[News] Egypt Update
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Fri Jan 28 11:35:46 EST 2011
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DR. ASHRAF EZZAT:THE DOWNFALL OF MUBARAK OF EGYPT
[]
27. Jan,
2011<http://www.intifada-palestine.com/2011/01/dr-ashraf-ezzatthe-downfall-of-mubarak-of-egypt/print/>
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What is happening now in Egypt is historic by all
means and all parties involved should acknowledge
that and deal with it as such.
By Dr. Ashraf Ezzat / from Alexandria, Egypt
for<http://www.veteranstoday.com/2011/01/27/dr-ashraf-ezzatthe-downfall-of-mubarak-of-egypt/>
Veterans Today
“Without beating around the bush or postponing or
playing us for fools and without more false
promises, we, the people of Egypt, demand all of
our long forgotten rights to be granted and this
time there is no turning back
we have learned
our lesson
we have finally broken free of all fears
thus stated a written flier that has been
circulating – by banned oppostion -all over major
cities of Egypt in thousands of copies on the
night before January, 25th or what is now known as the Egyptian day of wrath.
The flier contained a lot of economic and political demands amongst which;
* Salaries and pensions increase that would
cope up with the high prices and to include
financial aid to the unemployed wide segment of the youth.
* Cancel the law of emergency – that gives
the government the right to abduct any citizen
without need for any law warrant.
* Egypt is no monarchy. 30 years are more
than enough for Mubarak. He must go and his son
Gamal- the probable successor or heir to his father’s presidency.
* The dissolution of the current parliament-
whose elections deemed fraudulent.
* Fair and democratic parliamentary and presidential elections.
* Ban Egyptian exports to Israel and mainly the Egyptian natural Gas.
The paper had been written in Arabic slang with a
language that reflected a lot of spontaneity and
simplicity, nevertheless, it managed to reflect
how the Egyptians felt toward their current regime.
Egypt is ruled by an authoritarian and oppressive
regime headed by Hosni Mubarak who has been in power for almost 30 years now.
Egypt under Mubarak’s regime
Egypt – once known amongst Arabs as the mother of
the world- that used to be the leader nation of
the Arab world during the presidency of late
President
<http://http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamal_Abdel_Nasser>Nasser
has turned during Mubarak’s reign into a shadowy
and subordinate political entity.
The deeply rooted corruption of the Mubarak
regime has turned one of the oldest agricultural
societies on earth into one of the world’s biggest importers of wheat.
Mubarak’s agricultural cooperation with Israel
has destroyed Egypt’s production of the world’s
finest cotton to be replaced by fields of
carcinogenic[i] fruits and vegetables.
Mubarak’s autocratic rule has never allowed the
emergence of actively participating secular
parties and free democratic elections.
The education and health care systems have
dramatically declined during Mubarak’s regime.
Freedom of speech and demonstration has been
widely denied and human rights have been violated.
Mubarak has been busy setting the stage for his
son Gamal to take over the kingdom he thought was immune from mutiny.
On Tuesday thousands of ordinary Egyptians took
to the streets – drived by years of oppression
and not by any foreign agenda - chanting slogans
calling for change and freedom.
Throughout the long history of Egypt its people
seldom rallied in huge numbers except during the
first half of the twentieth century when
Egyptians were trying to liberate the country
from the British colonialism and one
unprecedented time when they spontaneously
swarmed the streets in June 1967 denouncing
president Nasser`s decision to resign following
the setback brought about by the six -day war with Israel
Egyptian protestors and clashes with security
The security forces managed to disperse the
nearly thirty thousands protestors who were going
to stay afoot and spend the night of Tuesday at
Tahrir square in Cairo but that did not deter
them, they hit the streets again the following
day despite the prosecution and the brutality of
the police forces which began to be more
aggressive and to even fire live ammunition at
protestors especially at the city of Suez [ii]
whose citizens are putting up a courageous street
to street fight with police forces.
Egypt could not be compared to Tunisia as far as
the security and military apparatus is concerned.
Egypt enjoys one of the biggest military and
police forces in Africa and the Middle East. But
Tunisia has to be given the credit for the domino
effect that is sweeping across the Arab world now.
