. Do you think I should eat it?”. Another said to me: “They have done enough damage in one year, and I am not going to wait to see how much more damage they can cause in three more years”. A third (an intellectual) said to me: “So what? Hitler came with free elections. If the Germans had deposed him and his Nazis after one year, the world would have been a much better place”. A fourth said that “We are the ones who voted him in, and now we are telling him to step down”. A fifth, also an intellectual, said to me “By definition, the legitimacy of the ruler is based on the consent of the governed. Periodic elections are a means to ensure that consent is regularly expressed. He has lost the consent of the governed. They have overwhelmingly expressed their will. He should just go”. A sixth said: “yes elections, but not one man, one vote, and only one time”.
The message of the protesters was clear, and I think that the “can of tuna” sums it up best!
Overview:
This was a spectacular revolution that no one, repeat no one, has seen the likes of. Bigger and larger than the crowds that ended the Mubarak regime, this movement, organized (again!) by unknown youthful leaders, mobilized all of Egypt… The movement drew its legitimacy from individual papers signed by millions and millions of individual citizens (estimated at 22 million individual signatures). And on the date of the rendezvous, 30 June, the crowds were in every city, and the Muslim Brotherhood and their supporters could only marshal two (relatively) small crowds in two squares in Cairo after busing their followers from all the provinces. This was an unprecedented display of “people power” in largely peaceful demonstrations, holding up national flags and demands for freedom and democracy, and today, no one can say any more – as they tried to say after the Mubarak ouster – that the huge crowds were only due to the Islamists joining the revolution.
This was no “coup”. The judges and lawyers, the army, the police, the religious leaders, including both the Pope (Coptic Christians) and the Shaikh Al-Azhar (Sunni Muslims) the civil society and most of the parties except the party of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB), as well as the artists and intellectuals, and the vast majority of journalists in the media simply rejected the Islamists and their plans for an Islamic Republic, and the people of Egypt refused to wait another three years to say so.
Once more, the army refused to fire on the people, and this time refused to allow any private militias to do it either. This was no coup. This was the Egyptian revolution getting its second wind, correcting its path and ensuring a new birth of freedom on this ancient land.
We can only hope that this time, we all take the time to draft a proper constitution first and then proceed to new elections in the light of that constitution, rather than rushing to new elections while still contesting the current constitution and the way it was “rammed through”. We can only hope that the supporters of the deposed president do not resort to violence to try to turn back the clock. It is also time that all, repeat all, Egyptians come together in national reconciliation and work together for a better future. But whatever happens, it is clear that having taken matters in to their own hands twice, the Egyptian people are not willing to let anyone ignore their wishes anymore… and the actions of every Egyptian in these crowds today exemplify the words of Henley’s Invictus:
"
It matters not how strait the gate,How charged with punishments the scroll,I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
"
3
. A Friend's Comment re Democracy
Democracy is the rule of the people and the people in Egypt said we don't want Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood. The army has the duty to fulfill the wish of its people. The Egyptian people have proved that whoever comes to power by the ballot box (supposing even that Morsi came through free and fair elections which I can swear they were not free or fair) has no divine right to stay for 4 years and do whatever he wants. The Egyptian people proved that even the democratically-elected president should rule with the consent of all the people all the time. This is a dangerous example to the Western Democracy which believe that once you have elected a president or a prime minister, you're stuck with him for 4 or 5 years even if he takes the country to war without the people's consent. That is why the mainstream media in the West are stressing that what happened was a military coup. If 30 million Britons took to the streets, demanding that Cameron should leave and they wont leave the streets and would stage a civil disobedience if he refuses to do so, I think the British military should force him to leave if he refuses to step down. This is simple logic in my opinion. If the West says this is not democracy, we should answer that this may not be the West definition of Democracy, but it is Egypt's definition of Democracy and it is the more accurate interpretation of the word. You know Hussein, what the Egyptian people have done is exactly what the Athenians, who invented democracy in the first place were doing 2500 years ago. Egypt apparently still teaches the world.
4. Another Friend's Comment re Morsi's 2012 Election
Morsi was not democratically elected.
1a / His party and the Islamic Brotherhood falsified voters and voters of their party had more ballots, the most surprising event was an elector who has prepared 60 different newsletters, used in voting in different offices. This is to allow these fraudsters to vote several times where the elections were spread over several days. The court was made aware of this matter of fraud before Morsi's ouster.
1b / Another fraud case was in regards the national printing company that has issued several hundred thousand ballots that were given to supporters of Morsi to stuff the ballot box.
1c / Anti-Morsi and especially the Christians were for all practical purposes not allowed to vote, with threats to burn their houses or shops and kill their children.
1d / In Egypt, the polls are supervised by a magistrate (this is the law), but the judiciary refused to oversee the polls, mainly because "Muslim brothers" flocked en mass to the polls to intimidate voters and force them to vote for Morsi.
1e / In addition to these bullies present at the polling stations, pro-Morsi organized long queues in front of polling stations. These queues almost did not move, and voting proceeded very slowly, so that other voters tired of waiting and ended up going home.
1f / It is established JUDICIALLY AND BEFORE THE REMOVAL OF MORSI,that it is general Shafiq who won the presidential elections. But the Muslim Brotherhood has threatened to set the country on fire and soak it blood if Morsi was not declared the winner. The army relented for fear of bloodshed.
1g / In light of above-mentioned fraud, Justice cancelled the National Assembly elections and dissolved it.
1st / The Day the High Constitutional Court was to make its decision on the validity of the vote on the Constitution, hordes paid by Islamists besieged the Court building and prevented judges from meeting.
Here's how Morsi and his criminal mafia came to power. So, please, check the facts before talking about democracy.
------------------------------
This is it, above was for your information.
Thank you, Hussein
----
"When nothing seems to help, I go and look at a stonecutter hammering away at his rock perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet, at the hundred and first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not that blow that did it -- but all that had gone before." Jacob Riis
