[Reader-list] Mubarak's Ignominious Departure and the fear factor

[Swadhin Sen]

CONCLUDING PART          THE END OF AUTHORITARIANISM IN THE ARAB WORLD?

 
Mubarak's Ignominious Departure 
and the Fear Factor
rahnuma ahmed
 
Mubarak is gone! Egypt is free! 
 
Equally
true is the fact that power has been assumed by the Supreme Council of
the Armed Forces. That the 30 year-old state of emergency has not yet
been lifted, neither has any time frame been set, nothing beyond the
invocation, "as soon as the current circumstances are over." Equally
true is the fact that Egypt's new, transitional (military) rulers have
been quick to affirm Egypt's commitment to all regional and
international obligations and treaties, an implicit signal that the
treaty of all treaties, Egypt's peace treaty with Israel—propagated
as a bulwark for peace and stability in the region, but in reality, one
which helps sustain Israel's military occupation of the West Bank and
the seige of Gaza—is not under threat.
An affirmation swiftly welcomed by the Israeli prime minister Benjamin
Netanyahu, who described the treaty as "having greatly contributed to
both countries," as "the cornerstone for peace and stability in the
entire Middle East"; close at his heels was US president Barack Obama
who welcomed the Egyptian pledge to "stand by" its international
obligations. 

 
But,
it is also true that while Egyptian demonstrators, both young and old,
rallied to scrub off slogans and graffiti from walls, to clean up the
streets of Cairo of rocks, debris of violence, charred remains of
Mubarak's effigy ("Clearing the streets is just a start. It is our
country now"), protestors still camped out in Tahrir square, refusing
to leave until the military issued official statements on their next
steps. It is also true that pro-democracy activists insist that their
revolt was not against one man but against the whole regime, which
Mubarak and his predecessors, had instituted. It is also true that
their invincible strength prevented Omar Suleiman—the
CIA's man in Cairo who devised and implemented the programme for
renditioning and torturing terrorist suspects, in whom Mubarak
transferred authorities while still clinging to power—from
taking charge. Pro-democracy activists insist that the revolution will
not be over until all responsible for the hundreds of deaths will be
investigated, tried and punished. It will not be over until Egypt's
stolen funds are restored. 

 
Swiss
banks have frozen assets of the ousted president, who is currently
hunkered down in his residence at the Red Sea tourist resort, Sharm
al-Sheikh. Former interior minister Habib El Adly, former prime
minister Ahmed Nazif have been banned from travelling, their assets
have been frozen. Former information minister Anna El Feqy has been
placed under house arrest while rumors fly of business tycoons fleeing.
But it is also true that while figures are totted up of how much the
former president, his Welsh wife and their son fleeced Egypt, that
while the huge personal wealth amassed by other members of the corrupt
coterie are calculated, one does not hear of corruption within the
army. That these stories are silenced.

 
But
it is undeniable that the mass uprising was organic. One that persisted
after Mubarak's ouster, attested to by scenes of youths in Alexandria,
the mainstay of the uprising, stopping cars and telling their
occupants, abide by traffic rules. Of telling pedestrians, do not give
bribes, read up the constitution. 

 
It
is also true that the mass uprising did not occur overnight but was, as
Marwan Bishara reminds us, "the culmination of countless sit-ins,
strikes, pickets, and demonstrations." That behind the 18 day popular
revolt lies long years of grassroots mobilisation, the tireless efforts
of scores of coalition builders who worked with labour unions and
opposition parties, both old and new, including the Muslim Brotherhood.
That we must not forget people such as, says Bishara, the late Mohammad
El-Sayed Said who helped to found the Cairo Institute of Human Rights
Studies and, the Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights. Who underwent
arrest and torture for writing the "much-acclaimed report about the
punishment of dissidents by torture" (Al-Ahram). Who died last year
after a long period of ill-treatment at the hands of the Mubarak
regime, and a 2-year struggle with cancer. Who was "much missed in
Tahrir Square." There were many others.

 
It
is also true that Mubarak was suffering from severe delusions when he
confided in a 20 minute telephone conversation to former Israeli
defense minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, a close friend and ally, that he
was looking for "an honorable way out" (Press TV, February 12, 2011).
This was on Thursday, February 10, the day he refused to step down as
anticipated, offering his "children" constitutional changes instead,
and transfer of authorities to Suleiman. It was the speech greeted with
raised shoes, the ultimate sign of dishonor for leaders and politicians
in our parts of the world. One that was globally iconised by Muntazer
al-Zaidi, the Iraqi journalist who threw his shoe at George Bush in
2008. A farewell parting. 

 
It
is also true that the US, Israel and western allies are the greatest
obstacles to democratisation and peace in the Middle East. That the US
now has to toe a careful line, that it should not appear too hasty in
consigning puppet dictators—whose political use has rapidly expired in the face of mass uprisings—to
(past) "history" as (present) "history unfolds" (Obama, the world was
"witnessing history unfold [in Egypt]", February 10). As other Middle
Eastern dictators, close allies and friends of the US, closely watch
every move of the administration while they themselves scurry around
and offer handouts to their people, as they wonder what the future
holds for them.

