Egypt has been making the
news these past few days (even
weeks), and continues to make
the news especially for all the
wrong reasons.

Since the revolution also known
has the ‘Arab Spring’ spread
through Egypt more than two
years ago, the country has not
known peace.

For Egypt, it’s being more or less
a seesaw with what appeared to
bè initial gains of revolution
turning out to bè eventual losses
(as the possibility of release of
former President Hosni Mubarak
looms).

Apart from Libya, where it can
bè said that the revolution may
have atleast birthed an entirely
new beginning, though with its
peculiar hiccups, there’s no
other place where the Arab
Spring landed where it can bè
said that the people or
revolutionaries have truly reaped
the fruit of the revolution the got
wounded and died for.

Tunisia is yet to fully recover,
with opposition secular activists
and politicians becoming
subjects of target practice for
Islamists by the day, while the
Islamist backed government
totters as it grapples with
political instability, in the mildest
of aftermath of the Arab Spring
while Syria is engulfed in a civil
war in the gravest of them all.
Egypt, with all that has
happened within it, has now
become the face of all that could
bè right and at the same time
wrong with a revolution.

The hopes and dreams they
nursed post-deposition of
Mubarak were dashed by the
succeeding Freedom and Justice
Party led by now ousted
President Mohammed Morsi.

It can bè argued that he wasn’t
given enough time seeing that
he had barely ruled for a year
before TAMAROD and other
groups opposed to his style of
government instigated his
removal by powerful streetwide
protests similar to those that
brought Mubarak down, but it is
instructive also to note that
Morsi, within the short but
eventful period he held sway
trampled heavily on a lot of
democratic norm, appearing
only to rule in favour of the
ideologies of his party like he
won a landslide in the first place.

The military, whom the
Egyptians have had to loathe
and love and loathe…. again
during the course of the
revolution till date appeared to
bè left with no options but to
intervene.

This intervention which was
popularly received by most
Egyptians and welcomed by
most Arab nations that had
become weary of the direction
the Muslim Brotherhood was
leading the country, was
cautiously received by the
governments of Western
Nations, who didn’t like to bè
seen to bè actively supporting a
government that arose from the
deposition of a democratically
elected government.

While the anti-Morsi protesters
left for home satisfied that their
aim of toppling Mohammed
Morsi had been achieved, his
supporters who at the time were
in the minority took centre stage.

Their days of protests has now
culminated into several
crackdowns by the military
backed interim government led by Adly Mansour, leading to deaths of hundreds on the sides of the protesters and tens amongst the security forces.

This has also begun to affect the
support the military enjoyed
amongst it’s foreign backers
who are appalled by the heavy
handedness of those saddled
with the responsibility of clearing
protesters from their protest
sites. The Muslim Brotherhood
have not fared any better in
terms of damage to PR as their
activities in recent times
(including the burning of several
Orthodox Christian Churches
and Schools) has continued to
lend weight to the assumption
of their tendency towards
extremism and recourse to acts
of terrorism, when things don’t
go their way.

In the wake of all the brouhaha,
the insurgent group in the Sinai
Peninsula apparently feeling not
to bè left out of the melee struck
yesterday, ambushing a convoy
of policemen, killing them by
shooting them in the back of
their heads while they laid faced
down on their bellies.

Neighbourhoods opposed to
the pro-Morsi agitators have
formed vigilante groups to
protect their neighbourhoods
from those they consider
‘Terrorists’.

It’s left to bè seen whether the
recent arrests of leaders of the
Muslim Brotherhood will lead to
a softening of rhetoric and
bellicose threats they’ve been
issuing in the last few days
about their intention to make
Egypt ungovernable unless their
demands are met.

The fact is, the Muslim
Brotherhood had their chance
but blew it away big time. You
may argue that true democrats
should’ve waited till the next
elections to change him, but
things would’ve spiralled out of
hand too. It’s on record that the
anti-Morsi group were many
times more than the pro-, and if
indeed democracy leans on the
side of the majority, the most
sensible thing Morsi should’ve
done was to announce early
elections and not the knee jerk
reactions he opted for in the
dying days of his regime.

As it is now, the best scenario
the Muslim Brotherhood can
hope for will bè to be allowed
even to partake in any future
election, as it is, events have put
them in the black books of most
Egyptians, and Foreign powers
and neighbours.

I sincerely hope the situation in
Egypt will not degenerate into a
state of civil war, and this will be
a possibility if moderate figures
within the pro-Morsi camp
prevail on their more hardline
colleagues to tow the more
respectable path of dialogue,
which may offer them a chance
to be involved in the future
governance of their great
country, Egypt.

‘kovich


THE UNENDING EGYPTIAN REVOLUTION | madukovich's cogitations - http://madukovich./2013/08/20/the-unending-egyptian-revolution/