Egypt-shit-theatrical
One is stunned with the intensity Egyptian politics is taking. The pace is too fast, that I don’t know if before I finish writing this article, something new will occur unexpectedly in Egypt. We are watching an epic thriller, ladies and gentlemen.
Where should I start? With this acceleration of events, one can not know what is more important than the other.
The 21st of November marked the emergence of a new opportunity structure for the Egyptian people, when the president issued a decree grabbing absolute power to himself and, by extension, the Muslim Brotherhood as a group and not the Freedom and Justice Party.
(There is a very important distinction here that must be identified between the political party, and the “Jam’aa” or group, as the political party is a legalized façade for what the group actually dictates.)
The constitutional committee had the chance, according to the decree of the president, to work on re-discussing the Constitution for 2 weeks and yet took only 19 hours to finish the last “version” of the Constitution. This preemptive strike ensured the Constitution was passed before the constitutional court issued its sentence on the 2nd of December on the illegitimacy of this committee. How suspicious is that? The Brotherhood, via the president, wants to immunize the committee, pass their constitution and deconstruct the judiciary to bypass any kind of legal accountability tool.
What do the people do? Protest of course! What does the Brotherhood do? Send their people to attack the protestors – a mistake that every fascist resorts to when dialogue fails. People get killed, the president comes out with a speech, that disappoints more than it appeases, with the same conspiracy theory arguments the old regime used to give out.
Then we see a glimpse of hope with the National Salvation Front, the opposition united under Baradei, Sabahi, Moussa and others. This optimism quickly dissipated when they failed to take the right decision yesterday. Instead of running a campaign to get out the “No” vote, they announce their decision to boycott the referendum while the Brotherhood’s popularity continues to increase. Hmm! Well I want to be harsh here and say two important things to the National Salvation Front:
1- Politics is an unethical game. If you don’t have the courage to stand up against the Brotherhood, and continue to disappoint people with weak stances on issues, you better stay silent then.
2- Looking at the age of the people running the show, all of them are 50 and above! When do we get to say what is to be done? Sorry but you are validity date has expired.
Last but definitely not least, because I know that by the minute I finish writing this article something new will pop up in the news, I wonder how this country is ruled as we speak. The day before yesterday, the president came out with new laws of raising taxes on everything in Egypt from cigarettes and soda, to fuel and electricity. Early yesterday morning, he annuls the law. However, the law is not retroactive, meaning that it will be reinstalled once the constitution passes.
Two things here: How are such decisions taken? And second who really takes those decisions, as it seems to be quite the paradox here.
Still want to say “YES” for the referendum? Go get the “NO” vote out!