Mubarak – being a former military man – knows
very well that he needs the support of the army
and police forces to keep his reign safe and
secure. That’s why he keeps himself surrounded by
a close ring of loyal and strong men in the
police and the military and that’s why the
downfall of Mubarak won’t be an easy job nor without sacrifice.
The demise of 30 years of authoritarianism
The authoritarian regime of Mubarak has been so
stunned and taken by surprise by the swift and
abrupt uprising of the Egyptians; it failed to
respond yet by any official statement to what has been happening.
One thing is sure now, Mubarak’s credibility has
been shattered, he can no longer look in the eyes
of any ordinary Egyptian, and to me, this is the
clear sign of the end of his long and agonizing reign over Egypt.
What is characteristic of any Muslim Metropolis
city like Cairo is the peak of crowd of people
that fills the streets and mosques after
<http://http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jumu%27ah>Friday
prayers which often witness reference to the
latest national events during its speech –
khotbah- delivered by <http://http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imam>imams.
Most of the historic demonstrations in Egypt –
against the
<http://http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Campaign_in_Egypt_and_Syria>French
campaign (1789-1803) and against
<http://http//www.touregypt.net/hbritish.htm>British
occupation (1882-1936) erupted by people gathered
after they had finished their assembly for Friday
prayers at
<http://http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Azhar_Mosque>Al-Azhar
mosque. Likewise, and keeping this legacy alive,
free Egyptians are now calling for the assembly
of around one million protestors next Friday to
go on a never seen before rallies that will demand that Mubarak should go.
This political unrest in Egypt might take a
while, the stubborn regime of Mubarak might buy
some time and concede to some of the protestors
demands, he might announce that this would be his
last term in office and he might want to drive
his son – as rumours say-out of the country but
what is certain is that the downfall of Mubarak
will be -if not next Friday- on any given Friday.
The Egyptian addiction to Authoritarianism is finally coming to an end.
For more posts by Dr. Ashraf Ezzat visit his
website at: <http://ashraf62.wordpress.com/>http://ashraf62.wordpress.com/
Footnotes
[i] –
<http://challahhuakbar.blogspot.com/2011/01/israel-sending-agricultural.html>http://challahhuakbar.blogspot.com/2011/01/israel-sending-agricultural.html
[ii] –
<http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/01/201112621340630620.html>http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/01/201112621340630620.html
*************************************************
Interview with Hossam el-Hamalawy
Professor Mark LeVine interviews journalist and
blogger Hossam el-Hamalawy on the situation in Egypt.
Mark LeVine Last Modified: 27 Jan 2011 13:07 GMT
Hossam el-Hamalawy, is an Egyptian journalist and
blogger for the website
<http://www.arabawy.org/>3arabawy. Mark LeVine,
professor of History at UC Irvine, managed to
catch up with Hossam via Skype to get a
first-hand account of events unfolding in Egypt.
Mark LeVine:
Why did it take a revolution in Tunisia to get
Egyptians onto the streets in unprecedented numbers?
Hossam el-Hamalawy:
In Egypt we say that Tunis was more or less a
catalyst, not an instigator, because the
objective conditions for an uprising existed in
Egypt, and revolt has been in the air over the
past few years. Indeed, we already managed to
have 2 mini-intifadas or "mini Tunisias" in 2008.
The first was the April 2008 uprising in Mahalla,
followed by another one in Borollos, in the north of the country.
Revolutions don't happen out of the blue. It's
not because of Tunisia yesterday that we have one
in Egypt mechanically the next day. You can't
isolate these protests from the last four years
of labour strikes in Egypt, or from international
events such as the al-Aqsa intifada and the US
invasion of Iraq. The outbreak of the al-Aqsa
intifada was especially important because in the
1980s-90s, street activism had been effectively
shut down by the government as part of the fight
against Islamist insurgents. It only continued to
exist inside university campuses or party
headquarters. But when the 2000 intifada erupted
and Al Jazeera started airing images of it, it
inspired our youth to take to the streets, in the
same way we've been inspired by Tunisia today.
