Democracy is not about merely winning elections. It is about creating commonalities of inclusion for all other political forces in the country. The country is deeply divided, brutally bruised as well as saddened and confused. For the time being, it seems that the political crisis in Egypt has reached a point of no return. The political impasse can have very serious repercussions. President Morsi decided to proceed to challenge his opponents through forcing a referendum on the new constitution. The Islamists’ opponents responded to step up the action on the streets, and ultimately marched to stage civil protest around the presidential palace.
There still loom an illusion that a little bit of dictatorship in Egypt would be alright in order to enable Morsi to take control of the situation, as well as to prevent matters from getting out of hand and the state from heading towards collapse. In fact, the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) seem to be refreshing up ideas from Egyptian politics pre-January Revolution, but the last few weeks massive demonstrations all over streets and squares of Egypt proved them wrong. Still Egypt faces very serious challenges to attempts at political reforms and the process of transition to democracy.
THE NATIONAL SALVATION FRONT
The National Salvation Front, the umbrella opposition group, an array of liberal, leftist and progressive parties, attempt to search for consensus with an overall aim to confront the Islamist’s political hegemony. The Egyptian opposition is not feckless but they are outmanoeuvred due to the lack of a solid organization on the ground, and most importantly, they are divided among themselves.
Opposition forces Egypt’s National Salvation Front rally together in Tahrir Square as others join hundreds of thousands of protesters -strong made their way to the presidential palace in Cairo’s Heliopolis district to denounce Morsi's decree and draft of the new constitution. The National Salvation Front was recently established by ElBaradei, Sabbahi and Amr Moussa in addition to other opposition figures and parties.
Peoples from all walks of life took part in demonstrations, which coincided with a strike by Egyptian journalists who marched from their syndicate headquarters to Tahrir. Many tourism sector workers, teachers, artists and cultural workers also staged protests in the Square. Cheers, cries and prayers could be heard as thousands of people converged on Tahrir Square. Many voiced their intention to stay in Tahrir to ensure that it was not infiltrated by the Muslim Brotherhood and to avoid clashes with police. President Morsi left the Presidential Palace in a humiliating way to stay at his humble apartment in a Cairo suburb. That very act reflected the deep political crisis on-going in Egypt.
The National Salvation Front (a coalition of leftist, liberal and centrist parties) called for Egypt’s youth to continue to mass peacefully in “all the squares of Egypt” until their other demand, that the referendum on the new constitution is cancelled. For the Islamists’ surprise they appear to be setting the state for a massive general strike and, at the same time, make themselves heard all over the world. Thusly, the myth of the Islamists as the sole organized group is obliterated. The opposition fears that the MB makes no distinction between a referendum on the Law of the Land and a merely general election. It has nothing to do with winning narrowly or even substantially. It is the ability to make wise political judgment to rally the largest majority possible around a shared set of principles.
The leadership of the National Salvation Front has seemed content to press their civil disobedience campaign, hoping that public pressure and the violent response from President Morsi's supporters - which has already led to several deaths - would derail the proposed referendum. The Egyptian opposition remains divided, struggling to decide whether to vote "no" or to boycott entirely a process they view as unfairly rigged by Islamist forces. By the same token, supporters of Morsi claim that as the democratically elected president of Egypt he has the right, even the duty, to push forward the draft constitution for referendum on December 15. Under these circumstances, Islamist forces want to accelerate the return to formal democratic politics, because they can win. Secular forces cannot afford to play that game, however.
The Front’s official goal is to halt the vote entirely, and representatives are reluctant even to discuss contingency plans if the referendum goes ahead. But major strikes from Egypt’s labour movement, which the opposition had hoped would be the crucial blow against Morsi, have failed to materialise, making the vote likely to proceed as planned. However, due to the massive spontaneous streets rallies against president Morsi and the Islamists gave some confidence to the opposition. Thereafter the MB has lost significant popularity over the past six months after perceived over-reaching and poor performance in government.
THE EGYPTIAN STREET AS A POLITICAL FACTOR
The 25 January revolt is the only real popular revolt in Egyptian history and this has made the democratic ideas behind it a very significant paradigm today in Egypt, despite the disparities and factionalism of the political forces. Even though it was almost two years ago since Mubarak was toppled, the popular strength persists as we have witnessed in the streets of Egypt over the last few days, with a clear message that the people of Egypt will never accept political tyranny, whether from the MB or any other regime. Morsi appears more to be clashing with something important, the “spirit of the revolution” rather than with a merely political opponent to the MB.
Many believe that President Morsi should have spoken directly to the people in an attempt to convince them of the necessity to have a constitution, an elected parliament and to proceed with political reforms. Instead, the MB seems to be in a hurry to politically dominate the state and thereby to impose their agenda, believing that their opponents are weak and will not be able to stop them.
Many among the opposition forces believe that President Morsi is only expressing the political wishes of the MB from the Presidential Palace. They claim that President Morsi is dictated to by the Shura Council of the MB for all decisions and decrees that ultimately appeared hasty and gratuitous. Several of Morsi’s close advisors were embarrassed because his latest Constitutional Declaration came as a complete surprise for them and they could not answer how and why it came about! Many of them have resigned already.
The Egyptian people send a clear message: it is no longer possible to run the country without lasting popular participation. There is so much political energy in the Egyptian public space that will make it impossible for any president or any group to deviate from the will of the people. The idea of limited democracy, in the sense that once the people vote their voices can then be ignored for four years, seem not to work anymore for Egyptians.
Due to the show of street force by protesters and opposition forces, Egyptians have now a clear option between a constitution written by one party in an exclusive manner, and a new, elected constituent assembly. This is a tangible triumph. Before the mass protests, it was obvious that the MB and Morsi had hoped to impose upon the Egyptian people a constitution that was written by an Islamist constituency as the only way out of the impasse. But this plan has failed with Morsi’s authority dramatically diminishing.
Egyptians will be free to vote or not for the constitution, and will be free to cast a Yes or a No vote. If it passes and becomes the new constitution, then new parliamentary elections would follow in February. As the political impasse deepens, Egyptians may vote down the constitution. In that case, a new constituent assembly will be elected in March, and will have six months to craft a new constitution.
The Egyptian people are capable of handling the two most challenging obstacles in transition to democracy: To eject the military from politics; and to include the Muslim Brotherhood in the political process and transform the group energy from messianic religious aspirations to political force with practical and workable politics. Despite the deep scepticism of Egypt’s middle and upper-middle class, the MB and Salafis groups have not so far offered any solutions whatsoever for the country’s intractable problems, which drives many to be convinced that it is more constructive and better to include them in the political process.
Hamdi Hassan is a Senior Political Advisor, West Asia and North Africa Programme, International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance
No comments:
Post a Comment