 
For,
despite the fact that we do not know which deals have been struck in
the corridors of power, which new ones are being negotiated now, right
now, as I write, it is undeniable that storms of change are blowing
over Egypt. Over the entire Middle East as Arabs rise in the thousands,
in the millions in Egypt, in revolt against autocrats. For democracy. For freedom.

 
Some
call it the domino effect, but this blunts awareness of other issues.
It deflects attention from the long-propagated western myth that Arabs
are not capable of achieving democracy. In other words, that political
subjection is natural to them. A myth manufactured to hide the reality
of autocrats either installed, and/or bolstered by US intervention,
both politically and militarily. "We are now proud to be Egyptians, we
have gained back our dignity as human beings" declared a woman excitedly  to
al-Jazeera, a sentiment voiced by millions of other Egyptians. A
sentiment shared the world over, We are all Egyptians now. We are all
Tunisians now.

 
"This
revolution," says Irish-American activist, former US marine, passenger
on the MV Mavi Marmara Kenneth O'Keefe rightly, "is not a revolution
for Tunisia and Egypt, it is a global revolution." But he couldn't be
more right  when he adds, "what the people in Tunisia and Egypt are doing is what we should be doing in the West
but we haven't done while our corrupt governments have sat by and
allowed the Israeli blockade to continue, to torture all those who
stand up against the Tunisian and Egyptian tyrannies, supported by the
Western governments, in particular the US, Britain, the EU, all of
them" (recorded in Gaza, January 27, 2011). 

 
As
Egyptians declared their pride in being Egyptian, US commentators
dished out "the Muslim Brotherhood conspiracy theory" (Justin Raimondo,
February 3, 2011). In the words of America's former  ambassador
to the UN John Bolton, “I think the question is whether and to what
extent the Muslim Brotherhood and radical Islamists have infiltrated
the leadership...I don’t think we have evidence yet that these
demonstrations are necessarily about democracy. You know the old
saying, ‘one person, one vote, one time.’ The Muslim Brotherhood
doesn’t care about democracy, if they get into power you’re not going
to have free and fair elections either." But the Muslim Brotherhood,
undoubtedly the largest and best organised opposition force in the
country, had abstained January 25 demonstrations, had belatedly
endorsed January 28 demonstrations. 

 
The
tone of the demonstrations has been nationalist and secular. Ibrahim
Hodeibi, one of the new generation Brotherhood members and an important
blogger, had earlier suggested that the Brotherhood slogan "Islam is
the solution" should be replaced by the religiously neutral one, "Egypt
is for all Egyptians" (Charles Hirschkind, The road to Tahrir), and
this is what resounded from Tahrir square. Egypt's Coptic Christian
minority joined in the million-strong demonstrations too; it was more
urgent, said many, to end Mubarak's three decade rule than "any fears
that a change of power might empower Islamist groups" (Reuters,
February 1, 2011). No doubt the Brotherhood will be "a factor in
post-Mubarak Egypt" but hardly decisive, for they will be a "part of
the democratic mosaic" as will be other parties bearing other visions
and agendas of political change (Raimondo). 

 
But
if these changes set a precedent that could be repeated in other
countries, says Deputy Israeli prime minister Silvan Shalom, "Israeli
national security might significantly be threatened." Undeniably true,
for democratic governments in the Middle East would see no reason to
give precedence to Israeli national interests over and above their own.
There may no longer be any close coordination between Israel and Arab
regimes over intelligence and security. Over renditions and torture. On
the contrary, it is quite likely that a democratically-elected
government would want the Rafah border to be re-opened. And, could
possibly want the Egypt-Israel peace treaty to be abrogated..?

 
As
news of the Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen's
visit to Israel and Jordan to "discuss security issues of mutual
concern," to reassure these "key partners of the US military's
commitment to that partnership" (February 13-14) filters through, I
feel apprehensive. I can only ask, why are people in the West not
rising up against their war criminal rulers? Against colonial
occupations in Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine? Against drone attacks that
kill and maim civilians in Pakistan? 

 
They need lessons in democracy and freedom. From the Egyptians. Tunisians. Yemenis. Jordanians...In short, from the Arabs. 

 
--------- 
Published in New Age, Monday February 14, 2011

 
PIC 1 
CAPTION        Anti-government
protestors gathered in central Cairo wave their shoes, in a gesture of
anger, after President Hosni Mubarak announces that he will not seek
re-election. 

©Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images 
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/files/fp_uploaded_images/110201_108703164b_b.jpg 

 
PIC 2 
CAPTION             A
Muslim holding the Koran (left) and a Coptic Christian holding a cross
are carried through opposition supporters in Tahrir Square in Cairo
February 6, 2011. ©Dylan Martinez/Reuters

http://blogs.reuters.com/faithworld/2011/02/07/muslim-christian-unity-at-tahrir-square/

 
 
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-- 

 
 
"I am because we are." Ubuntu/African concept
 
rahnuma ahmed
writer, columnist New Age
rahnumaa at gmail.com

Swadhin Sen Archaeologist - Assistant Professor   Dept.of Archaeology            Tel:       +88 02 779 10 45-51 Ext. 1326 Jahangirnagar University      Mobile:  +88 0172 019 61 76   Savar,Dhaka. Bangladesh    Fax:      +88 02 779 10 52    swadhin_sen at yahoo.com; swadhinsen at hotmail.com www.juniv.edu