Mark LeVine:
How are the protests evolving?
Hossam el-Hamalawy:
It's too early to say how they will go. It's a
miracle how they continued past midnight
yesterday in the face of fear and repression. But
having said that, the situation has reached a
level that everyone is fed up, seriously fed up.
And even if security forces manage to put down
protests today they will fail to put down the
ones that happen next week, or next month or
later this year. There is definitely a change in
the level of courage of the people. The state was
helped by the excuse of fighting terrorism in
1990s in order to fight all sorts of dissent in
the country, which is a trick all governments
use, including the US. But once formal opposition
to a regime turns from guns to mass protests,
it's very difficult to confront such dissent. You
can plan to take out a group of terrorists
fighting in the sugar cane fields, but what are
you going to do with thousands of protesters on
the streets? You can't kill them all. You can't
even guarantee that troops will do it, will fire on the poor.
Mark LeVine:
What is the relationship between regional and local events here?
Hossam el-Hamalawy:
You have to understand that the regional is local
here. In 2000 the protests didn't started as
anti-regime protests but rather against Israel
and in support of Palestinians. The same occurred
with the US invasion of Iraq three years later.
But once you take to the streets and are
confronted by regime violence you start asking
questions: Why is Mubarak sending troops to
confront protesters instead of confronting
Israel? Why is he exporting cement to be used by
Israel to build settlements instead of helping
Palestinians? Why are police so brutal with us
when we're just trying to express our solidarity
with Palestinians in a peaceful manner? And so
regional issues like Israel and Iraq were shifted
to local issues. And within moments, the same
protesters who chanted pro-Palestinian slogans
started chanting against Mubarak. The specific
internal turning point in terms of protests was
2004, when dissent turned domestic.
Mark LeVine:
In Tunisia the labour unions played a crucial
role in the revolution, as their large and
disciplined membership ensured that protests
could not be easily quashed and gave an
organisational edge. What's the role of the
labour movement in Egypt in the current uprising?
Hossam el-Hamalawy:
The Egyptian labour movement was quite under
attack in the 1980s and 1990s by police, who used
live ammunition against peaceful strikers in 1989
during strikes in the steel mills and in 1994 in
the textile mill strikes. But steadily since
December 2006 our country has been witnessing the
biggest and most sustained waves of strike
actions since 1946, triggered by textile strikes
in the Nile Delta town of Mahalla, home of
largest labour force in the Middle East with over
28,000 workers. It started because of labour
issues but spread to every sector in society except the police and military.
As a result of these strikes we've managed to get
2 independent unions, the first of their kind
since 1957 property tax collectors, including
more than 40,000 civil servants, and then health
technicians, more than 30,000 of whom launched a
union just last month outside of the state controlled unions.
But it's true that one major distinction between
us and Tunisia is that although it was a
dictatorship, Tunisia had a semi-independent
trade union federation. Even if the leadership
was collaborating with the regime, the rank and
file were militant trade unionists. So when time
came for general strikes, the unions could pull
it together. But here in Egypt we have a vacuum
that we hope to fill soon. Independent trade
unionists have already been subjected to witch
hunts since they tried to be established; there
are already lawsuits filed against them by state
and state-backed unions, but they are getting
stronger despite the continued attempts to silence them.
Of course, in the last few days the crackdown has
been directed against street protesters, who
aren't necessarily trade unionists. These
protests have gathered a wide spectrum of
Egyptians, including sons and daughters of the
elite. So we have a combination of urban poor and
youth together with the middle class and the sons and daughters of elite.
I think Mubarak has managed to alienate all
sectors of society except his close circle of
cronies.
Mark LeVine:
The Tunisian revolution has been described as
very much a "youth"-led revolt and dependent on
social media technologies like Facebook and
Twitter for its success. And now people are
focusing on youth in Egypt as a major catalyst
event. Is this a "youth intifada" and could it
happen without Facebook and other new media technologies?
Hossam el-Hamalawy:
Yes, it's youth intifada on the ground. The
internet plays only a role in spreading the word
and the images about what goes on the ground. We
do not use the internet to organise. We use the
internet to publicise what we are doing on the
ground hoping to inspire others into action.
Mark LeVine:
As you might have heard, in the US, the right
wing talk show host Glenn Beck has gone after an
elderly academic, Frances Fox Piven, because of
an article she wrote calling on the unemployed to
stage mass protests for jobs. She's even gotten
death threats, some from unemployed people who
seem happier fantasising about shooting her with
one of their many guns than actually fighting for
their rights. It's amazing to think about the
crucial role of trade unions in the Arab world
today considering more than two decades of
neoliberal regimes across the region whose
primary goal has been to destroy working class
solidarity. Why have unions remained so important?
Hossam el-Hamalawy:
Unions have always been proven to be the silver
bullet for any dictatorship. Look at Poland,
South Korea, Latin America and Tunisia. Unions
were always instrumental in mass mobilisation.
You want a general strike to overthrow a
dictatorship, and there is nothing better than an independent union to do so.
Mark LeVine:
Is there a larger ideological program behind the
protests, or just get rid of Mubarak?
Hossam el-Hamalawy:
Everyone has his or her reasons to take to the
streets, but I would assume that if our uprising
became successful and he's overthrown you'll
start getting divisions. The poor will want to
push the revolution to a much more radical
position, to push the radical redistribution of
wealth and to fight corruption, whereas the
so-called reformers who want to put breaks and
more or less lobby for change in top and curb
powers of state a little bit but keep some
essence of the state. But we're not there yet.
Mark LeVine:
What is the role of the Muslim Brotherhood and
how will its remaining aloof from the current protests impact the situation?
Hossam el-Hamalawy:
The Brotherhood has been suffering from divisions
since the outbreak of the al-Aqsa intifada. Its
involvement in the Palestinian Solidarity
Movement when it came to confronting the regime
was abysmal. Basically, whenever their leadership
makes a compromise with the regime, especially
the most recent leadership of the current supreme
guide, it has demoralised its base cadres. I know
personally many young brothers who left the
group, some of them have joined other groups or
remained independent. As the current street
movement grows and the lower leadership gets
involved, there will be more divisions because
the higher leadership can't justify why they're not part of the new uprising.
Mark LeVine:
What about the role of the US in this conflict.
How do people on the street view its positions?
Hossam el-Hamalawy:
Mubarak is the second largest recipient of US
foreign aid aside from Israel. He's known to be
America's thug in the region; one of the tools of
American foreign policy and implementing its
agenda of security for Israel and the smooth flow
of oil while keeping Palestinians in line. So
it's no secret that this dictatorship has enjoyed
the backing of US administrations since day one,
even during Bush's phony pro-democracy rhetoric.
So one should not be surprised by Clinton's
ludicrous statements that were more or less
defending the Mubarak regime, since one of the
pillars of US foreign policy was to keep regimes
stable at expense of freedom and civil liberties.
We don't expect anything from Obama, whom we
regard as a great hypocrite. But we hope and
expect the American people - trade unions,
professors' associations, student unions,
activist groups, to come out in support of us.
What we want for the US government is to
completely get out of the picture. We don't want
any sort of backing; just cut aid to Mubarak
immediately and withdraw backing from him,
withdraw from all Middle Eastern bases, and stop
supporting the state of Israel.
Ultimately, Mubarak will do whatever he has to do
to protect himself. He will suddenly adopt the
most anti-US rhetoric if he thought that would
help him save his skin. At the end of the day
he's committed to his own interests, and if he
thinks the US won't support him, he'll turn
somewhere else. The reality is that any really
clean government that comes to power in the
region will come into open conflict with the US
because it will call for radical redistribution
of wealth and ending support for Israel or other
dictatorships. So we don't expect any help from
America, just to leave us alone.
Mark LeVine is a professor of history at UC
Irvine and senior visiting researcher at the
Centre for Middle Eastern Studies at Lund
University in Sweden. His most recent books are
Heavy Metal Islam (Random House) and Impossible
Peace: Israel/Palestine Since 1989 (Zed Books).
The views expressed in this article are the
author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial policy.
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